Search "How to find a camera in your airbnb" on DDG and you'll find pages of tips on how to methodically search a space for hidden devices.
This in itself shows the sheer gravity of the problem with Airbnb these days.
It's issues like this, along with similar involving Uber (3000 sexual assaults, 8 murders, 58 riders killed in accidents in 2018 alone[0]), that have me very wary of using services rendered by private individuals through apps. The issues alone, nevermind having almost zero recourse if/when things do go wrong.
Those numbers are shocking, but meaningless without a comparison to base rate numbers prior to Uber. I have a hard time believing that Uber isn’t relatively safer than a taxi, given that every Uber ride is tracked and the police will instantly know which driver to investigate.
Really? I’m not that frequent an Uber user (few times a month) but I’ve certainly encountered a different driver in a different car than what the app said. Less so in These United [sic] States than elsewhere, but I would say it happens enough where I’m not longer surprised when it does.
I think we all underestimate where USA taxi companies are with their technology if we think Uber/Lyft are the only ones who know where the cars are.
I believed that too, until I worked at Uber corporate. They have a very defensive stance towards revealing driver information - They would not simply honor requests for driver information, even with warrant, and sent every such one to their legal team to fight. Not to handle - to fight.
Search "How to find a camera in your airbnb" on DDG and you'll find pages of tips on how to methodically search a space for hidden devices.
For me there's an easy way to avoid that:
Rent a room in a hotel. You get a few advantages in the process:
You don't really have to search for cameras in your room (and to the whataboutists that cram out some old story about the dodgy motel keeper who had cameras installed in guest rooms: How often did that happen compared to the shit that hosts pull off in Airbnb appartments?)
You don't have to tiptoe around other residents who understandibly hate your guts, because they don't appreciate an illegal hotel in their place of residence and all the shit that comes with it
Chances that you get ripped off by some less than honest host, or a whole ring of hosts working in concert, are much, much smaller
You don't get sudden cancelations on short notice
In better hotels you have a front desk, housekeeping and maintenance staff on call if things do go wrong
You're not breaking the law
You have, at least with larger chains, customer representatives, who actually deal with justified complaints and won't run into a "Eat shit, that's our final decision and we won't correspond with you about this issue anymore and if you insist we'll ban you from the platform" response (except when your issue blows up on social media and you get the usual pr lies from Airbnb and their ilk)
Oh, and prices for - if you're lucky - generically and cheaply decorated cookie cutter appartments managed by some faceless management company are really not that much cheaper, if at all, than the one for comparable hotel rooms. Espically in desirable locations.
Airbnb may have made sense in 2013. Nowadays I can just shake my head.
Warrant: Virginia Airbnb guests found spy camera in shower
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — A woman vacationing in a Virginia Beach Airbnb discovered a hidden camera above her in the shower, recently unsealed court documents show. More than five months later, the man who admitted to placing it hasn’t been charged.
The woman told officers she noticed a reflective black dot taped to the ceiling of the shower during the second day of her stay in July, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Virginia Beach Circuit Court. When she and her friends investigated further, a small camera fell out, Virginia Beach officers wrote in the warrant.
A man who lives in the house told police he hid the camera and collected video of at least one of the women, the search warrant said. The device turned out to be a wireless, motion-detecting spy camera and directly above the bathroom ceiling was an attic with an entrance inside the man’s bedroom, according to the documents.
The investigation is still ongoing, a police spokeswoman told The Virginian-Pilot last week. Detectives are waiting for an analysis of items collected from the house to be completed.
The man still lives in the house and told the newspaper last week that the homeowner is out of the country. He told reporters police called him into the department, but nothing else happened.
If arrested, he could face an unlawful filming charge, according to the warrant. The misdemeanor is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
A spokesman for Airbnb said the home has been removed from its listings.
Remember that these are only the ones we hear about because they make the news. For every such case there are multiple more that fly under the radar and the customers get fobbed off by Airbnb support (which is what these scum companies always do until their reputation is at stake).
I cannot understand the high appeal of AirBNB. It is obviously quite popular but it doesn't seem useful for much more than certain niches.
My major gripe is that if I want to stay somewhere that has a high number of reviews and a superhost the cost per night from my experience is comparable to a mid-low end hotel (e.g Holiday Inn Express). Otherwise I'm stuck rolling the dice on a newly listed property with very little assurances of safety and cleanliness.
I also feel like in someone else's home I have an obligation to walk on egg shells and treat their home much better than I would a hotel. I've spilled wine in a hotel or created other damage and I've never been fined for it. At an AirBNB this would be an issue I would fret over.
14 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 43.8 ms ] thread(The answer has the word "liability" in it, eh?)
This in itself shows the sheer gravity of the problem with Airbnb these days.
It's issues like this, along with similar involving Uber (3000 sexual assaults, 8 murders, 58 riders killed in accidents in 2018 alone[0]), that have me very wary of using services rendered by private individuals through apps. The issues alone, nevermind having almost zero recourse if/when things do go wrong.
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/05/technology/uber-sexual-as...
I think we all underestimate where USA taxi companies are with their technology if we think Uber/Lyft are the only ones who know where the cars are.
reason for separate bathrooms for drivers and employees
For me there's an easy way to avoid that:
Rent a room in a hotel. You get a few advantages in the process:
You don't really have to search for cameras in your room (and to the whataboutists that cram out some old story about the dodgy motel keeper who had cameras installed in guest rooms: How often did that happen compared to the shit that hosts pull off in Airbnb appartments?)
You don't have to tiptoe around other residents who understandibly hate your guts, because they don't appreciate an illegal hotel in their place of residence and all the shit that comes with it
Chances that you get ripped off by some less than honest host, or a whole ring of hosts working in concert, are much, much smaller
You don't get sudden cancelations on short notice
In better hotels you have a front desk, housekeeping and maintenance staff on call if things do go wrong
You're not breaking the law
You have, at least with larger chains, customer representatives, who actually deal with justified complaints and won't run into a "Eat shit, that's our final decision and we won't correspond with you about this issue anymore and if you insist we'll ban you from the platform" response (except when your issue blows up on social media and you get the usual pr lies from Airbnb and their ilk)
Oh, and prices for - if you're lucky - generically and cheaply decorated cookie cutter appartments managed by some faceless management company are really not that much cheaper, if at all, than the one for comparable hotel rooms. Espically in desirable locations.
Airbnb may have made sense in 2013. Nowadays I can just shake my head.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — A woman vacationing in a Virginia Beach Airbnb discovered a hidden camera above her in the shower, recently unsealed court documents show. More than five months later, the man who admitted to placing it hasn’t been charged.
The woman told officers she noticed a reflective black dot taped to the ceiling of the shower during the second day of her stay in July, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Virginia Beach Circuit Court. When she and her friends investigated further, a small camera fell out, Virginia Beach officers wrote in the warrant.
A man who lives in the house told police he hid the camera and collected video of at least one of the women, the search warrant said. The device turned out to be a wireless, motion-detecting spy camera and directly above the bathroom ceiling was an attic with an entrance inside the man’s bedroom, according to the documents.
The investigation is still ongoing, a police spokeswoman told The Virginian-Pilot last week. Detectives are waiting for an analysis of items collected from the house to be completed.
The man still lives in the house and told the newspaper last week that the homeowner is out of the country. He told reporters police called him into the department, but nothing else happened.
If arrested, he could face an unlawful filming charge, according to the warrant. The misdemeanor is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
A spokesman for Airbnb said the home has been removed from its listings.
My major gripe is that if I want to stay somewhere that has a high number of reviews and a superhost the cost per night from my experience is comparable to a mid-low end hotel (e.g Holiday Inn Express). Otherwise I'm stuck rolling the dice on a newly listed property with very little assurances of safety and cleanliness.
I also feel like in someone else's home I have an obligation to walk on egg shells and treat their home much better than I would a hotel. I've spilled wine in a hotel or created other damage and I've never been fined for it. At an AirBNB this would be an issue I would fret over.