A hotel room is not a rental. Staff come and go, the rooms are standardized, the public areas have security cameras, and the Wi-Fi is shared with other guests. None of this is a reason to distrust every room, but hidden cameras in hotel rooms do happen.
In March 2019, police in South Korea said about 1,600 people had been secretly filmed in 42 rooms at 30 accommodations in 10 cities. The cameras were hidden inside digital TV boxes, wall sockets and hairdryer holders, and the footage was live-streamed online for paying customers. Police said there was no indication that the businesses themselves were involved, according to CNN’s report of March 20, 2019.
That is the reason a quick check makes sense even in a well-run hotel: a device can be planted by someone who only had access to the room for a while.
What’s normal in a hotel, and what isn’t
Expect security cameras in a hotel’s lobby, hallways and restaurant. Even Airbnb’s rules, which ban indoor cameras in homes, allow hotel listings to have cameras that monitor indoor common spaces such as lobbies, hallways and restaurants (Airbnb, March 11, 2024).
The guest room and its bathroom are the part to check. A camera there is not a normal feature, and you should report it.
The 10-minute hotel room check
Do this before you unpack, so you know what was there before your things were.
1. Look at what faces the bed, desk and shower
Stand by the bed, at the desk and in the bathroom, and look at what has a clear view of you. In a hotel room, that usually means:
- the TV and any box beside or under it;
- the smoke detector and other ceiling fittings;
- the alarm clock;
- wall sockets, plug-in adapters and anything charging;
- lamps, artwork and air vents;
- in the bathroom: the hairdryer holder, shelves, vents and anything facing the shower or toilet.
On each, look for a pinhole or a small dark glass dot that isn’t part of the normal design. Our guide to where hidden cameras are hidden covers each spot in more detail.
2. Check sockets and plugged-in devices
Note anything plugged in that you didn’t bring and that doesn’t look like part of the room’s standard fittings: an extra adapter, a charger with no cable, a power strip behind the TV. Don’t unplug or open it if it looks suspicious.
3. Do a flashlight sweep in the dark
Close the blackout curtains and switch off the lights. Hold your phone’s flashlight close to your eyes and scan slowly. A lens can throw the light back as a small, sharp point.
Sweep from where a camera would be aimed, not from the door. Researchers behind the LAPD study (SenSys 2021) found that lens reflections are only visible within about 10 degrees of the direction the camera is pointing. So sweep while lying on the bed, sitting at the desk and standing in the shower. Walk up to every glint and see what made it.
4. Check for night-vision glow
Night-vision cameras use infrared light. The TV remote in the room makes the self-test easy:
- Open the Camera app and switch to the front camera.
- Point the remote at it and press a button.
- If the screen shows a flicker, that camera can see infrared. Many phones block infrared on the rear camera but have little or no infrared filter on the front one, so test both.
With the room dark, pan the camera that passed the test slowly around the room. Look for small bright spots that no light in the room explains.
5. Check Bluetooth, mainly for trackers
A Bluetooth scan in a hotel room can pick up many of your neighbors’ devices, and it is more useful for trackers than for cameras. If your iPhone shows an alert such as “AirTag Found Moving With You”, Apple’s instructions are to tap the alert and play a sound to find the item. Our car tracker guide explains these alerts.
6. Don’t rely on the Wi-Fi scan
At home or in a rental, a list of devices on the Wi-Fi network can reveal a camera. In a hotel, it usually can’t, because guest networks can use “client isolation”. Cisco Meraki’s documentation describes it as a feature that “prevents wireless clients from communicating with one another” and calls it useful for guest networks.
On such a network, a scanner may show only your phone and the router. That proves nothing, and a camera could be on a separate network or recording to a memory card anyway. Read why in can your phone detect hidden cameras?
If something looks wrong
- Don’t touch it. Leave it plugged in and closed.
- Photograph it in place, close up and from a distance, so the photos show where it points.
- Call the front desk and ask for the duty manager. Ask to move to a different room.
- Report it to the police. Note the names of the staff you spoke to and the times.
Keep your own copies of everything. The full steps, including what changes between a hotel, a rental and your own home, are in what to do if you find a hidden camera.
Hotel room or rental: what changes
| Hotel room | Short-term rental | |
|---|---|---|
| Cameras in shared areas | Normal in lobbies and hallways | Airbnb and Vrbo ban them inside the home |
| Wi-Fi device scan | Rarely useful (client isolation) | Useful, with limits |
| Who to tell first | Duty manager, then police | Platform and police |
| Easy fix | Ask for another room | Leave and ask for rebooking |
For rentals, see the rental check-in routine.
What this check can’t promise
A lens that doesn’t face you won’t glint. A camera without night vision, or with its infrared off, won’t glow. A device hidden inside something you didn’t think to check can be missed. A clean result means these checks found nothing. It doesn’t prove the room is empty.
SpyOff, our upcoming iPhone app, walks you through these hotel checks one at a time and says what each one can’t see.
AirTag and iPhone are trademarks of Apple Inc.
Questions
How do I check a hotel room for hidden cameras?
Before you unpack, look at everything that faces the bed, desk and shower, especially the TV and any box beside it, smoke detector, clock, sockets, lamps and bathroom fittings. Then darken the room for a flashlight sweep and a night-vision check with a phone camera that passed the TV-remote test.
Can I scan hotel Wi-Fi to find hidden cameras?
Usually not in a useful way. Guest networks can use client isolation, which stops devices on the network from communicating with each other, so a scanner may show only your phone and the router. An empty list proves nothing.
Is it normal to see cameras in hotel hallways and lobbies?
Yes. Cameras in lobbies, hallways and restaurants are common, and even Airbnb, which bans indoor cameras in homes, lets hotel listings monitor indoor common spaces like these. A camera inside your room or bathroom is different: report it to the manager and the police.
Sources
- Hundreds of hotel guests were secretly filmed and live-streamed online (CNN Wire via WTKR, March 20, 2019)
- An update on our policy on security cameras (Airbnb Newsroom, March 11, 2024)
- Wireless Client Isolation (Cisco Meraki Documentation)
- LAPD: Hidden Spy Camera Detection using Smartphone Time-of-Flight Sensors (SenSys 2021)
- Make the Invisible Visible (Carolina Biological Supply, December 10, 2020)
- What to do if you get an alert that an AirTag, set of AirPods, Find My network accessory, or compatible Bluetooth location-tracking device is with you (Apple Support, September 24, 2026)