I thought this was going to be the story about a man in Maine who did something similar for Labor Day weekend when I read the title. He recorded his relatives, including kids, in the bathrooms. SICK!

http://www.wlbz2.com/news/mass-man-planted-spy-cams-in-familys-vacation-home-york-police/474224025

Ugh! We've used ABnB, and have had no problems . . . that we know of. This is surely very bad publicity for them, but that sort of perverted behavior could show up at any rental, not just at ABnB. How in the world do any of us who rent homes, condos, etc. for our vacations look for this kind of stuff?!?

Ewww...that story made me throw up in my mouth a little. I am going to be thinking about that everywhere I stay now.

I have heard of people doing this in stores with the security cameras, so it is possible in many circumstances . . . caveat emptor.

Yes, and it had been a big problem in hotels, too.

BTW, I tried airbnb because of Robo and I am so glad I did. We have stayed in some very cool places.

Oh boy - that's creepy.

Hotels? Who's putting cameras in hotel rooms? Where's management? Yikes!

DH and I have never used air bnb but we were talking about trying it out next time we travel after two bad hotel stays over Labor Day and this past weekend. In fact I was debating whether to rant here....and now I will since the subject has come up.

Both were Embassy Suites and we used to like them because the bedroom was separate since DH is an early bird and I'm more a night owl. Well, over Labor Day there were people staying there for a large family reunion. Kids running everywhere unattended...screaming, carrying on. And I'm not talking just preteens and teens. We'd get on an elevator and there'd be five, six, seven year olds by themselves. Embassy Suites have those open atriums and the noise wafts upward .....well it was two in the morning and kids were throwing footballs across the lobby area...shouting "over here" etc....we could here them from the 7th floor. I was in shock that the front desk people, who could clearly see this, let it go on.

And this weekend...... again, why do people think they are the only ones in the hotel? Again early in the morning, late at night, laughing and carrying on in the corridors and letting their doors slam shut. Why can't hotels put those gizmos on each door to prevent them from slamming?

I used to shush my kids in hotels, especially in the corridors and I've always held the door and not let it slam shut out of courtesy for the other guests. I wish they would post gentle reminders in each room...it might make a difference.

Anyway....just when I've had it with hotels now I'm hesitant to try air bnb... darn!

Joanie,

Maybe you don't realize how big an industry there is in so-called "nanny cams", now that the technology is so cheap. As a result, people with improper intentions are using them wherever you might find someone disrobing, shall we say. They are small and designed to be hidden, so it is hard to control.

Anyway, I find that the biggest issue with inexpensive hotel chains is the other guests. Otherwise, especially with new properties, a lot of value hotel chains offer a really good product. (I'm a big fan of Homewood Suites). The only risk is that they tend to attract weddings, reunions, etc, and hooliganism ensues. Plus these hotels leave like one person on duty, practically a high school kid.

As for Air BnB, I would only stay in properties with 10+ recent reviews, and read every word closely. People don't like to be blunt or mean to other people, the way they might if they were writing about a hotel chain. Often a property's flaws are worded vaguely and soft-pedaled, so keep your antennae up. My other concern is the high risk of cancellation with AirBnb owners, so have a backup, and if it is high season in a very popular place, I may not even risk it.

That's terrible. I'm glad they noticed.

When I was in my late teens and early 20s there was a local a home where myself and many others trained in this couple's indoor pool and then would use the showers afterwards. It was a very nice, huge addition type thing where there was a pool area with separate showers. It was quite awesome. Unfortunately some years later I heard talk of cameras being hidden in the shower areas and the husband is spending time in jail for various things. People are sick.

Voyeurs are so very interesting (and horrifying). Some really will stop at nothing. Here’s the iconic story from Gay Talese on the Voyeur’s Motel (warning - adult content)

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/11/gay-talese-the-voyeurs-motel/amp

“I know a married man and father of two who bought a twenty-one-room motel near Denver many years ago in order to become its resident voyeur. With the assistance of his wife, he cut rectangular holes measuring six by fourteen inches in the ceilings of more than a dozen rooms....”

We had a bad Airbnb experience last summer and despite previous excellent experiences,mI'm reluctant to use them again now. My parents were visiting when we lived in CA and our house there was small, so I found an Airbnb a few blocks from us. None of the airbnbs near us had more than about five to seven reviews.

First one I chose, the owner agreed to rent to us about two months before their visit then backed out about two weeks before they came.

Second one had just one bathroom and the toilet clogged the first time my dad used it. My eighty year old mother managed to shut it off. They couldn't get it unclogged so they called me. I called the owner who was very unhelpful. I tried for an hour to fix the toilet, all the while keeping the owner up to date. He authorized us to use some old towels to clean the bathroom floor. The owner continually refused to take any action to fix the toilet. Eventually I told the owner I was taking my parents to my home for the night because the house wasn't inhabitable with no working toilet.

I asked him to notify me when he was able to get the toilet working. He demanded that I wash the old towels we had used even though the washer and dryer in the Airbnb house were in a locked off part of the house. So I took them to my house and washed them in my machines. He notified me that the toilet was working but at that point it was ten o'clock after a long day and my parents had gone to bed in my bedroom.

When I asked for a refund for that night, the owner was very very nasty in response. So I asked him to not contact me again (and blocked his number in my phine--he was that nasty) and appealed to Airbnb. They opened a case, but did nothing until I contacted AmEx and asked for them to reverse the charges for that night. At that point, Airbnb refunded the money.

If this had been a hotel, they would have just moved my parents to another room or sent maintenance to fix the problem. With Airbnb there really weren't any good remedies. If I had not lived in town, my parents would have had to either stay with no toilet overnight or scramble to find a hotel room and pay for it.

After that, I feel like there's a potential to end up in an uninhabitable house with few good options. So I haven't done Airbnb again. I'm not saying I wouldn't, but I'd think carefully about how likely the owner was to take care of any problems and what my options would be if he or she didn't.

Good Morning America had a segment on this exact same thing yesterday. They showed a small device that you can buy on Amazon (several versions from a few companies) that you can use to detect pinhole cameras and other spyware devices. They are small enough to carry in your purse. Anyhoo, I ordered one. They state that you can use them to check out your hotel rooms, public bathrooms, etc.

They do state that if you're are being bugged by professionals with their state-of-art technology, this device will probably not pick those up. But, I imagine that home-grown perverts don't have easy access to those.

If you're interested in checking these out for yourself, you can find them by googling "spyware detectors".