Some good Airbnb detective work

[Randy W]

I'm not sure why the router was involved in his circuitry, except to allow him to access the camera and memory card data from outside the bedroom.

She found an extra light on on the router, indicating a hard-wired connection.

 

Chinese woman’s detective work foils Airbnb ‘Superhost’ who installed hidden camera in bedroom

• Police detain man who was an experienced host on the platform but had been filming his guests
• Airbnb issues refund and apology after the woman dismantles router to find camera and memory card

 

 

 

The woman, referred to by her online alias Yunfei, told Beijing Youth Daily she worked in internet and information security, and always checked her hotel rooms. She said that when she arrived at the man’s flat in Qingdao in Shandong province last Wednesday night, she soon spotted something unusual.

. . .

“I found a motion sensor monitor at the flat’s entrance and two in the two bedrooms, which is odd since the flat had not been renovated for smart-home automation,” she said.

She did not return to the flat, which had accommodated many guests and cost her 1,700 yuan (US$250) for a three-night stay. She said she had not met the host in person and had communicated with him online about checking in and the Wi-fi password.

Airbnb said the man’s flat had been removed from its platform. “We sincerely apologised to the client and have taken the flat off the apartment listings,” an Airbnb spokeswoman told Beijing Youth Daily.