What if the hotel wasn't the malicious party? Maybe it's a "conference Webcam" built into a smart TV (aren't most nowadays?).

Yes, exactly- that was my point; it is fairly unlikely the hotel cares too much. But how secure are these devices? What is stopping someone from hacking into a bunch of them, recording hotel guests and then mining the data for compromising footage to sell / use to blackmail / <insert malicious purpose here>.