Another hidden camera found: why Airbnb is a hard no for me

[Anna Bijou]

Before Airbnb became so popular, there were other sites (that still exist) offering the same kind of service. I used a couple with varying results (one in calgary was great, another stole my damage deposit. One in Montréal was FULL of cockroaches from the business below and not only did I never get refunded or compensation but the website actually removed my review warning others etc?)


I decided to stick to hotels and have never used Airbnb. But the number of hidden cameras found by guests in recent years is truly creepy. Another one this weekend in Ontario.

Family finds hidden camera in Brampton Airbnb

Airbnb says it's investigating after a family from Ottawa says they found a hidden camera inside of their short-term rental last week.

toronto.citynews.ca

Honestly, good luck getting help from Airbnb until maybe you can get your story in the news. I've heard so many nightmare stories.


Worst of all, is people getting away with it:

Toronto police had no right to seize hidden bedside camera from Airbnb condo, judge rules

The decision effectively ends a voyeurism prosecution against condo owner Michael Chow.

www.thestar.com

After discovering the hidden camera, Wallenberg contacted Airbnb, which advised him to go to a hotel and call police.

Court records show Wallenberg let the officer, identified as Const. Lewis, into the apartment and showed him the clock-camera. On advice of a detective, Lewis seized the gadget and placed it in a property locker at the police station.

Owner argued police violated his rights
Another officer later inspected the camera briefly, then applied for a warrant to search the device.

After finding stored video of people engaged in various activities in the bedroom, including one man masturbating on the bed and others, including the condo owner, in various states of undress, police charged the owner with voyeurism.

At trial, the owner argued for exclusion of the video evidence on the basis that police violated his rights with the warrantless search and seizure.

The owner actually won, too.

(judge) concluded the condo owner did have a reasonable expectation of privacy, given evidence that he was the sole owner of the apartment, it was filled with his possessions, and he used it himself at times.

"In these circumstances, [the owner] had a subjective expectation of privacy in the apartment," Bovard concluded. "[He] had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the clock-camera and in the contents of the SD memory card."

The judge also rejected prosecution arguments that by renting out his condo to Wallenberg, the condo owner had undermined his own privacy expectations.

Hard pass for me.

I'll stick to hotels, thanks.

 

[cpp433]

If you look hard enough youll find what maybe 10 times this has happened out of the millions of airbnb rentals worldwide over the last decade plus? Probably more examples of this happening in hotels, more likely youll get ran over by a bus or hit by lightning next time you step out of your house

 

[Anna Bijou]

If you look hard enough youll find what maybe 10 times this has happened out of the millions of airbnb rentals worldwide over the last decade plus? Probably more examples of this happening in hotels, more likely youll get ran over by a bus or hit by lightning next time you step out of your house

True. But as I've mentioned I've had other types of bad experiences in similar short-term rentals. I've had some bad experiences at hotels but the proportion is way lower and in general you can at least expect proper customer service. Forget about it with Airbnb.