A woman has shared her “scary” experience of finding what she claims was more than 10 hidden cameras in an Airbnb rental property.
Twitter user @foxytaughtyou posted that travellers “should be cautious” when booking accommodation, alongside pictures of what appear to be cameras, which she alleges she and a friend found “hidden all over the house” after booking to stay in Philadelphia.
She claimed to have found cameras “in the showers and bedrooms”, while “some were disguised as sprinkler systems but it has a camera lens [sic].”
“The Airbnb was listed under a business name and we never met the owner,” she added. “Every time we tried calling them, even at our arrival they’ll never answer the phone.
“They only respond through message so we do not know how they look, sound or if it’s a male or female.”
The women claim that, after reporting the incident to Airbnb and the Philadelphia police, they were simply moved to another property by the home sharing platform.
“We reported this to [Airbnb] and to the police station Friday noon and still have not had a update on this case,” tweeted @foxytaughtyou on 13 June. “We have no idea what footage this owner has and what he is doing with it!
“This is so UNSAFE, and scary! Thank God we noticed the cameras and got out of there!”
In a Tiktok video, now viewed more than 1.5 million times, she explains that they discovered the cameras after going out for the evening, coming home and falling asleep on the sofa.
When they woke in the morning, they noticed what appeared to be a crudely concealed camera on the ceiling pointing straight down at them.
“We were creeped out and we decided to look everywhere in the Airbnb, all over the ceiling, and see if there’s any more cameras,” she says in a voiceover accompanying the images.
“We discovered that the sprinklers had a camera lens. We got on the chair and we did a flash test on these sprinklers and they are cameras.”
An Airbnb spokesperson told The Independent: “Our policies strictly prohibit hidden cameras and we take forceful action in the exceptionally rare circumstances where this has been reported, including assisting law enforcement to help them hold criminals accountable.
“In this case, our Safety team has suspended this Host and removed this listing from our platform while we thoroughly investigate this report. We are also providing support to our guest, including a full refund.”
It’s far from the first time an unsuspecting guest has discovered cameras at a rental property.
In 2019, an Irish family discovered eight hidden cameras at an Airbnb property in Greece.
Paul and Harriet Conroy, along with their two sons Aaron and Paul Jnr and a friend, had rented the accommodation through Airbnb for a relative’s wedding.
They found the devices “in every room” of the Athens villa, including the bathroom.
Airbnb suspended the owner’s account in response and refunded the Conroys for their stay.
“We take privacy issues extremely seriously. As soon as we were made aware, we removed this host from our platform and fully refunded the guests,” a spokesman said at the time.
