Airbnb Camera Rules

A guest checked out, left you a four-star review, and in the private comment wrote: ‘The camera in the living room made us uncomfortable.’ You don’t have a camera in the living room. You have a doorbell camera at the front door and a Wyze pointed at the driveway. But the guest saw something blinking on a smart-display speaker, panicked, and now you’re staring at a private review you can’t respond to publicly.

This kind of misunderstanding is exactly what the current Airbnb camera rules are trying to head off — and why hosts who haven’t read the updated 2024 policy are walking into avoidable suspensions. The rules genuinely changed. Indoor cameras are now banned, period, even disclosed ones. Outdoor cameras must be disclosed. Doorbell cameras have their own carve-outs. This guide walks through what the policy actually says, where hosts most commonly get tripped up, and how to set up monitoring that protects the property without violating either the platform’s rules or the trust your guests show up with.

Who needs to care about this

Every host listing on Airbnb. The policy isn’t about what you intend — it’s about what you have installed and how you disclosed it. If you’ve owned the property for five years and inherited an old indoor camera from a security system you stopped using, that still counts. If you have a smart display in the kitchen with a built-in camera that’s physically covered but plugged in, that still counts. If you have an Echo Show in the entryway, that still counts. The 2024 policy is strict about presence, not just use. So this matters most for hosts converting a personal home into a short-term rental, anyone running a property they don’t visit often, and co-hosts who didn’t install the original devices — the same group that benefits from the property manager automation for cleaners playbook for the rest of the operations stack.

What the current Airbnb camera rules actually say

Effective April 30, 2024, Airbnb prohibits indoor security cameras in all listings, regardless of whether they are turned on, disclosed, or pointed at a wall. Outdoor cameras are still permitted, but they cannot monitor the interior of the home and cannot cover spaces where guests have a reasonable expectation of privacy — outdoor showers, fully enclosed sauna rooms, or hot tubs in private gated areas.

Doorbell cameras and noise decibel monitors that don’t record audio of conversations are allowed. All of these — outdoor cameras, doorbells, noise monitors — must be disclosed in the listing description before the guest books, not after. Failure to disclose is a removable offense, and Airbnb has gotten more aggressive about enforcing this in the past year.

What counts as ‘indoor’ (and the gray areas)

Indoor means anywhere inside the four walls of the dwelling, including:

Living rooms, bedrooms, hallways, kitchens, bathrooms, basements, attics, attached garages with interior access.
Smart displays with built-in cameras (Amazon Echo Show 8, Echo Show 10, Google Nest Hub Max, Facebook Portal) — even if the camera is physically covered or disabled in software.
Webcams attached to a TV or computer, baby monitors, pet cameras pointed indoors.
Indoor doorbell viewer cameras (rare, but they exist for peepholes).

Gray areas hosts ask about: an Echo Dot 5 or Apple HomePod mini (no camera) is fine. A standalone smart speaker is not a camera. An indoor smart lock with a built-in camera, like some Lockly Visage models with the keypad-facing camera, is treated as an indoor camera and is prohibited. A camera mounted outdoors but pointed through a window into the house is treated as indoor and prohibited. A camera in a detached garage is outdoor and allowed if disclosed.

What is allowed, with proper disclosure

Outdoor security cameras like the Ring Stick Up Cam, Eufy SoloCam S340, Arlo Pro 5S, or Blink Outdoor 4 on the front door, driveway, side yard, backyard not covering hot tubs, and any common entry points. Doorbell cameras like the Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2, Google Nest Doorbell (battery), or Eufy Video Doorbell E340.

Noise decibel monitors like Minut, NoiseAware, or Roost — these measure sound pressure levels but do not record speech. Smart locks with no camera (Schlage Encode Plus, Yale Assure Lock 2, August Wi-Fi Smart Lock 4th gen). Outdoor floodlight cameras, including the Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro and Eufy Floodlight Cam 2 Pro, are also fine. All of these must appear in your listing’s description and in your house rules before booking, not buried in your check-in instructions sent after.

How to disclose correctly

Open your listing in Airbnb host tools and go to Listing details → Safety considerations.
Toggle on ‘Exterior security camera(s) present’ and ‘Noise decibel monitor present’ if applicable. The platform now requires the camera location to be specified.
For each camera, write a short description of where it is and what it covers, e.g., ‘Doorbell camera at front entry, covers porch and walkway only. No interior view.’
Add the same disclosure to the listing description (the long-form text guests read), in the house rules, and in your house manual.
Walk the property after install and verify each camera’s field of view from a guest’s eye level. If you can see into a window, reposition.

Common ways hosts get this wrong

Leaving an old indoor camera disconnected but still mounted. Guests see it and assume it’s recording. Take it down.
Disclosing only in the welcome message. The 2024 rule says before booking, not after. After-booking disclosure isn’t enough.
Outdoor camera angled too aggressively. A driveway camera that catches the inside of the front living room through a window is treated as an indoor camera.
Smart displays with cameras left in the unit. Even covered, they violate the rule. Swap to an Echo Dot 5 or remove the device.
Two-way audio left enabled on doorbell cameras. Talking to a guest through your Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 is creepy and creates a complaint trail. Disable two-way audio for the duration of stays.

Practical safety setup that respects the rules

The setup that works for most hosts: one Ring or Nest doorbell camera at the front door, one Eufy or Arlo outdoor camera covering the driveway and main approach, optional outdoor floodlight cam at the side or back yard, a Minut or NoiseAware decibel monitor in a central interior location for noise complaints, and a Schlage Encode Plus or Yale Assure Lock 2 for keyless entry. That stack catches package theft, lets you verify check-in and checkout, gives you legitimate evidence if there’s a noise issue, and never sees inside the home.

It also looks reasonable to a guest reading your disclosure — protecting the property, not surveilling them. Inside the property the only smart devices are voice-only Echo Dots or HomePod minis, an Ecobee Premium or Google Nest Learning Thermostat, smart bulbs, and the lock keypad. No camera anywhere a guest could look up and feel watched. If you want the cleaner-arrival timestamp without an indoor camera, the doorbell event log paired with the Google Calendar cleaner workflow gives you the same evidence trail with none of the privacy footprint.

How camera rules connect to your team workflow

Hosts who get reported usually aren’t the ones with cameras — they’re the ones with confused team workflows where a cleaner mentions a ‘camera’ that’s actually an Echo Dot, or a co-host installs something the host didn’t approve. The fix is documenting the device list in the same place your team gets booking alerts.

If you already use the short-term rental team workflow architecture, pin a ‘devices on site’ note in your Slack #general channel listing every camera, doorbell, lock, sensor, and speaker by model and location. Train your cleaners with the turnover text message template so they know to flag any unfamiliar device they spot during cleaning, before a guest does.

Host checklist

Walk every room and remove any camera, smart display with camera, or webcam.
Verify outdoor cameras don’t capture interior windows, hot tubs, or outdoor showers.
Toggle on the relevant disclosures in the Airbnb listing’s safety considerations.
Add disclosure language to listing description, house rules, and house manual.
Disable two-way audio on doorbells during stays.
Confirm noise monitors are decibel-only and don’t record audio.
Pin a device inventory note in your team’s Slack or shared doc so co-hosts and cleaners can confirm what’s allowed to be there.
Re-check this list any time you swap or add a device.

Frequently asked questions

Are any indoor cameras still allowed under the new policy?

No. The 2024 Airbnb camera rules ban all indoor security cameras with no exceptions, including ones that are unplugged, covered, or disclosed. The only path to an indoor camera is to remove it from any space guests can access. A camera in a fully separate, locked owner’s closet that guests have no access to is in a different category, but it cannot be in any room a guest could enter.

Does the policy cover noise monitors and smart locks too?

Noise decibel monitors are allowed and must be disclosed. They cannot record audio of conversations — only sound pressure levels — which is how Minut, NoiseAware, and Roost are designed. Smart locks without cameras (Schlage Encode Plus, Yale Assure Lock 2, August Wi-Fi) are completely fine and don’t need a special disclosure beyond mentioning keyless entry. Smart locks with built-in cameras are treated as indoor cameras and are prohibited.

What happens if a guest reports an undisclosed camera?

Airbnb takes these reports seriously. The standard response is an investigation, and if confirmed, removal of the listing for first-time policy violations and account suspension for repeat offenses. The platform has been more aggressive about enforcement since the 2024 update. The simplest defense is overdisclosure — mention every outdoor camera, doorbell, and noise monitor in writing before the booking is made.

Can I install a camera inside between guest stays for cleaning oversight?

The policy applies to the listing, not just guest stays. A camera mounted indoors between stays still counts as an indoor camera if a guest could ever encounter it. If you want oversight on cleaning, use a checkout-triggered photo submission from cleaners (the Zapier cleaner notification flow handles this cleanly), a smart-lock unlock log from a Schlage Encode or Yale Assure Lock 2, or motion sensors that don’t record imagery. Those are all allowed and disclosed only as standard smart-home devices.

What about a Ring or Nest doorbell that records audio of people walking up?

Doorbell cameras with audio are allowed at the front entry as long as you disclose them and don’t use them for two-way conversations with guests during their stay. The audio is incidental to the doorbell’s primary function. The line you can’t cross: no concealed audio recording in interior spaces, and no using the doorbell mic to listen in on conversations on the porch or in the entry hall.

Next steps

Walk through your property today and inventory every camera, smart display, and webcam. Take down anything indoor before the next stay, then update your listing disclosures the same day. The broader privacy-safe monitoring approach we recommend for short-term rentals walks through the full hardware stack — doorbells, outdoor cameras, noise monitors, and smart locks — in the order most hosts should buy them.