[w3rhn2j34oh5o]

Last time I was in a Silicon Valley Hotel, I had to sign a waver that I accepted that there was an Alexa in my room. Of signed it, and unplugged it (as well as the TV). I will not have these horrible things near me. The hotel claimed they would charge if you unplugged it. They didn't.

[rchaud]

Pretty soon, I imagine there will be Airbnb Experiences ads that tout something about "living simply" with hosts that specifically do not have "smart" devices in their home.

[_RPM]

Not exactly a listening device, but I was in an AirBnb once. Every time I would open the door, I could hear a notification being played in the upstairs unit. It wasn't the back door that caused the notification, but the actual door the apartment I was staying in. It was displeasing.

[panpanna]

FYI, house owner spying on people using smart cameras has been a major problem for Airbnb for a good while now.

[stallmanite]

I wonder what would be their reasoning behind wanting to charge for a customer unplugging an Alexa. Why would it matter?

[panpanna]

Lost earnings?

After all, you pay them $150/night but they also get $0.1 from Amazon that they just can live without...

I wonder what happens if you refuse to sign it

[xenospn]

Someone has to come in and plug it back in, I’m assuming.

[stallmanite]

Right but doesn’t someone have to vacuum and clean the place anyway? Seems like the additional cost of adding “plug in the Alexa if it’s unplugged” to the cleaning checklist would be completely negligible.

[bberenberg]

Can you share what hotel this was?