Hidden Cameras in Hotels, AirBnBs and Vacation Rentals: How to Find 'Em And What to do About 'Em

by Ryan Vagabundo

Hidden cameras in rental units aren't anything new. Pinhole cams that are easy to hide have been around and affordably available to the general public for over two decades now.

What is more new is widespread high-speed wireless internet access and cloud storage services. A big problem for pinhole cams of yore was collecting the video data after it's captured. It usually had to be saved locally, meaning physical access was needed to the camera after installing it. That made it the almost exclusive province of pervy property owners and maintenance men, who would be able to easily get in and out of a unit at will. They also had runtime limitations. Now, cameras can just hook into wifi and upload their video to The Great and Mighty Cloud virtually non-stop.

A few high-profile and really brazen incidents recently have illustrated this new risk to traveler privacy. In South Korea, a group of pervy bandits installed cameras in 42 rooms in 30 different motels across the country - then had the audacity to set up a subscription-based live streaming service. They were selling access for $45 a month, with about 4,000 people taking them up on it and about 1,600 people falling victim as unwitting reality stars.

AirBnB has had a rash of brazen camera incidents in the last few months as well. One guy in Miami found obvious cameras plugged into the wall and straight-up pointed at his bed in a private room. A family in Ireland found one in the living room, which is technically allowed if it is disclosed - this one was not and was hidden in a fake smoke detector, only discovered because the husband was an IT guy and noticed a strange wifi source at the property. A quick skim of Google for "airbnb hidden cameras" revealed about 20 or so unique reports of cameras hidden in smoke detectors and such in the last couple of years just by browsing through a few different news articles.

Now, this is all a pretty small sample size and nothing to panic over. We're talking about a relative handful of incidents in relation to hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of listings. It's not like there's suddenly some huge statistical likelihood that any random hotel or AirBnB is going to be wired up.

It's definitely worth thinking about, though. As the internet should have taught everyone by now, there is a perv market for absolutely anything and everything. No matter what you look like or what you're doing, someone out there is looking to jerk it to it and will probably pay for the opportunity. Other people just get off on the power trip of invading someone's privacy.

I have to admit I've added this to my "once-over" list after hearing about these incidents. I have a few standard things I do a quick check of when I get into any new room - I check the sheets under both natural and a close artificial light to make sure they were actually changed, I check around the edges of the mattress and box spring for bedbug signs, and if there's a fridge I make sure it's turned on and working. Now I'm also taking a quick survey of very obvious spots for cameras to see if there are any suspicious-looking holes for lenses.

Scanning the Room

Hidden cameras need two things - power and an unobstructed view of what they're filming.

It's possible to power one with a battery, but that would mean regular physical access to change or charge it. That's why hidden cameras inside of appliances are so popular, as long as the appliance is plugged in the camera has power.

So the first thing you want to look at is plugged-in objects facing an area a peeper would be interested in - primarily the bed and bathroom. Now, the other aspect a camera requires - an unobstructed view.

Cameras can have tiny lenses now, not much bigger than the tip of a pin. But they still need an opening through which to film. Here's a good example of one hidden in a changing room hanger:

As you can see, there's a small but very visible hole in a suspicious place. Why would a normal clothes hanger have a hole there?

You can see another good example in that story about the South Korean hotels. The peeping pervs chose to use the hair dryer mount, which is wired to the wall. It looks like it was a DIY job on the room's existing dryers, as you can see from the pictures of it that they drilled a clumsy hole in a spot where there clearly shouldn't be one.

So basically, eyeball objects with a view of a personal area and a power source to see if they have any little holes like these that don't seem to serve any particular purpose.

I don't worry too much about getting up and scrutinizing the smoke detectors. I mostly stay in hotel chains and superhosted AirBnB properties with lots of reviews. In the case of hotels, the smoke detectors usually have hard-wired power and are real difficult to tamper with or replace without setting them off. And an established AirBnB host is clearly a serious business owner and trying to make money. If they're trying to make money, they would have to be one red hot superperv to put their whole business at risk just to get footage of the occasional rando that strikes their fancy.

If you're still not comfortable just eyeballing the room and want to be absolutely sure, it's time to break out the technology.

Equipment You Can Use to Find Hidden Cameras

1) One tried-and-true method is to use a camera that can see infrared light in combination with an infrared light source.

Most common digital cameras (including the ones in phones) can actually see infrared light, but manufacturers filter it out because it can mess up picture quality. If the camera has such a filter, it's probably at the hardware level and can't be turned off, but you can always check the instruction manual (which can usually be found online by searching the device's model number).

If you aren't sure, you can check by pointing a TV remote at the camera and seeing if the light from the tip of it when you press a button is visible through your camera. If it is, the camera is able to view infrared light.

If you have such a camera, shine a directional infrared light around at any areas that are suspicious while looking at them through the camera view. A hidden camera lens will reflect that IR light back at you, like the light at the end of the TV remote. Tiny bits of IR light in the middle of objects is a pretty strong sign there is a pinhole camera embedded there.

Don't have a camera that can view infrared light? Apple appears to make the cameras on their portable devices able to view infrared. You could pick up an old iPhone for this purpose if you don't already have one.

2) Scan for Web-Based Camera User Interfaces

This is the method that the IT guy in Ireland used. This will work much better for something like an AirBnB rental, where you would expect only a small handful of devices to be on the local network. And it will only catch devices that are connected to the house network to upload video, not those that are offline and recording to an SD card.

But if that's your situation, you can use a network mapper (Nmap being a free and famous example) to see what all is on the network you're currently connected to. There is a bit of a learning curve in using these tools, but once you understand them you can basically get a list of all the devices on the network and identify ones that might be cameras. If the camera can be operated through a web browser and doesn't have a password, you might even be able to get right into its interface.

Nmap requires a proper computer (Windows, Mac or Linux); if all you have is your phone, check out the Fing network toolkit app instead.

3) Use an RF Signal Detector

You know how in movies, agents looking for bugs will comb the walls and furniture with what looks like a microphone or metal detector? That's basically what this is.

Old-school eavesdropping devices broadcasted audio by way of "radio frequency" (RF) waves, but any electronic device that is broadcasting to the internet (through WiFi or Bluetooth) will also emit an RF signal that is usually detectable.

As with network scanning, this is only going to work if the camera is uploading video to the internet in some wireless way; if it's just saving the video data locally it won't be detectable this way. A small and simple RF detector that works well can be had for around $50 USD, however.

4) Professional Hidden Camera Detectors

If you want to be absolutely sure and are willing to spend at least a couple of hundred bucks, you can get one of the sweeping devices that the professional security teams use. These basically use a combination of all of the above methods to make sure they catch everything that could be used for audio and video spying, but they do each in a more sophisticated way.

What Happens When You Find A Camera?

Well, this one is largely up to you. Taking the equipment and administering a nice ass-whooping on the way out is always on the menu, though be aware this stands a high likelihood of landing you in jail.

If you want to legally CYA and maximize your damages, however, don't remove or mess with the camera. I don't know about other countries but here in the U.S., we have weird property laws that could get you arrested if you destroy or take a hidden camera even if it was illegally recording you.

In a hotel, unless it's some shady little mom-and-pop dump, you definitely want to go to management. It's very unlikely the hotel owner placed the camera there due to massive potential liability issues. Instead, it was most likely a rogue maintenance guy, housekeeper or previous guest.

What if it's the owner of an AirBnB or vacation house? Film evidence of the hidden camera with your own camera without destroying or removing it, then cover it up with something. Contact the local authorities, then the platform you rented from. Most localities have at minimum "bedroom and bathroom" laws that prevent property owners from surreptitious recording in rooms where privacy is expected. If you feel safe, try to wait with the camera until authorities arrive to ensure the property owner doesn't try to destroy the evidence.