Travel Dispatch: Hidden Cameras, Bedbugs and Robberies
Our advice columnist answers our readers’ worst hotel and Airbnb disasters.
Travel Dispatch
March 11, 2026

Can things really go so wrong? As if finding a hidden camera in your Airbnb or bedbugs in a luxury hotel isn’t enough to mar a well-planned trip, realizing your hosts aren’t planning to offer any recourse adds to the sting.

Responding to letters from readers at their wit’s end, our Tripped Up advice columnist, Seth Kugel, explains their consumer rights — and sometimes even helps them score a refund.

An illustration of an three-pronged electrical outlet with an open eye in the background.

Charlie Padgett

We found a hidden camera in the bathroom of our Airbnb

An illustration of a person in a sleeping bag atop a table with a suitcase on the floor nearby.

Miguel Porlan

We had to sleep in the hotel’s breakfast room. We would like a $215 refund.

An illustration of a welcome mat that has one corner folded up by a burglar holding a bag of money trying to make a quick getaway.

Charlie Padgett

Our Paris rental apartment was robbed and Airbnb won’t compensate us

An illustration of a man and a woman in bed with a sheet pulled up over most of their faces. Their eyes, visible above the sheet, are wide and look terrified. On the sheet, a giant bedbug with four claws casts a shadow.

Charlie Padgett

Bedbugs attacked us, and our luxury hotel won’t admit it

An illustration shows the arm of a person wearing a white short-sleeve shirt on the right arm-wrestling a figure on the left whose arm is blue and has a dotted line and whose hand is a blue credit card. The arm of the person on the right is gripping the credit card, and lines show that they are moving back and forth.

Matt Blease

The hotel had rodents, and our credit card won’t accept a dispute

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