The Voyeur Motel | AirBnB Hidden Cameras - True Crime - EP 01
What if your hotel room wasn’t private? What if someone was watching — and no one stopped them?
This episode tells the true crime story of the “voyeur motel,” and what happened when it finally came to light. But we also look beyond that one case — into the hidden camera economy, the spy tech supply chain, the legal gray zones, and the normalization of being watched.
From hotel ceilings to Airbnb bathrooms, from Shenzhen factories to affiliate blogs, this is the story of how surveillance got boring. And why that might be the scariest part.
Credits:"Music by Alexander Nakarada / https://www.creatorchords.com"
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“He built a system to observe strangers without their knowledge.
And in the end, he got a byline and a documentary deal.”
Summary:
In 1969, a man named Gerald Foos bought a motel.
Then he cut holes in the ceiling, installed fake air vents, and spent the next decade spying on his guests from the attic. He kept notes. Hundreds of pages. Some were graphic. Some were just sad. He called it research.
This episode starts with Foos — but it doesn’t stop there.
Because voyeurism isn’t just a one-man motel story.
It’s a business. A fetish. A power trip. And in far too many cases… a feature, not a bug.
From short-term rentals to spycam websites, we look at how surveillance has gone mainstream — and why the people who do it almost never get caught.
In This Episode:
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The true story of “The Voyeur’s Motel” — and what came after
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Real-life hidden camera cases in Airbnbs and hotels
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The psychology of voyeurism and the people behind the lens
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How the surveillance tech industry profits from silence
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What the law says (and doesn’t say) about being filmed without consent
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Why it keeps happening — and why most victims never know
Takeaway:
This isn’t just a story about one man and one motel.
It’s about how easy it is to watch people —
and how hard it is to stop them.
Sources:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/11/gay-talese-the-voyeurs-motel
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1801
https://dig.watch/resource/video-voyeurism-prevention-act
https://www.congress.gov/bill/108th-congress/senate-bill/1301
https://www.vogue.com/article/voyeur-netflix-documentary-review-gay-talese
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Foos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyeur_(film)
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/may/27/secret-spy-cameras-voyeurism-uk
https://www.wired.com/story/airbnb-indoor-security-camera-ban/
https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/scottsdale-airbnb-found-hidden-camera-family-files-lawsuit
https://www.azfamily.com/2025/04/10/family-sues-after-finding-hidden-camera-scottsdale-airbnb/
https://www.weau.com/2025/05/24/guest-finds-hidden-camera-inside-smoke-detector-airbnb/
https://gdprbuzz.com/news/amazon-under-fire-for-selling-hidden-spy-cameras/
https://www.kgglaw.com/class-action/kgg-investigating-amazon/
https://9to5mac.com/2024/07/10/hidden-cameras-in-airbnb-properties/
https://reolink.com/blog/are-hidden-cameras-illegal/
https://www.theregreview.org/2021/11/18/kwan-fu-regulating-sale-use-hidden-cameras/
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.00610