Has anyone found a hidden camera in their hotel room?

[SailingOnAWave]

I keep reading horror stories about people finding hidden cameras in their hotel room. So now when I stay somewhere I thoroughly check the room out.

My question is, has anyone actually come across a hidden camera?

I’ve come across some pretty controlling behaviour in air bnbs .

We had one with just one roll of toilet tissue in each loo ( so two rolls). Fair enough, we just bought more.

However, during the stay an unexpected rainfall meant the owner phoned and asked us to please get out a plastic cover for a piece of outside furniture. They directed us to a (very) hidden key. From there we had to go to a locked cupboard in the hall. Inside the locked cupboard was a fairly rudimentary plastic furniture cover ( really nothing more than a large bin bag) AND about forty rolls of toilet tissue! They clearly kept the toilet tissue cupboard locked and reopened it to refresh between visits. I mean how much is anyone going to use ?

I would imagine it's more common in Airbnbs than hotel rooms, given that cleaners are the ones with most access to hotel rooms, and they only get about 30 mins (maybe less) to clean each room.

Plus with Airbnb the person might install hidden cameras to make sure people aren't nicking their stuff..and of course for other pervy reasons.

Yes you get some weirdly cheap/ controlling people. I’ve gone back to hotel stays unless, I need to take the dog, for this exact reason!

Can’t be arsed to get out of bed.

i also never use the mugs or the teaspoons in the room. A colleague of mine said he blocked the loo in the Croydon Hilton once and chopped it up with the teaspoon and then rinsed the spoon in the sink and put it back! Why he didn’t bin the spoon I have no idea. That stuff is never put through a dishwasher, the cleaners just rinse the mugs.

To be honest that experience put us right off air bnb. It wasn’t that we go on holiday to use other people’s toilet tissue with lavish abandon; it was that sense that you were fundamentally unwelcome and unwanted and they were grudgingly tolerating your presence “ in their property” because they needed the cash but dammit you weren’t getting one roll more than they had to supply. It’s also a mean thing to choose to be stingy with because let’s face it: if you need it you need it!

Interesting about the toilet roll. We always take ours with us because we don't expect them to provide more than enough for the first night.

Cameras on the other hand - never looked. Not sure I'd bother.

@BiscuitlyBoyle was thinking exactly the same thing ., in my case no one would be looking for very long 🤣🤣🤣

I hired a vrbo property in Mexico for a family reunion event in a gated common area lovely coastal town. There were security cameras in the lounge "for our own safety". They were not hidden but it wasn't until later in the holiday that I realised they were actually on and we must have been watched. I gave them a bad review because of it

We didnt really think twice about popping out to get a few rolls next morning; but it was the paranoia of the locked cupboard . I mean it was a proper key operated lock that had been installed into a normal internal cupboard door l. No one is going to run off with more than they need for the stay.

But the image of packing rolls of toilet tissue is another notion that has me firmly in the hotel camp.

If rumours are to be believed, people don't just pee in hotel kettles...

I don't think the cupboard full of toilet rolls is that crazy, really. Most of us would just take them one at a time, as needed, if we had access; but there are plenty of people out there who would shamelessly fill their car boot before leaving.

Some people will steal anything - and loads of relatively inexpensive items getting regularly pilfered easily mount up. Funny how there were no cleaning products, spare light bulbs or (non-furniture cover!) bin bags in there; just bog rolls.

No the cleaning products had been left with directions to use them !

I've never used an Airbnb, but I would be concerned about hidden cameras because the owner has total control of the place and time to make the cameras hidden well. Wouldn't worry about hotel rooms, they usually have fewer places to hid them and too many people, cleaners etc who might find them.

The toilet rolls in the locked cupboard are probably to ensure that there are some available for the cleaner to put out for the next guest as it's not the cleaner's job to pop out to the shop for new supplies if they have all gone. And yes there are plenty of people who will help themselves . I've come across a similar cupboard with spare cleaning stuff, sheets and shampoos in. All to make it quicker and easier for the cleaner to do her job and get on to the next one.

I've never thought to look for hidden cameras but the poster who found the hidden camera in the children's room - that is shocking. It does sound more likely that people with a holiday rental or actual B&B would do that (as being individual perverts) than a large hotel chain.

Also, just thinking about the legalities of it - I'd say a home owner has the right to install hidden cameras (although morally they should tell you about it). I'm not sure if by paying for a room in a hotel for the night it is considered your residence for the night or whatever.

Plus the inevitable PR disaster for a hotel chain if it was discovered they were spying on their customers would be immense. Although it could be just one employee, the chances of them having the time/ privacy to carry it out without being spotted by another employee is small.

No spares, though, for the cleaner to put out for new guests as they got used up?!

I’ve had the loo roll shortage issue in hotels though, it’s no different. I’ve had to call housekeeping to bring up an extra roll.

I do own a property we rent on air BnB and the occasional person will take all the consumables left out, when they could not possibly have used them during their stay. We provide full size bottles of luxury shampoo, conditioner, body lotion etc and every now and then someone takes them all.

A friend of mine worked for a hotel chain, cleaning bedrooms. She said several of the team used the same cloth to clean the toilet and wipe the mugs and teaspoons clean. I never use any cups/kettle/spoons/glasses in a hotel.

My friend had her little sister and daughter filmed going to the bathroom in an air BnB that had an en suite in the children’s room. It was so indiscreet she found the camera herself the first time she used that bathroom. The owner served 8 months after the police searched his house and found over 200 hours worth of footage of multiple children using that bathroom. Worryingly he has a very public job for a newspaper now, they know his history and don’t care. He tells people he was in hospital when he was actually in prison

Never, my arse isn't worth staring at 🤣.

I would never use in room coffee facilities though for hygiene reasons and always lock my toothbrush away rather than leaving it in the bathroom as I wouldn't want the cleaner to touch it after cleaning the toilet.....Oh, and I never touch the toilet flush button with bare hands 😳.

Simcards dont save media files 🙄

I haven't, but years and years ago in a holiday cottage in Wales, we found what we were almost convinced was a two-way mirror in the bedroom. The owners' house was on the other side of that wall. The mirror was just ... weird; like no mirror we had ever seen before. It was yellowish, and we could see a long way into it - it seemed to have a strange depth. It freaked us out. We hung loads of towels over it.

Was it a tv that turns into a mirror when off?

My exDH and I once stayed in a very swanky hotel in Venice. There was a big gold framed mirror on the wall in the sitting room of the suite, it had a tiny red light blinking at the bottom. We freaked out thinking it was some sort of camera, until we finally worked out it was a tv.

Same here! They'd run screaming and scarred for life!

Omg the mug and teaspoon stories are just horrifying me 😖😖 honestly never thought twice about them, assumed they’d be changed with the towels!! Argh! Never ever using them in a hotel again 😂 usually look forward to my little cup of tea and Lotus biccy when I get back to the room!

Well I'm not techy but whatever it was, we saw videos of the man checking the camera, the family arriving and the two little girls. Was chilling.