This guide is for travellers booking a holiday flat or house who need the camera rules. It covers Airbnb’s policy since April 2024, Booking.com’s customer terms, Spanish law, arrival checks and what to do if a device should not be there. A platform rule protects you only when compliance is easy to verify. Airbnb simplified the first part by banning indoor cameras; checking that ban remains the guest’s task.
- Airbnb bans indoor cameras: from 30 April 2024, no camera or recorder may watch interiors, even off.
- Booking.com is silent: terms reviewed on 23 October 2026 mention neither cameras nor video surveillance.
- Article 197: makes non-consensual privacy invasion punishable by one to four years in prison.
- Gadgets count: baby monitors, camera doorbells and smart-speaker microphones are recording devices for Airbnb.
Platform rules: a ban and a silence
Inside a holiday home, Airbnb bans cameras. Since 30 April 2024, any camera or recorder monitoring interiors is forbidden, on or off, including hallways, bedrooms, bathrooms and living rooms; disconnected devices count, and private-room bookings extend the ban to shared areas. Hidden cameras were always prohibited.
A recording device is any equipment that captures or transmits video, images or audio, including a baby monitor or camera doorbell. Outdoor cameras are allowed if declared with their location, as in
hay una cámara en el patio
, but not in private exterior areas such as an enclosed outdoor shower or sauna. Decibel meters, which measure noise without audio, can be indoors if declared and kept out of bedrooms, bathrooms and sleeping areas. Speakers and smart-home devices such as Alexa or Nest are allowed; Airbnb recommends naming them and offering disconnection, but does not require it. A narrow exception covers some hotel-licensed Japanese lodgings, where local law may require an interior entrance camera; Spain is unaffected.
Booking.com’s customer terms, reviewed on 23 October 2026, mention neither cameras nor video surveillance. Silence is not permission: no equivalent rule exists there, so legislation decides.
The legal line: crime and data protection
Spanish law has two layers: filming without consent in an intimate place, such as a bedroom or bathroom, may be a crime; business cameras must also follow data-protection rules. Article 197 of the Criminal Code punishes anyone who, to invade privacy and without consent, uses
artificios técnicos de escucha, transmisión, grabación o reproducción del sonido o de la imagen
. The penalty is one to four years in prison and a fine of twelve to twenty-four months, rising to two to five years if images are spread or given to third parties. A judge decides whether a case fits; it is not merely a platform breach.
For data protection, the AEPD’s February 2025 video-surveillance guide gives reference principles: images must be adequate, relevant and limited to the purpose; recording must be signposted visibly, at least at monitored entrances; footage must be deleted within one month unless passed to police or a court; and sections on schools and bathing areas exclude intimate spaces such as bathrooms, toilets and changing rooms. A camera inside a tourist flat is at least an Airbnb breach, and one aimed at a bedroom or bathroom may be criminal.
Checks, evidence and response
Before booking, read the listing: Airbnb hosts must declare outdoor cameras and noise meters, so an advert mentioning a camera
en el salón
already breaches the policy. On arrival, spend five minutes per room on objects aimed at the bed, shower or sofa without an obvious purpose: a charger with no cable, a bathroom alarm clock, a side-wall smoke detector or a speaker facing the bed. Cover or unplug anything doubtful, especially smart speakers, which Airbnb permits but which have a microphone. A camera doorbell or baby monitor counts as a recording device even if the host disagrees. Covert recording is not confined to rentals; the debate over Meta’s Ray-Ban LED that could be masked shows how far the
te estoy grabando
signal depends on design. No special equipment is needed.
If you find a camera, avoid unnecessary handling, document it and notify the platform; if it points at an intimate area, call the police. Order preserves evidence: photograph or film the device in place with enough context to show the room. Cover or disconnect it if you must stay the night, but do not dismantle it. Contact the platform in-app for a written record and ask for other accommodation or a refund. Report an intimate-space find to the Policía Nacional or Guardia Civil.
Clear bans need checking; guests should read listings and inspect every room.