[schwank]

A couple weeks back we were on vacation in Hawaii, and one night at dinner the table of San Diegans next to us was having a rather loud and animated conversation. It seems they had rented out their property back home on Airbnb and they very clearly talked about not disclosing the cameras they had onsite to the tenants.

The tenants had discovered at least the doorbell camera and covered it up, to which the owners were not pleased and were debating calling the police on the tenant.

We were aghast at their complete lack of knowledge regarding undisclosed video surveillance of tenants and the violation of airbnb policy. My wife badly wanted to interject but we let it go. We did talk about how to mitigate these threats, made for some interesting vacation dinner conversation though.

[true_religion]

If the doorbell camera was facing into the outside, then I am not sure what grounds the tenants have to complain. Hotels and apartments can and do monitor public areas.

[Teever]

I'm not sure what grounds the renters have to complain about this either.

Is there some sort of law or rule obligating tenants to keeping the view of cameras unobstructed?

[true_religion]

Well the camera aren't the tenants property so putting something on top of them like tape would be simple vandalism. They can always obstruct it without touching it.

[Teever]

I can't imagine that a tenant temporarily obstructing the view of a security camera qualifies as simple vandalism in my country but maybe you live in a different place.

If that's the case then merely standing in view of the camera would qualify as vandalism as well because you'd be obstructing the view of what is behind you.

[doomjunky]

The Airbnb rules for hosts: If you’re a host and you have any type of surveillance device in or around a listing, even if it’s not turned on or hooked up, we require that you indicate its presence in your House Rules. We also require you to disclose if an active recording is taking place.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/887/what-are-airbnb-s-ru...