As an Airbnb host you need to balance guests' privacy with the need to protect your property. This not an easy decision!

In Episode 108 of the Host Coach Airbnb Investing Podcast you will learn the pros and cons of having a camera in your Airbnb, and exactly what you need to do to not have your listing shut down.

Read on as we break down our clients' camera dilemmas and the study data from 1,000 guests that you need to know to make the best possible decision for your Airbnb!

Topics discussed in this episode:

• The Airbnb camera scenario that sent a host to jail
• How to protect your Airbnb listing from being shut down
• The rules for disclosing cameras at your Airbnb
• How the age of your guest avatar impacts your camera decision (we were surprised)
• Data from a 1,000 guest study on the impact of cameras on bookings
• Which camera will work best for your specific Airbnb situation

Host Coach Airbnb Podcast Episode 108 Show Notes:

The Airbnb Camera Incident That Shut Down a Listing

 As an Airbnb host you need to balance guest privacy with the need to protect your own property. Do it right and  you're fine, do it wrong. And your Airbnb listing can be shut down permanently.

Let's start by never putting a camera inside your Airbnb. I just had a client who had purchased a property and the prior owner had a camera inside the property and was arrested, taken away and jailed. So they had to go back into their property and make sure that no cameras were there. So I know you're never going to put one inside, but maybe even go and check on a new property to make sure that something hadn't previously been installed.They appealed it with Airbnb. Obviously it wasn't them doing it, and they got the listing reestablished, but it was very traumatic.

The clients of ours had purchased this Airbnb, completely renovated it, and then the husband was reading in the newspaper and saw the name of the person they purchased from, and then realized that their Airbnb listing had been shut down because of the old owners' super badness.

Protect Your Airbnb Listing

So take away number one: If you get nothing else from this episode, be sure to check your property for hidden cameras before you list on Airbnb and never, ever install a camera inside of your property. We don't have any cameras inside any of our 14 Airbnbs. We do have a few outside cameras on our properties, particularly our top of mountain properties, mainly so we can gauge the weather... if there's snow, is it safe? What is the driveway conditions like? Do we need to have them plowed?

Some pros of outside cameras: They're helpful in keeping your Airbnb safe as it sits empty, and can provide evidence of property damage or parties, or undisclosed guests if an issue arises. The mentioning of the camera on the property does give guests more incentive to be honest about following house rules about not bringing unauthorized pets or visitors into the Airbnb.

Airbnb Camera Disclosure Rules

So, be cool if you have a camera. You must disclose the camera in our Airbnb listing. Airbnb takes this really seriously. Guests take it seriously, and a ring doorbell counts as a camera, so you have to disclose those.

I had a situation where I had a game camera set up on my deck, and I'd completely forgotten about it. It was before we turned the property into an Airbnb. I don't think the batteries had worked in years. It was just on the deck and a guest messaged really unhappy about. You must disclose this. And so of course I went right over to Airbnb and I disclosed it. I then reoved the camera completely. So even a game camera that you've got somewhere on your property, in the woods has to be disclosed.

If you are not from a rural area and don't know what a game camera is, it's a camera that people set up to see wildlife on their property. Deer bear, squirrels, raccoons, that sort of thing. It's not for video games or anything like that. Right. Not a Nintendo game camera. No.

Even non-working cameras must be disclosed. We bought a cabin that has a really nice like fish eye survellience camera outside the front door. I don't even know if there's a camera in there, but we had to disclose it. Someday I'll go and, see what's in there. But not disclosing a camera is an instant shutdown of your Airbnb listing. So make sure to disclose any possible camera! Absolutely.

The Cons of Cameras at Airbnbs

Some cons of the outside cameras are that guests may feel that a camera's an invasion of their privacy and not really be able to fully relax. Yeah. A significant number of potential guests say that the presence of a camera would make them less likely to book a property. In fact, safe home.org recently conducted a study and 42% of potential renters said that the presence of a security camera would make them less likely to book a vacation property. So think about that as you decide. I was shocked about it, whether or not you need a camera.

Again, if you have to have a camera, put one on your doorway - like a ring doorbell so you can see guests or handyman or housekeepers entering. Or, put one way up high at the peak of your roof pointed at the driveway so you can see weather... and if there's a report of a party, you could count the number of cars in your driveway.

Best Airbnb Camera Choices

So what kind of cameras to install after hearing all this you feel like you want to have a camera at your Airbnb?

Be smart about what kind of camera you choose. So this is the old reliable ring doorbell. It has a battery, and that battery needs to be replaced periodically or you can buy a transformer on Amazon, a 12 volt transformer and hardwire it and just kind of get the wires back behind the wall.

Culin says you can hardwire it. Culin can hardwire it, but most people end up hiring an electrician to do this for them. My personal favorite is actually the ring floodlight because it is hardwired, right? You have to wire to the light and it is definitely looking over just the driveway. It's not looking at people coming in the front door. Another option for kind of hedging against the battery issue is the blink cameras, they have a one-year long battery life. The disadvantage is that it's a two part system, so you have the camera outside that's battery operated, but it communicates back to a small wifi Bluetooth-type device that needs to be plugged into the wall. That piece endlessly gets disconnected. Either the housekeepers disconnecting it because they're using the vacuum or a guest needs to use that outlet to charge phone their phone, but I find that one super unreliable. Easy to install. Very hard to actually have operate.

The other thing is to think about this from a guest perspective. It really flips guests out if they're standing in the living room and all of a sudden the motion light on the top deck goes off, they're going to message you and ask what's happening. And then you have to explain about moths or bats, which are not guests favorite things to think about while they're on vacation.

So there you have it. You now know to never put a camera inside your Airbnb. You also learned how cameras in your listing can impact your bookings and the rules for disclosing them. You also know how the age of your guest avatar might weigh into the balance of whether you put a camera in to safeguard your property or skip it and protect the guest's privacy.

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