Most travelers test the shower and check the WiFi password the moment they close the door in their hotel room or Airbnb. The more paranoid might glance at the smoke detector above the bed. Some because they want to know if it works, but a few may be looking for something unsettling. A hidden camera. In 2017, a couple staying in a Florida rental noticed a tiny hole in the smoke detector over their bedroom. Inside was a camera, and the host was later charged with voyeurism. In 2019, South Korean police said about 1,600 motel guests had been filmed by cameras hidden in TV boxes, wall sockets and hairdryer holders, with the footage streamed online to paying viewers. Police found no sign that the motels were involved. The suspects had checked in as ordinary customers to install the devices. Rentals have produced their own cases. In 2019, a New Zealand family staying in Ireland found that their host was recording and even livestreaming footage from their room. More recent cases keep surfacing. A Texas host was charged with 15 counts of invasive visual recording after police alleged that more than 2,000 videos of guests were secretly filmed. In January 2026, officers in North Dakota arrested a hotel maintenance worker after a guest reported a camera in her bathroom vent. One 2024 investigation into short term rentals reviewed police files and lawsuits involving at least 75 victims, while Airbnb maintains that complaints are rare and that it acts quickly when they happen. Nobody knows exactly how often this occurs, which is part of why the topic keeps resurfacing. The odds of any single stay involving a camera are relatively low, but the stakes are high enough that a few minutes of checking can be worth it. magnific / (not the actual photo) This is why it might not be suprising that a 2019 survey found that nearly 60 percent of Americans worried about hidden cameras in Airbnb homes. A good sweep starts with just a slow look rather than a gadget. Think about where someone would put a camera to watch the bed, the bathroom or a desk, then inspect whatever faces those spots. Specialists warn that rushing a search makes it easy to miss things, so work through the room in sections and start with the bedroom and bathroom. Sweep along the edges of the room and examine furniture, because those are the vantage points that give a clear view of a bed or desk. Smoke detectors are the most commonly cited hiding place, so look for unusual openings, odd shapes or extra lights. Alarm clocks, air purifiers, TV boxes, routers, plants and books are also worth a glance, and so are bathroom vents, as the North Dakota case shows. Cameras built into ordinary looking USB chargers are cheap and easy to buy, so a charger left plugged in for no obvious reason deserves a closer look. Next, turn off the lights and sweep your phone flashlight slowly around the room. Lenses reflect light even when they are tiny, so a small glint can give one away. Look from different angles as you go, and double check, because random shiny objects might just be a false postive. magnific (not the actual photo) If you are in a rental with WiFi, connect and run a network scanning app such as Fing, which lists the devices on the network. Look for names that mention a camera or devices you cannot account for. Scanners can also show how many networks are in the building, and an unexpected extra one is worth a closer look. The method has limits. Some cameras run on a separate network, and others simply record to a memory card without connecting to anything. Dedicated detectors can add another layer. An RF detector picks up wireless signals from cameras that transmit video. It also reacts to everyday devices, so the useful signal is one coming from somewhere that should not have a connection, such as a plant or a piece of furniture. It cannot find a camera that only stores footage locally. Lens detectors use infrared technology to pick up light emitted by certain cameras, but they work best at close range and can produce false positives. No single method is a guarantee, so a combination works best. josemiguelsangar / magnific (not the actual photo) If you find something suspicious, photograph it where it sits and avoid disabling a smoke detector, since that creates a fire risk. Then report it to the front desk in a hotel or to the booking platform for a rental, and consider contacting local police. One security professional advised leaving the property rather than accepting another room. Another approach is to contact the platform before confronting a host, since someone chose to hide the device. If leaving is not possible, such as in a remote location, temporarily covering a suspected lens with tape or putty is an option. The Yuri Arcurs Collection / magnific (not the actual photo) In the United States, the main federal law is the Video Voyeurism Prevention Act of 2004, but it applies only in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, a category that includes federal buildings and national parks. For most hotels and rentals, state laws do the heavy lifting, and they vary. Illinois names hotel bedrooms in its statute, New York covers using an image capturing device in a hotel room with no legitimate purpose, and Texas makes it a felony to record someone in a bathroom or changing room with intent to invade their privacy. Some states require a sexual or prurient purpose, which shapes what can be prosecuted. These laws generally do not reach cameras in public areas such as lobbies, where people have no reasonable expectation of privacy. Elsewhere the rules differ. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, section 67 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 makes it an offence to observe or record someone doing a private act for sexual gratification, with a maximum sentence of two years. South Korea treats secret filming as a serious crime, and the suspects in the 2019 motel case faced up to five years in prison. Egor Myznik / unsplash (not the actual photo) Platforms add their own rules, which are often stricter than the law. Since April 30, 2024, Airbnb bans indoor security cameras in every listing worldwide, even if they were disclosed or switched off. Airbnb said the change would affect a minority of its more than 7 million listings, since most did not report having indoor cameras. Hidden devices were never allowed and remain strictly prohibited. Hosts may keep exterior cameras if they disclose them before booking, but not where they monitor indoor spaces or private areas such as an enclosed outdoor shower or a sauna. Reported violations can lead to listing or account removal. Vrbo (an American vacation rental website) prohibits any camera that captures the inside of a property and has done so since 2022. It also requires hosts to disclose outdoor cameras that can see a pool or hot tub. magnific (not the actual photo) Enforcement, however, remains an open question. Vrbo’s policy states that its parent company does not own, manage or inspect the properties listed, so compliance depends largely on hosts and on guest reports. Hotels can face liability when something happens to a guest on their premises, a position Airbnb often avoids, in part through arbitration and confidential settlements that the company describes as standard industry practice. A court deposition also revealed that Airbnb had logged tens of thousands of support tickets about surveillance devices over a decade, although the company notes that a single report can generate several tickets. Wildan Kurniawan / unsplash (not the actual photo) Hidden cameras in hotels and rentals remain relatively rare, but the cases that do surface show why a little vigilance is reasonable. A slow look around the room, a flashlight sweep and a quick WiFi scan take only a few minutes, and none of them requires special equipment. If something looks wrong, photographing it and reporting it to the hotel, the platform and the police gives the rules already in place the best chance of working. Laws and platform policies now draw a firm line against recording guests in private spaces, yet enforcement leans heavily on users actually reporting it. Checking on arrival and speaking up when something seems off remain the most practical ways to protect your privacy on the road.
