Airbnb Nightmare: Father Discovers Secret Cameras In Rental

A man that was staying at an Airbnb was surprised to find two cameras inside the rental. Jeffrey Bigham, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, wrote about the incident in a blog post.

“When my family and I stayed in an AirBnB [sic] this past winter break, we discovered this camera and another about a day into our stay,” Bigham said. “I was shocked, and immediately unplugged them.”

Bigham wrote that the description of the property stated that there were cameras near the entrance. Upon inspection, he found the two small white cameras placed inside the Airbnb home's living area that he rented on New Year's Eve for his family.

Bigham complained to Airbnb, which took the side of the property owner initially. According to Bigham, Airbnb said the cameras were disclosed because they were shown in the photographs of the listing.

“If you find a truly hidden camera in your bedroom or bathroom, AirBnb will support you,” Bigham wrote in his blog. “If you find an undisclosed camera in the private living room, AirBnb will not support you.”

However, Bigham wrote in a follow-up blog post that the Airbnb did provide him with a full refund after multiple lengthy complaints. “Airbnb has re-re-re-reviewed my case, and now they agree that the cameras were not properly disclosed,” he said.

An Airbnb spokesperson responded to the complaint from Bigham by telling FastCompany, “Out community’s privacy and safety is our priority, and our original handling of this incident did not meet the high standards we set for ourselves. We have apologized to Mr. Bigham and fully refunded him for his stay. We require hosts to clearly disclose any security cameras in writing on their listings and we have strict standards governing surveillance devices in listings."

"This host has been removed from our community,” they added.

Bigham made a “sizable donation” to the Electronic Frontier Foundation from the refund.