Interior cameras are forbidden by Airbnb. Exterior ones, like the kind in Ring doorbells, are allowed.

Pick any kind of business - supermarket, hotel, cell phone provider, hotel, airline, etc. - and you will find the same kind of diverse experiences across the board. Some will be excellent, some will be abominable, most will be acceptable. To reject the use of any one of these on the basis of a few bad stories we hear is totally illogical.

There is always an excellent safeguard available to both host and visitor alike on Airbnb: the existing reviews on the profile of the host or visitor. If you see that a host or visitor has dozens of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reviews, that usually bodes well. Obviously, in this case, he turned out to be a crackpot. But it does not make sense to rule out an entire business on the basis of one crackpot member.

I have written here on medium about my preference for Airbnb over hotels: https://medium.com/globetrotters/why-i-prefer-airbnb-to-hotels-when-i-travel-and-how-my-experiences-turned-me-into-a-host-in-my-7a60acf1ec1c