On March 2, 2024, “Saturday Night Live” host Sydney Sweeney and cast member Chloe Troast performed a sketch about interior designers — one that focused on Airbnb. Whether or not the timing of Airbnb’s announcement — which came just over a week after the episode aired — is a coincidence remains unknown, but the sketch played off of real concerns that consumers have had stemming from real stories of hidden cameras in Airbnb properties.
Hidden cameras would have been against the old rules, but the new rule could further increase customers’ peace of mind. That goes doubly so since Airbnb allegedly applied the old rules inconsistently. A March 2019 article in The Atlantic provided one of the most in-depth looks at the issue to date, citing four customers who found undisclosed cameras in their rentals but could not get anywhere with Airbnb support, including not getting a refund when they found the hidden cameras.
“There have been super terrible examples of privacy violations by AirBnB hosts, e.g., people have found cameras hidden in alarm clocks in their bedrooms,” Carnegie Mellon computer science professor Jeff Bigham told The Atlantic. Important to note that Bigham’s initial claim over an undisclosed camera was denied. Hopefully, the end of any ambiguity in the rules about indoor cameras will result in fewer situations like Bigham’s going forward.
