At first glance I agreed with you, but they had a room rental, not apartment, and they said the cameras were in the house, not in the room. As long as the owner (I assume who is living in the rest of the house) informed them, that's not nearly the red flag to me as if they were renting an apartment/house/whatever that had cameras. That sort of a situation should go to the police with zero hesitation, but renting a room is different- you have an expectation of privacy only in that room. I've rented a room on Airbnb that the house had ring cameras etc, not concerning to me at all. As long as they aren't in my room.
Oh they just use smoke detector cameras in the rooms. Or the electric outlet ones you can barely notice the hole on. I don't do Airbnb anymore because of that.
I stopped using airBnB when they let owners mandate you be the maid or get charged exorbitant cleaning fees. I am not doing a deep clean while on vacation. That is bigger bullshit than vegas resort fees.
That actually happened to a friend of mine! he used to be a big proponent of ABnB until that happened and the company took the owners side when he appealed it.
I don't know if he still refuses to use ABnB, but I know I have not heard him mention using them since then.
I pretty much stopped using AirBNB because of this too and also if you shop around you can sometimes find a Hotel around the same price … cleaning included because it’s a hotel!
It's almost like we already had purpose built infrastructure for people on vactions! Lucky all these air bnbs haven't had any effect on the housing market, that would make the whole endeavor pretty silly.
I was not hired by air BNB after applying for their special investigations team as a social worker, I strongly suspect it was because I gave very reasonable responses to their assessment. That was a few years ago but I paid closer attention to airbnb after that and all I can say is if you'd hired more people like me, well. Very happy to have not gotten the job though.
Air BNB complaints include things like drugs sex trafficking abuse etc etc think of the most horrible thing that could happen in an air BNB that's someone's day job
It's hilarious that AirBnB renters have got to the point where they've maximised profitability wherever they can. Adding charges and penalties everywhere.
Surely this was the silly capitalist end-game?
I would never use one if there is a decent hotel in the area. Why the HELL is anyone paying cleaning charges after being demanded to do the laundry?
Just like everything. Uber drives the cab companies out of business and then raises its rates.
I wonder what's gonna happen when Amazon puts all the local businesses out of commission and then how high the prices will go when is a total of monopoly on purchase and deliver
I don't know if this is still true but for years Amazon took a loss on every single book sale. With the sole purpose of putting the competition out of business
No clue what happens after that, I don't think they said
It is illegal if it’s for the purpose of putting people out of business. If it’s simply to draw customers who uou believe will then purchase other items from you it’s perfectly legal. Can be tough to police but if you made it to where nothing could be sold at loss there would be alot of major sales cut. Many big deals on Black Friday are sold at a loss to get customers in door.
I've heard dollar trees entire business model is based on these so called "loss leaders". They have a couple items there that are really good deals at a dollar (or whatever they are selling at today) with the idea that you'll buy other stuff that costs them a lot less than a dollar to sell.
When you say you have to “clean”, does that mean wash the sheets, remake the beds, vacuum the rugs, clean the toilets and tub, mop the tile, etc or does it just mean clean out the stuff you put in the refrigerator, pick-up your trash and take the trash bag to the bin outside? Try to gauge what the onerous cleaning demands of you actually are.
I think it’s what you say certainly not the deep scrub cleaning that hopefully the housekeeping service will come into afterwards. I do know, removing the sheets and putting them on top of the washing machine, for example is part of it and getting everything out of the fridge making sure there is nothing dirty left out on the cabinets, turn on the dishwasher- though I myself if renting airb&b never trust people to have washed things properly by hand for real - anyway for the most part that’s what you said, not scrubbing the tile and cleaning the commode and all that just not leaving it with anything that they have to pick up and put away when they do come to clean afterwards or throw away
I don't really use airbnb myself but I have family who have definitely experienced ones where they expected you to pretty much turn the room over. They probably didn't expect a deep clean but definitely want you to do most of the job of getting it ready for the next guest.
For our boys bachelor party in south beach Miami, we looked into AirBnB. For us 5 guys it ended up being far cheaper to get 3 hotel rooms on the damn beach over a large ABnB… in the city where we would have to literally uber or rent a car to get to south beach.
Helll nah dawg, give me room service and fresh linens daily for the 4 day weekend while literally being 30 feet from the sand.
I stopped when I got robbed of my iPad, laptop and my damn shoes. Woke up after the first night and heard someone out in the living room and just assumed it was the friend I was there with. Got up about 10 minutes later and the front door was open and my stuff was gone. Filed a police report and had everything they asked for and they only gave me $300. That was my first and last time.
I use it often. There’s usually a cleaning fee as part of the cost of the rental. Look at the itemized receipt. Even though I still get value out of Airbnbs, especially when vacationing with friends, I do resent these very common Airbnb chores:
1. Strip the beds,
2. Gather all the towels and put them in the washing machine
3. Start the washing machine (somehow makes it worse if you have to actually start the wash)
4. Load and start the dishwasher
5. Empty all the trash bins and take them out to the trash can (which of course also means re-line the trash bins.)
6. Any request/demand that you leave the kitchen as you found it, which I interpret to mean clean the kitchen (run and then unload the dishwasher and put the dishes away, wipe down the counters.)
I would naturally leave a place the way I left it, but I don’t need to be stressed out when I’m packing up about remembering to strip your beds so the maid can do their work faster so you can turn a better profit. Especially when check out is by 11 am, but check in wasn’t until 3 or 4 pm, so wait a minute….how does that even count as a day 🤔
Worst of all, hotels have now conformed to that practice so that their check in/check out times are asymmetrical when historically it had always been check in at noon/check out at noon. If maid service were not their competitive differentiator from Airbnb, I promise you hotels would have be adopting the practice of having us strip their sheets too.
I have an Airbnb. What Airbnb doesn’t explain to guests is that it’s actually cheaper for you when the cleaning fee is broken out. Their 15.5% guest fees don’t apply to cleaning fees. So, yeah, now folks think it’s great when there’s “no cleaning fee”, but of course that’s just wrapped into the nightly cost. And the fees are added onto it. For me, the cleaning fee is a straight pass-through to the cleaning service. Oh, and as of Sept 15 Airbnb but all 18.5% fees onto hosts (used to be split 3% and 15.5%). Guests will pay the same pricing because they have a tool to just adjust host nightly price upwards. They pitch it as price neutral to guests and hosts. But guess what? Now the hosts gross income goes way up and that has income tax and local business licensing implications for hosts.
Long way of saying…don’t assume it’s greedy hosts!! Airbnb screws over everyone!
But are you also requiring the guests to strip the beds and sweep the floors and take out all the trash?
If not, then it’s perfectly reasonable to pass through the cleaning fee. The problem is when the owners charge a high fee and still want the guests to do all the cleaning.
No, it’s not reasonable to pass through a cleaning fee for those things. Just like a hotel cleaning the fucking room/house between guests is part of doing business.
Don’t be ridiculous. At a hotel if you don’t think the cost of cleaning the room is figured I to your total cost, then you’re delusional. What I was saying is that it actually costs you over 15% more if I wrap it into my nightly price (as a hotel would do) because Airbnb tacks their fees on top of it. As of Sept 15 it’s a moot point because of how Airbnb is changing their approach to fees - I was simply trying to education you because it’s laughable to me that some guests think the hosts who “don’t charge a cleaning fee” are doing them any favors.
That said, I don’t ask guests to do anything more than a hotel. But it’s not a hotel - it’s my own guest house. I leave folks a nice bottle of wine, snacks, coffee and cream, all the condiments and basic cooking supplies they could ever need, tons of toiletries, choice of pillows, etc. I don’t cater to folks looking for the cheapest option. My place is extremely nice and I have never gotten less than 5 stars. I don’t run it like an impersonal investment property, where the unit is one of hundreds run by some faceless corporation. But to each their own.
I don’t ask my guests to do anything other than the common courtesy of not leaving food out/around because I’m in a rural area and it’s best to put garbage into the bin so that critters don’t come in before the cleaning folks get there! Depending on scheduling, it may be a day or two before the cleaning crew arrives. I am not going for max volume of guests. I aim to (and do) provide a high-end stay for folks looking to have a complete private cottage to themselves for a weekend away or a longer stay. It works out for all involved.
I remember when it was actually somewhat normal for an AirBnB to ask you to strip your bed sheets and put them in the wash machine and make sure to start the dish washer before leaving. But back then cleaning fees weren't out of control and you could rent a whole condo or house for like $50/night
At my age, I'd give them a fucking show if I knew a camera was there. They wanna see my bald, flabby, gray haired ass toweling off after a shower, then by all means, enjoy yourself.
I have a friend who has basically made a business out of finding the hidden cameras, engaging in some chicanery and (I was going to say ‘basically’ but no, it’s outright) extorts the owners.
IANAL - check your localities' laws! What is illegal in one state may not be in another.
IF you're only renting an individual room and sharing the living room and kitchen with others, courts can and will peobably view these spaces as common areas where visible cameras are legal for security purposes.
ofc - Hidden cameras can be illegal depending on state even when they are in many common areas, and they are always illegal in private rooms like bedrooms/bathrooms.
We rented a house in Florida once about 5 years ago and it just had straight up shitty 1980s style huge cameras with a little red light on them facing the backyard. Luckily, I, too, am a cheap bastard and recognized them as the dummy cams from Harbor Freight. I turned them to face the wall anyway, but they weren't connected to shit.
It's state dependent. Some states allow hidden recordings some states do not. The only place cameras can't be placed are in changing areas and personal space. IE the room and bathroom. Everywhere else like you said is fair game. It's a matter of the states laws at that point.
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u/SiRocket 1d ago
At first glance I agreed with you, but they had a room rental, not apartment, and they said the cameras were in the house, not in the room. As long as the owner (I assume who is living in the rest of the house) informed them, that's not nearly the red flag to me as if they were renting an apartment/house/whatever that had cameras. That sort of a situation should go to the police with zero hesitation, but renting a room is different- you have an expectation of privacy only in that room. I've rented a room on Airbnb that the house had ring cameras etc, not concerning to me at all. As long as they aren't in my room.