They have a team of only 2 or 3 people. But for this, they want assurance that there is nobody else on the property and want any security cameras, Alexa, etc. disabled. This is what they say the project is for:
“We’re really interested in architecture’ . . . I work with a company called Exponent and we are going to be collecting data in a variety of different places. We would like to use this space for training and work purposes. We use equipment that collects photos, video, sound, and distance measurement data in unique environments. The equipment we use is proprietary, so we are looking for private locations to do this in.”
I would love to know why a project such as this requires such extreme secrecy. I have read their reviews. All but one host (and there were many) recommends them, say they are wonderful, and say they have left the property perfect. The one bad review says they have entered off-limits areas and locked some door without permission. So . . . none of this makes any sense to me.
They may be legit and require complete privacy but it’s not worth it IMHO. If they require absolute privacy, they will have to be for that- at least triple the amount.
I love turning weird requests back on guests so that they’re the ones who makes the decision to book, not me.
I would agree to all they want, but then add a fee for the effort you’re putting in to help them keep their product secret. Set the price to something that you feel balances out the potential worry and liability. If they say “no” then that’s on them.
I will let anybody do just about anything in my space, but there’s a price associated. If they don’t have the budget then I just say, “Your budget doesn’t seem to match your expectations. I’d be happy work with you, but that’s the value I apply to what I offer.”
These people might be renting your space to capture it as stock footage, stock 3-D modeling, or virtual background plates to be licensed by other third parties to use any way they wish in perpetuity.
Once your space is out there (virtually) and available for others to pull as a virtual background from some library somewhere, why would a potential client want to rent your space in the future for a real-world shoot when they can just license images, a room, a background plate of your house, studio or location from a third-party and shoot on a greenscreen stage at a much lower cost? You might just see the space that you have worked hard to create in some film or advertisement someday, only to find out that you signed away the rights to the 3D model years before. Just putting it out there…
I would be careful to make sure your contract and location agreement are rock-solid if you don’t want images of your space becoming a licensed product for others to profit from.
Also, I personally would never agree to leave my space alone or unmanaged to a renter. That would be a dealbreaker for me.
Or maybe they are legit and they are honestly “interested in architecture”, and the “data” they are collecting is indeed only for training and WORK purposes (whatever that means).
Vic: Stock footage hadn’t even occurred to me as a reason. But that makes sense.
Furthermore, I’m with you: I have no intention of leaving my home with to strangers, let alone with no recording devises to see what’s going on. That said, in their reviews (save one) they were generally raved about with 5 stars all around.
When I asked why all the secrecy (after I posted this post) their explanation was “It is due to the proprietary property of the equipment we will be using.”
Ha! That is a 100% hard NO for me. There is no reason why they couldn’t ask you to sign a confidentiality agreement to achieve the same protection for themselves. Asking you to shut off all cameras and have no one in the space… definitely absolutely a no in my book.
Speaking of odd requests, I keep getting a rental request though my main website - the same one every 6 months or so. It is a company in the United Arab Emirates that wants to do a 3 day music video shoot in my medical office. They want to rent all my video equipment (even though that is not offered on my site) and they just need to know exactly how much the rental equipment would cost and where to wire the money to so they can book ASAP. LOL. Sure thing! When I try looking up the company I can’t find anything on them and the name that signs the e-mail also happens to be the same name as the CEO of Microsoft. Ha. So many scams out there!
Just had another suggestion as to what this could be about: They are pretending to own the house and are collecting deposits from future buyers. However you look at it, it’s very strange. Needless to say, I’m with those who say it’s a hard no.
I get this too… both as a space owner and as a photographer. They sometimes come from someone posing as the photo editor for a big magazine — Elle, Vogue, etc.
One time I decided to play along. I answered all of their emails and sent the invoice (not via Peerspace). They actually FedEx a check to me. I tried to deposit it and it and, of course, it came back with an error. That’s when the scam started.
They wanted me to do something like wire them money so that our banks would understand that we were actually doing business together. After that, they would wire my money plus the payment for the shoot back to me.
I faked up a screenshot of a completed wire transfer from my bank to the account they gave me in Photoshop. They said they didn’t get it, I told them I sent it, but then the whole thing fell apart from there.
I ended up messaging one of the editors from Elle on LinkedIn telling him about it and how these scammer were using his name. He had no idea.
@Zoe_G Hi Zoe, @Vic_F Brought up something that did not cross my mind previously. Is this something that is prohibited in the location agreement to protect hosts? Thank you both!
During their Event, Guests may photograph, film, or otherwise record events when using Spaces and Amenities (“Event Recordings”). Except as expressly prohibited by federal, state, provincial, territorial, local or other Laws or as otherwise set forth in the Description or any Booking Agreement, you grant to any Guest that Books a Space a fully-paid, worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual license to use, copy, transmit, distribute, modify, publicly display, and sublicense Event Recordings that may include or identify the Space or Amenities.
If you have rules about how guests can use the content created in your space, this will need to be added to your host rules. You will then need to work with potential guests to ensure this rule is followed.
Lastly, hosts are responsible for determining what guests and activities are appropriate for their space. If you are not feeling comfortable with a booking, you are welcome to decline the booking. You are always welcome to reach out to Safety@peerspace.com if you have any concerns about a guest or a booking and we are happy to review as well!
Haha… my partner likes to do this sometimes. He’ll reply back to them with a similar request that they asked us but flip it back on them. But then he gets nervous that he is just giving them a reason to mess with us more so he stops lol.
Chris: It has long been my hobby to mess with conmen. Tell your partner not to worry. Nothing will happen to him as long as he never gives them any real information that they can use. In one of my favorites, I told the scammer that I had wired the $6,000 he had requested, but lost the receipt with the required number. So he should just walk into the telegram office with his ID and they will give him the money. This just drove him nuts–thinking the $$$ was there, but he couldn’t get it.
I completely understand the working with a highly tented tech projects. My studio is in Seattle and that is primarily what we get in studio with Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe, ect. We generally sign NDA’s and thats about it. I personally have never been asked to turn off security cameras.
You can charge a privacy/ NDA Signage fee upfront or just go with a higher day rate. But under absolutely no circumstances should you turn off your security cameras.
Charging a guest after the booking for damages or overtime is a very difficult process to begin with (for reasons unknown) but without video evidence to back you up, and you will never see a penny of that.
We actually received this same request as well. We ended up passing. We asked for them to disclose who the client was that would be collecting and storing this data and we were told they could not disclose it. We even mentioned that we could sign an NDA, but they wouldn’t even accept that.
I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that they are just doing their job, but knowing that all aspects of the interior of my home would be stored by some unknown entity in perpetuity just didn’t sit right with me.
But hey, I’m sure my robot vacuum is doing it too, but at least it cleans my floors!
