How Survivors Are Dealing With Sexual Assault At Airbnbs?

So, hidden cameras in Airbnbs is a disturbing topic. I mean, as someone who’s stayed in Airbnbs, I was kind of disappointed to learn about this. When you stay somewhere, whether it’s a hotel or an Airbnb, you have an expectation of privacy.

And unfortunately, as it turns out, Airbnb did nothing prior to March 2024 about the possibilities of hidden cameras inside the home—and they knew about it. This is something that they’ve known about for a long time. Certain people have complained, certain people may have filed suit, and cases have been settled with nondisclosure agreements. People don’t necessarily want everyone to know that they were videoed.

But it is a problem. It’s a problem that Airbnb knew about for a while. Airbnb did go ahead and change the policy in March 2024, but it’s my understanding that even though they changed their terms and conditions—and a host using the Airbnb platform agrees to abide by those terms and conditions—they weren’t necessarily notified about the change.

So, if a person is using video inside the home, they may even be doing it innocently to protect their home, but they may be unwittingly violating someone’s privacy. I don’t want to make the assumption that all cases of this were done with some kind of bad motive.

But nevertheless, I’m not even sure all of the hosts on Airbnb are aware of that at this time. So, it is an ongoing problem. You need to be aware of your rights. If you’re going to book an Airbnb, you should probably go ahead and just ask the host, Do you have any indoor video cameras? That way, they’ll know that you’re aware this is an issue.