The Best Security Camera for Your Airbnb

If you are an Airbnb host looking for a quick answer, the best security camera for your property is a weatherproof, wireless camera with reliable local storage—specifically, the Wyze Battery Cam Pro paired with a solar panel, which requires zero maintenance between guest stays.

However, deciding which camera to buy is only half the battle; you also have to know where you are allowed to put it. The idea of a camera in an Airbnb is not without controversy. A whole range of Airbnb owners might want a camera watching the premises, from the morally upstanding folks at one end that just want a camera to protect their Airbnb, to the much more questionable fellas at the other end who just want an Airbnb so they can install a camera.

We’re obviously not here to help the latter crowd. And it shouldn’t matter anyway, since Airbnb hasn't allowed indoor cameras in any position, for any reason, since April 2024. Violation risks delisting. So if you came here wondering about the best camera to keep an eye on the living room, we’re sorry to be the bearers of bad news.

What you can have—what you should have, in fact—are outdoor cameras. Doorbell cameras, driveway cameras, cameras covering entrances and parking areas. These are not only permitted, they're encouraged. And they're genuinely useful. Most of what Airbnb hosts actually worry about happens outside anyway: who's arriving? how many of them are there? Is the group that booked four people unloading twelve sleeping bags?

You just have to disclose the cameras in your listing. That's it. One sentence in your property description, and you're covered.

So let's find the best outdoor camera for you.

What an Airbnb Host Needs 

The concerns that come up over and over in host forums and review threads are pretty consistent, and they point directly to the features that matter most: 

The Cameras 

The outdoor camera world breaks down the same way the indoor world does: you can go with a fixed camera pointed at a specific spot, or a pan and tilt camera that covers a wider area. For Airbnb purposes, both can be useful. A fixed camera over the front door is simple, discreet, and does the job. A pan cam covering the driveway and the front of the property gives you more of the story. 

There’s also a third camera type worth considering here: the floodlight cam. More on those below. 

A quick note about power. This really is the big question for you, and it has two parts: 

Solar-powered cams are worth a serious look here. A camera that runs on solar needs exactly zero maintenance between stays. No battery swaps, no check-ins, no awkward requests to a guest to please plug in the camera. It just runs. For remote hosts, that's a game changer. 

With that in mind, we’ll be drawing your attention to solar options as we survey the field. 

Option 1: Fixed Battery Cams 

There’s chart number one, and here’s what jumps out. 

Ring. We know. Same old same old. But the storage situation is worth calling out: standalone Ring cameras have no built-in local storage slots. If your wifi goes down, or a guest unplugs your router, you have no footage. To get local storage out of a Ring ecosystem, you have to buy a $250 Ring Alarm Pro Base Station, supply your own microSD card, and pay for a monthly subscription. In a dispute, if you haven't bought into that expensive secondary hardware, your whole case is gone. Ring's Spotlight Cam Pro costs $200, more than twice what Wyze charges, and out of the box, it can’t give you evidence you can actually own. 

Blink will store footage locally, but only if you also buy their Sync Module 2 for $35. It's not a dealbreaker, but it means the camera isn't ready to work out of the box. Arlo has the same problem at a significantly higher price. Their local storage requires a $100 SmartHub before the first frame saves anywhere you control. 

Eufy's SoloCam S220 is interesting. It's solar-powered, stores footage locally on built-in memory with no subscription required, and has the highest outdoor rating of any camera on the chart. (You can submerge this baby in water! Great if you’re in a tsunami zone.) For hosts who specifically want solar and no monthly fees, it shows up on a lot of recommended lists. The limitation is cloud storage: by default, the standalone S220 has none. If a guest steals the camera—which does happen—they stole your footage, too, unless you drop another $150 on a HomeBase hub. For an Airbnb use case where dispute documentation is the whole point, a camera with a high barrier to cloud backup is carrying real risk. 

The Wyze Battery Cam Pro is $89.98, runs approximately six months on a single charge, and has a $25 solar panel add-on that eliminates charging entirely. It shoots 2.5K HDR, delivers genuine color night vision without needing to keep a spotlight blazing, stores footage locally on microSD, backs it up to the cloud via subscription if you want it, has a 99dB siren, two-way audio, and is IP65-rated for outdoor use. It is the only camera in this comparison that checks every box on the criteria we’ve established. 

Pair it with the solar panel and you have a camera that requires zero attention, stores footage somewhere you own, and costs less than Ring's hardware alone. 

Option 2: Pan Cams 

The argument for a pan cam in a home security context usually involves chasing pets or toddlers around a living room. For Airbnb, it’s even stronger: one camera that can cover the driveway, the walkway, the entrance, and swing toward the street when something triggers it is simply more property covered per dollar. For hosts managing remotely, a pan cam at the front of the property can do the surveillance work of two or three fixed cameras. 

So what do we think? 

Arlo launched an outdoor pan cam in late 2025: the Essential Pan Tilt Security Camera. It's a legitimately capable camera. 2K, 360° pan, auto motion tracking, weather-resistant, $59.99. It belongs in this conversation. It also has the same “no local storage without the $100 SmartHub,” that has been Arlo's answer to every question about storage. If you need local storage and you’re interested in an Arlo camera, just add a hundred bucks to the price tag. Always. It’s that simple. Moving on. 

Tapo makes an outdoor pan cam with solid specs at a low price. But that low price tag has its own price tag. Two of them actually: quality and security. Tapo pan cams have a history of bad reviews around clunky panning that struggles to follow the action. More importantly, Tapo has serious national security allegations against its parent company, facing investigations from U.S. lawmakers over cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Moving on. 

The Eufy SoloCam S340 is the most interesting camera Eufy makes. Solar-powered, IP67-rated, dual-lens system with wide-angle and telephoto coverage, pan-and-tilt, free person and vehicle detection with no subscription required. It earns genuine respect. The storage problem follows it here, though. Local storage is fixed at 8GB and can't be expanded or backed up to the cloud without adding a HomeBase hub for $150. Even worse than Arlo, you’ll be $350 into the setup before you’ve shot a frame with proper failsafes. For a camera whose entire value in an Airbnb context is producing evidence, a hard cap on storage and an expensive gateway for a failsafe is a serious problem. 

The Wyze Solar Cam Pan is solar-powered with an integrated panel that needs just one hour of sunlight per day. It's 2K, pan-and-tilt, color night vision, microSD local storage, cloud backup via subscription, two-way audio, and a siren. It covers the whole front of your property, runs itself on sunlight, and stores footage in two places. At a fraction of the S340's total cost, and without the storage ceiling. 

Option 3: Floodlight Cams 

There’s a third player in the world of outdoor cams, and we’d be remiss not to spend some time with it. A floodlight camera, mounted above the garage or an entrance, that blasts 3,000 lumens of light the moment someone walks up the driveway. It ain’t subtle. There are cameras in this world who don’t even want you to know they’re there, and there are cameras who feel they’ve failed if you don’t. That’s floodlight. 

Floodlight cams are a great way of saying, “Hello. I see you there,” to people who are considering doing something stupid. You can decide for yourself whether that’s too aggressive for just saying hello to a guest. 

One big note on installation: unlike battery and solar cameras, floodlight cameras are hardwired into your house. They replace an existing exterior light fixture. On the plus side, that means a one-time installation and then they run on house power indefinitely. On the minus side, unlike with solar and batteries, if someone cuts your power, the camera stops working, too. 

Ring and Blink, as has become something of a theme in this article, are easy to dispense with. Ring's Floodlight Cam Pro costs $220 and won't save a frame of footage locally without investing in their $250 Base Station plus a subscription. It has become almost impressively consistent in its ability to charge more and do less out of the box. Blink's wired floodlight is a more reasonable $100 but tops out at 1080p, which we already decided wasn’t enough. 

Arlo's Pro 3 Floodlight is around $250, battery-powered rather than hardwired, and still requires the $100 SmartHub for local storage. Respectable camera, but again, if you care about storage and you like Arlo, just add a hundred dollars to the price. Always. 

The Eufy Floodlight Cam E340 is the real competition here. It has a dual-lens system with one wide-angle 3K sensor covering the full scene, and one telephoto lens that can zoom in on faces and license plates with nice clarity. It’s also a bit of a pan cam, includes free AI detection without a subscription, and has built-in local storage. It's hard to argue with the specs. At $220, it costs a fair bit more than Wyze, but let’s call it the legit fancy option. It earns its premium status in raw capability. 

For most Airbnb hosts, though, the Wyze Floodlight Pro is the answer. At an MSRP of $149.99, Wyze Floodlight Pro is the brightest camera on the chart: 3,000 lumens, spread across three integrated LED panels, with a 180° field of view that covers the entire property without a blind spot. It shoots 2.5K, has color night vision, a 100dB siren, two-way audio, microSD local storage, and no required subscription. It delivers on everything an Airbnb host could need or want, significantly undercutting the pricing of its fiercest competitors. 

Conclusion 

Once you clear away the indoor factor, finding the best Airbnb camera turns out to be surprisingly easy. You need weatherproof, wireless cameras that store footage reliably and ask as little of you as possible between guests. For a fixed camera with zero maintenance, the Wyze Battery Cam Pro with the solar panel add-on is the answer. For broader property coverage, the Wyze Solar Cam Pan handles the whole front of the property on sunlight alone. And for a permanent installation that deters problems before they start, the Wyze Cam Floodlight Pro puts 3,000 lumens on the situation at a notably lower price point than the rest of the premium market. 

Three great cameras and three great ways from Wyze to get some security and peace of mind without ruining your relationship with your guests. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Do I have to disclose outdoor cameras on my Airbnb listing? Yes. Airbnb’s policy strictly requires all hosts to disclose the presence of any exterior security cameras or recording devices in their listing description, regardless of whether they are currently turned on or actively recording.

2. Can I install a camera in a living room or hallway if I fully disclose it to guests? No. As of April 2024, Airbnb completely banned all indoor cameras. You cannot have an indoor camera in any position or for any reason, even if it is turned off, unplugged, or listed in your property description. Violating this rule can result in your property being permanently removed from the platform.

3. What happens to my security footage if the Airbnb's Wi-Fi goes down? This depends entirely on the brand of camera you choose. Cloud-only cameras will stop recording altogether without an internet connection. However, cameras equipped with local storage options (like the Wyze Battery Cam Pro or Wyze Solar Cam Pan) will continue to monitor your property and save the video directly to their built-in microSD cards, ensuring you still have the footage you need when the network comes back online.