An Irish family was shocked after finding eight hidden cameras, including one in the bathroom, of an Airbnb villa they rented during their stay in Greece.
The family had travelled to Greece last July for a relative’s wedding when they noticed cameras had been hidden inside motion-activated sensors, which recorded audio as well as visual.
The Conroy family reportedly found cameras in every room including the bathroom and immediately reported it to Airbnb. They were reimbursed and the listing was taken off the website.
The landlord of the Greek luxury villa, located near Athens, was suspended from Airbnb after the complaint was lodged.
A spokesperson for Airbnb said: “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.
According to The Independent, the villa was banned from Airbnb, however, was still being listed on a few other accommodation websites.
How to check if you are being watched-
Over the past year, there have been more and more reports of guests discovering their Airbnb hosts secretly filming them with hidden cameras and most of these cameras have been found in the bedroom.
According to fling.com look out for-
Infrared light: “Some night-vision cameras rely on infrared-light-emitting LEDs. You can check for these by turning off all the lights in a room, and pan around with your smartphone camera. If you see what looks like light displayed on your phone screen, you may have found the location of a hidden camera.”
Heat: “If a camera runs on AC power it's going to generate some heat. That's a giveaway if you know how to spot it and if you have access to a thermal camera. After all, that weird piece of art mounted above your rental's bed headboard shouldn't be putting out heat, right? And neither should a battery-powered smoke detector.”
Red, blue or green light: “The big giveaway tends to be a red, blue or green light. Some cameras are motion-sensored, so keep an eye out for a light that just suddenly appears as you walk the room.”
