Would a Ring doorbell put you off a holiday let?

[LookWhosInsideAgain]

I became an accidental landlord a couple of years ago and rent out the house on Air BnB and a couple of other sites. The house is 6 bedroom and was originally two flats so I often get bookings from two family groups wanting to holiday together which is obviously great. Unfortunately a few weeks ago a booking that claimed to be a family group, and arrived as what seemed like a fairly normally family group, had actually decided to rent it for the weekend for a party. Luckily I live next door and soon realised as the day wore on that there were around 30 people in the house which I’m neither insured for and not what the group had agreed to.

I asked them to leave and after a bit of rudeness and a bit of help from my neighbours they did but they caused over £2k worth of damage and I had to cancel the following booking too as they’d smashed the oven. I know this is always a hazard with a holiday let but I’d hoped the fact that I make it very clear that I live next door would dissuade this kind of behaviour somewhat.

Anyway, I thought of maybe getting a Ring doorbell or similar, just so I can see who is actually going into the house. I don’t know if this would be something that would put people off though. It would only be pointed at the door itself and the driveway so they’d be no filming when guests are in the garden or house. I’m still not sure whether it seems a bit controlling though. Any thoughts?

Just put the ring doorbell in and make sure it’s on the write up - if it’s booked solid now you should still get enough bookings. But if you’re away on holiday and your doorbell is showing there are dozens of people there what would you do?

That's not the same circumstances at all.

This is a holiday let not someone's home and she wasn't going to be doing it to stop criminal activity. She was wanted to know how many guests were there.

When you have a business designed to make money you have to think about how things will affect the business.

Recording the comings and goings of your family and friends is quite a decision I think and it's not something I would do just because 'local police recommend this'. People have to make their own decisions.

I just leant a broom up against the ring doorbell (I think it was a ring doorbell anyway).

We’d just disable it on arrival. It doesn’t take much knowledge and it’s incredibly intrusive. We are perfect Air BnB guests as can be evidenced by our reviews and the only lets I’ve really hated are where the host not so subtly makes it clear she lives next door by doing stupid things like this.

I’m not against CCTV, we’ve got Google Nest cams covering front/back/garage and drive, but I don’t expect to be filmed on my holiday.

But it is surveillance

Absolutely do it. Decent people have nothing to fear. Many people have them so I don’t think it shouts surveillance

I don't know anyone who has one. And I don't live in a good area or anything. My brother has a takeaway and he's got a camera but that's it.

It just sees you going in and out the front door though. CCTV inside or in the garden is difficult, I definitely wouldn't want that.

I wouldn't mind in the slightest.

I wouldn't rent a property with a ring doorbell, nor would I rent a property where the owner stays on site/next door. Nothing to hide, just don't appreciate being monitored, especially on holiday.
Same reason I don't use self service, I object to this constant recording of people going about their daily lives.

@NotAMug I know what they do I have one. You can hear peoples full conversations too. I'm torn on this one front OPs point it is not creepy at all.

It is intrusive from a guests POV though

Seriously OP you don’t have to make excuses about being a landlord. That’s your business. There are some really arsey people on here with huge chips on their shoulders.

I wouldn’t be put off by a Ring doorbell, they’re so standard these days, half our street has them and we plan to as well, just need to get around to it!

A ring doorbell wouldn't bother me. I've stayed at a few air BnB places where the owner has said they only let to people with a good review history on the site. The first time I booked I had to assure the owner that I was new to the site and promise that I wasn't having a party - I paid an extra deposit as reassurance.

Lots have ring doorbells so the visitors can communicate with the landlord on arrival remotely, given a key code etc. It's a very convenient way to deal with visitors if you can't be there in person.
I wouldn't automatically assume that there would be cctv inside.

Wouldn't bother me in the slightest.

Also, you can turn off audio recording - you don't have to be able to hear conversations.

If you state on the listing that you have one, and that audio if not recorded, future guests can make up their own minds.

Surely anyone who then covers it would be breaching terms and conditions?

Cameras are pretty common now. Each of the last three holidays homes we've rented have had cctv covering the front exterior and one also had cctv covering the back garden and patio which had a hot tub on it. In fact, make it 4, the time before we stayed in a holiday flat in a building with 7 or 8 other flats and there was cctv covering the corridors. The last place was a farm barn conversion with 3 holiday homes in a courtyard that had a mast with 2 cctv cameras covering the courtyard and front doors/patios of the 3 homes. The time before had a camera just above the front door facing the driveway and garden gate.

Never seen any reviews complaining about it.

I really can't imagine the owners sit there and watch what's going on all day - more like they'll just look at recordings when something has gone wrong.

Must admit I've got small cctv cameras in my own front porch looking out at home, and also one covering the front door and driveway at my office. Can't remember the last time I've looked at recordings or watched them live. They may not even still be working, I'll have to check I suppose. When we've had workmen at home (or the neighbours have), I've set them both up at home facing either our front or back garden just in case the workmen damage anything - it paid dividends last year when a neighbour was having a tree chopped down and the tree-fellers drops a huge limb onto our fence damaging it and cracking a concrete fence post. They had the audacity to deny they'd done the damage despite it being blindingly obvious, so I showed the neighbour the recording of it happening and only then did he pay for the repairs/replacements (I presume he claimed back from the tree fellers!).

Wouldn't bother me in the slightest - we're just going in and out of the front door, we have nothing to hide. We have one at home, most of our neighbours do.

I have a Ring camera on my front door at home. However I wouldn’t like to have one on a holiday home where it is the owner, not us, who can see what is happening.

It wouldn’t bother me quite the opposite. I would consider it as additional safety measure e.g if it would cover the drive.
I think they are not wide popular yet but it’s coming.

camera at the door(s) or property boundary if properly declared I wouldn't mind. but would cover it after arrival.

cameras anywhere else absolutely not.

it would not help you really, ime, cf gonna cf (and cover/disable)

If anything, it would make me feel more secure.

I personally wouldn't choose a holiday let with either a remote video device or an Alexa type device. I know other people will have different views, but that's just mine. It's one thing to know a holiday let isn't 'yours', but quite something else to have to find trust in a stranger (landlord) not to passively snoop whilst you're supposed to be relaxing on holiday.

Almost everyone I know has one and we have one at work. To be honest if I knew the owner lived directly next door, I don't think it would make that much of a difference to privacy. I wouldn't be put off by it

We’ve got a Eufy doorbell which is similar to Ring but much better and we’re used to the concept so it wouldn’t bother me at all.

My next door-but-one neighbour's got one and sometimes he springs out of his house to talk to me, I often wonder if he is getting some kind of notification that I've left the house. I meant to start a thread on here asking about it, actually.