Wifi Cameras to help enforcing House rules

[Kevin Lefeuvre]

Hello all!

Due to a bad experience I am finally decided to install cameras, but want to keep them simple. Here's what I ideally need for each property:

- Two or max 3 cameras mainly to cover the entrance and the parking area.

- WiFi only

- ideally solar to avoid any cable 

- ideally directly streamed to the cloud with no local storage

- real-time access would be nice otherwise videos accessible with 10 min delay or so. Access via Android mobile.

I'd love to know if you have seen or maybe installed anything close to my description.

Also any legal issue/risk you have encountered when you want to use the content of the recordings to enforce your house rules such as the number of guests, overnight stays, smoking, or other rules?

Thanks!

[Julie McCoy]

You want Ring.  EVERYTHING you just asked for.  I love mine.  (I have the Floodlight Cam which is hard-wired where another exterior light used to be, but they have a solar option also)  You'll just want to make sure there's a strong and consistent wifi signal (I believe minimum 5mpbs) so there are no hiccups with uploading to the cloud.  You'll get instant notifications on your phone if you like, and can pull up the live feed anytime.  Great at night, too.

AirBNB requires you to disclose that you have surveillance on the property, but I know of owners that have successfully used their video as evidence to support claims against guests.

[Jon Crosby]

@Kevin Lefeuvre, I agree with @Julie McCoy on this one as Ring has really done a nice job perfecting this particular market and need.  For $100/year you get their full monitoring and cloud solution package I think which isn't bad at all.  

I have had exterior cameras at my STR for years, but I'm very clear about disclosing them in the contract as well as rules about 'tampering' with them. Just make sure you are not recording any audio (especially in California) and make sure none are inadvertently pointing inside the home.

Best of luck and sorry you had a bad experience that requires these now.

Cheers

[Paul Sandhu]

I'm pretty satisfied with Arlo.  It pretty much meets your requirements except it runs off a battery, not solar.  Batteries last about 6 months.  I have 3 Arlo's at my own residence.  I put Zmodo's in my rentals, they face the HDTV.

[Luke Carl]

Coming from the bar business I’m afraid to go with cameras. When bar owners I knew got cameras they obsessed over them. It became their own personal reality show and it’s all they watched.

Now I’m in the vacation rental business and I have the same concerns. If I had only one property I would be all about it. But with 5 and up to 20 guests per day I think this would be troublesome. It would cost several hundred to get up and running and for what? To catch my guests sneaking in a dog every other month? We can tell that by cleaning up dog hair.

Each of my houses have cameras mounted on the front porches. They’re either fake or from a previous owner. Maybe I’ll add a sign that says “smile you’re on camera” and leave out the “but no one can see you”

I may change my mind later we shall see.

As far as actually going for it..... Paul Sandhu used Julie McCoy are never wrong

[Jenessa NeSmith]

I second the ring. They are pretty cheap to purchase and they stored footage on the cloud. Yes, you would be able to tell someone snuck in a dog by the hair in the house, but if you want the guests to pay for extra cleaning fees it helps to have photographic evidence. I also imagine it coming in handy for potential liability, for example if a guest makes a claim that their car was broken into, or if your house is ever broken into.

Airbnb has a place in the listing where you put if and where you have surveillance cameras. It is also nice knowing that people have checked in.

Bottom line, Rings are not that expensive and not that much hassle, and could potentially save you big bucks if there is ever a claim made by you or a guest.

[Account Closed]

Not sure how previous poster is getting 6m from Arlo batteries. I get about 12 days from my rechargeables. That’s in the cold also though. Black & white and long battery life mode (low res). It’s short enough I wouldn’t consider them for a rental, way too much time input required.

[Paul Sandhu]

@Account Closed  The Arlo's take 4 batteries each.  They are not a standard size like AA, AAA, C or D.  They are a little shorter than a 9 volt but round (not square).  We've had Arlo's for 2 years and I've changed the batteries 3 times.  I've never been impressed by the life of rechargeable batteries, perhaps that why you are getting only 12 days of use from them.

[Account Closed]

I know what batteries they take, I’ve run disposable and rechargeable and haven’t noticed much of a difference (though I did have a rechargeable one with a dead short after a few weeks).

[Kevin Lefeuvre]

Thanks everyone for the input.

I'm checking/testing now.
We should add Nest to the list of good cameras, I think.
To be honest, I am surprised to learn that in this niche market they manage to sell rather expensive cameras full price and then require a non negligible subscription to a proprietary cloud while video cloud storage is free (Google Photos or videos or YouTube private), or very inexpensive (Amazon WS). Live video recording is now a commodity, isn't it?  I guess someone will disrupt this market soon with open/standard video formats on one's own private cloud storage (Google, Apple, Amazon,...).

[Account Closed]

Check out the ubiquity stuff... they’ve got great pieces!

[John D.]

     We use Nest in our homes.  Not cheap, but they work well for us.  Our average nightly rental rate is many times the cost of a camera, so the cost isn't something that impacts our numbers.  We do wire each one for power, I'd rather do that then worry about running around replacing batteries.

[Kevin Lefeuvre]

Originally posted by @John D.:

     We use Nest in our homes.  Not cheap, but they work well for us.  Our average nightly rental rate is many times the cost of a camera, so the cost isn't something that impacts our numbers.  We do wire each one for power, I'd rather do that then worry about running around replacing batteries.

 Thanks John. 

Regarding the cost my point was not about the value. Like saying that in our daily life we can't live without an email services, it's extremely valuable, but there's no reason for an email services to be expensive and they're not. Hotmail was the one who disrupted the market long time ago. These cameras pricing and the video hosting services are a bit crazy, but valuable.

[Kevin Lefeuvre]

Thanks everyone for your input. This comment is to feedback with what I did.

I actually revisited my criteria:

- Since I wanted mainly to cover the entrance and the parking area, it's always possible to find a spot to cover the front of the property from a window (cam inside) or from under a porch. So I went with just one camera per property. (I just want to know the real occupancy and generally who's getting in and out of the properties).

- WiFi only

- Can be connected to elec outlet since it's either inside or close

- ideally directly streamed to the cloud with no local storage

- real-time access would be nice otherwise videos accessible with 10 min delay or so. Access via Android mobile.

- Not willing to add yet a recurring cost

-----------------

With the above I went with Wyzecam, a recent startup building cute little cameras, wifi connected, 1080, night vision, extremely clear pictures, real-time stream, motion detecting with sensitivity adjustment, sound detection, 24-hour sliding recordings, all for $20 with no subscription needed. I have them installed very easily and setup within minutes in 2 properties since a few weeks now and I am happy. 

The cherry on top of the cake is the interesting feature when combined with Google photos: With the google photos sync on my phone, the notifications with 12 sec videos get recorded on the phone and automatically synced to the unlimited google photos cloud, making them available permanently!

[John D.]

Hi Kevin, I have no idea what your post quoted below means, but happy you appear to have found a solution that works for you.  Cameras mounted indoors definitely give you more options.  Sounds like you are more cost sensitive in your operations as compared to some others in this thread, which likely makes sense for you if you have a different property profile.

"Regarding the cost my point was not about the value. Like saying that in our daily life we can't live without an email services, it's extremely valuable, but there's no reason for an email services to be expensive and they're not. Hotmail was the one who disrupted the market long time ago. These cameras pricing and the video hosting services are a bit crazy, but valuable.

[Les Jean-Pierre]

Hi, I installed Blink Cameras. They are great. Cheap and easy to set up. The only thing is you have to watch the distance of the cameras from he base.