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[00:00:00] Sarah: Hello, listeners. Welcome back for another great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.
[00:00:03] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we’re–
[00:00:05] Both Annette and Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.
[00:00:06] Sarah: And this is the–
[00:00:07] Both Annette and Sarah: Hosting Hotline.
[00:00:08] Sarah: If you want to get your hosting questions answered, just head on over to hostinghotline.com. Ask your question. You’re going to help so many other hosts. Even if you think you’re the only host in the world with this one question–
[00:00:19] Annette: Like this question today.
[00:00:20] Sarah: Yeah. I promise you, you’re not the only person.
[00:00:23] Annette: Bring it.
[00:00:23] Sarah: You may not even know that you have this in your home, and Becky’s about to help y’all. So let’s listen to Becky’s question.
[00:00:29] Questions: I have an ADT security system, and my ADT control panel has a little camera on it, and it takes a picture of the person who is setting the alarm or disabling an alarm, just a quick pick to record who it is. Nobody ever usually sets the alarm in the Airbnb, but it is in the hallway. And I was wondering, does that count as a camera for Airbnb? And if I just put it a sticker over it, would that work as not having a camera?
[00:00:55] Sarah: It’s a great question, Becky, but Annette and I immediately, when we first listened to your recording, we were like, no.
[00:01:03] Annette: Right. Well, I want to offer this. Take out the context of I understand no one’s going to be setting the alarm or disarming the alarm, and I’m going to cover up the camera. But take it out of context, and it’s a guest that has just checked in. Let’s say someone did remove this sticker and they see this camera. I don’t think there’s any backpedaling that can say there isn’t a camera. Because if you think about it, there actually is a camera in the home. So if it’s just black and white, whether it’s on at all, there is a camera in the home.
[00:01:35] Sarah: Well, then we go to, okay, you put the sticker over the camera. First of all, you see there’s a sticker over the camera.
[00:01:39] Annette: So you know that you had a camera in the home.
[00:01:42] Sarah: What if a kiddo, or a cleaner, or anyone just walks by the sticker falls off? And I’m sure this camera is super tiny, so no one really notices until someone does.
[00:01:52] Annette: And then it looks suspect that like, why are they covering it? Yeah.
[00:01:54] Sarah: And Becky, you mentioned no one really sets the alarm. So here’s my thing. There are plenty of alarm systems that don’t take photos of you as you’re setting it or disarming it. So if you want to have an alarm in the home and you already have it wired up, you could switch it. Or ask ADT if they have an option that doesn’t take the photo.
[00:02:13] I just wouldn’t mess with it because it’s not just Airbnb. It could also be your insurance company that’s not cool with it. And I would say I would err on the side of caution. I guess you could, Becky. Here’s the thing. You could do three things. You could call your insurance company, ask them. Talk to Airbnb support.
[00:02:29] See how high you can get on the support ranking system, and then do it in chat and save that chat, that screenshot of them. If they tell you that’s fine, save it. And then of course, ask your attorney what they think. That’s what I think. If you are dead set on keeping it, I would do those three things first, but it’s not worth it to me.
[00:02:48] Annette: Yeah. I brought up a story to Sarah. We stayed in a short-term rental, and I was like, I think actually sharing with Justin Ford some of the cool tech that was in there– because it was like, temperature-controlled and piped music throughout. And I was doing a tour, and he was like, you know that’s a camera, right? And I was like, no.
[00:03:09] And there was cameras in their smart home all over the place. And after that happened, I think I did put tape over them, or I put paper over it because I was like, oh my gosh, you’re right. Did I think they were snoopy and honest? No, but I was like, oh my gosh, that is– yeah. All of a sudden, my Spidey senses got kicked in to high gear.
[00:03:29] Sarah: You know what, Becky? You called. You asked.
[00:03:32] Annette: Yeah, Becky, I love it.
[00:03:33] Sarah: You are thinking about it. And there might be someone listening right now who didn’t even think about like, oh my gosh, does it–
[00:03:38] Annette: They have that same thing, and they’re just like, oh, we don’t use it. Because Becky, it might be a legacy product that was in your home when you purchased it too.
[00:03:44] Sarah: Right. So consensus, in our opinion, it’s not worth it. But if your heart’s set on it, ask those three individuals, get it all in writing, and save it, and all that kind of good stuff. This camera stuff inside the house, I get it. I really do.
[00:04:01] Annette: For sure. And like you said, you probably really aren’t setting an alarm because hopefully you are booked and blessed.
[00:04:11] Sarah: Well, I have alarm in some of my properties, and I can see guest using it. So it’s not an unheard of thing to have. It gives you comfort. You know what I mean? To the guest. They don’t know the property and neighborhood like you do. And it doesn’t even matter. It’s nice. Peace of mind. So I’m not saying don’t have one, but there are products that you can get that don’t take your picture.
[00:04:32] Annette: Yeah. There you go, Becky.
[00:04:34] Sarah: Becky, thanks for calling for in.
[00:04:36] Annette: Let us know what happens.
[00:04:36] Sarah: Yes. If you have a question, again, it’s hostinghotline.com. Ask your question. We’ll answer it here in the podcast. We appreciate you. With that, I’m Sarah Karakaian.
[00:04:44] Annette: I’m Annette Grant. And together we are–
[00:04:46] Both Annette and Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.
[00:04:46] Sarah: Talk to you next time.
