Security cameras and short lets are an awkward pairing: the property stands empty between bookings and is full of strangers during them, yet guests have an absolute right to privacy. The good news is the rules are now clear, and a host who follows them gets both — a watched property and happy guests. Here's the practical version.
This is general guidance, not legal advice — platform policies and data-protection rules change, so check the current versions before relying on them.
Rule 1: no indoor cameras. None.
Airbnb banned indoor security cameras in all listings worldwide in 2024 — including in shared spaces, and regardless of whether they're disclosed or switched off. Other major platforms take materially the same position. Hidden cameras were never permitted anywhere. If you currently have an indoor camera at a short let, remove it: it risks delisting, and in the UK covert recording of guests can create legal exposure well beyond a platform ban.
Rule 2: outdoor cameras are allowed — if you disclose them
Cameras covering the exterior — parking area, entrance, gate, garden boundary — are permitted, provided they're declared in your listing so guests can see them before booking. Airbnb also expects you not to monitor indoor spaces through windows and to avoid areas with a heightened expectation of privacy (an outdoor shower, an in-use hot tub).
The workable formula for UK hosts is a sentence in the listing and house guide: "An outdoor security camera covers the parking area and entrance gate." In practice most guests read a disclosed outdoor camera as the mark of a well-run property, not a red flag.
Rule 3: UK data protection still applies outside
ICO guidance on domestic CCTV is straightforward to follow: point cameras at your own property rather than the neighbour's garden or the public highway, put up a small CCTV notice, don't record audio of people who haven't been told, keep footage only as long as you need it, and be able to say who can view it (you, your co-host, your cleaner — not a group chat). Follow those and an exterior camera at a holiday let sits comfortably within the rules.
What this looks like done properly
- One camera on the parking area or gate — it answers the questions that actually matter: have guests left, has the next lot arrived, how many vehicles turned up for a "party of two".
- Disclosed in the listing, signed at the gate. Disclosure is the compliance step and half the deterrent.
- Independent of the guest WiFi. A camera on the house broadband dies every time a guest reboots the router — and puts your security kit on a network guests use. A 4G camera runs on its own multi-network SIM, completely separate from anything guests touch.
- Solar powered where there's no outdoor socket. The Solar 360 Mini mounts on a gate post or outbuilding with no wiring, records locally to its own card (no cloud subscription), and shares access with your cleaner or co-host through the app.
Why disclosed cameras protect hosts too
The same camera that deters an off-season break-in also documents the things platforms and insurers ask hosts to evidence: the arrival that didn't match the booking, the van on the drive at 2am, the state of the parking area at checkout. Timestamped exterior footage — legitimately captured and disclosed — is what turns a dispute into a resolution.
The five-minute compliance checklist
- No cameras indoors, anywhere, ever
- Exterior camera(s) covering your own parking, entrances and grounds only
- Declared in the listing and house guide
- CCTV notice at the property
- Named people with app access; footage kept briefly, then gone
We wrote a full siting guide for holiday properties — security cameras for holiday lets & Airbnbs — and if your setup is unusual, ask our UK team and we'll tell you straight what's compliant and what isn't.