Gritty arguments with Airbnb support resulted in a refund and 100 USD coupon
TLDR; Airbnb refunded my stay of 21.80 USD and provided a coupon code of 100 USD after gritty 38 messages with support, refund due to safety concerns.
I had recently traveled through Sao Paolo in Brazil and needed to stay somewhere near the airport of Guarulhos until public transport was available. I booked a stay that looked closest to the airport, but was not aware of the river between the terminal and my destination, which added several kilometers to the journey.
When the Uber driver arrived at the destination at 11pm, he rolled up the windows and asked if this was really my destination. He pointed out that we had arrived at a "comunidade", a synonym for favela. The street was dark and people were hanging out at the cross-sections. I feared that I would be asked what I was doing there and, with all my baggage, felt vulnerable. The Uber driver was very kind and drove me to a nearby hotel, away from the comunidade.
Unfortunately, my credit card was not linked to my Uber account and I had no money to pay in cash. The driver wrote me a debt that I had to pay before I could use Uber again. I wanted to give him a huge tip for potentially saving me from a bad situation, but I'm still trying to get the Uber support to let me do this.
Shortly after moving to the hotel I immediately contacted Airbnb support, pretty much explaining what I've already mentioned here:
- I was in a potentially dangerous situation;
- the host might have been a criminal, attempting to scam or rob unsuspecting travellers;
- refund (obviously), since I did not utilise the booked service;
- that it should be mentioned that the stay is in a dangerous neighbourhood;
Airbnb would only answer:
- that the host had a strict cancellation policy, and they could not refund me if the host did not allow it (they would keep the money once they had it);
- that I should have checked the area before making the reservation (victim blaming);
- "Because we cannot take action if there is no proof that the Host is baiting to scam Guests that are going to his property, just because the area is dangerous" (okay, so I'd first need to get robbed in order to be eligible for a refund);
- "Please do understand that Airbnb is made to connect people" (to which I replied that me and Airbnb had reached the point where two thieves are sitting next to each other, and we don't need to pretend anymore).
I had already given up hope, but I kept the chat-support going, hoping that the time and effort they spent would be worth the 20 dollars I had lost. Miraculously, one of the operators showed some common sense and refunded my stay and gave me a coupon code worth 100 USD.
Well, I guess the moral of this story is to not give up insisting on your rights even when the corporation is against you. I've never been in Sao Paolo, but I've been in Rio many years ago during the Carnival season. I've never been inside a favela, but I was like 1 or 2 blocks away from the entrance. I had no problems. Perhaps being a young cheap Argentinian tourist not carrying luggage at the moment makes the situation very different. Anyway, during the Carnival, the city [Rio] is totally crazy. There are "blocos" every few blocks, where someone just install a big sounds speaker and everyone dance. Perhaps a hundred persons, every few blocks, every night, all month long. Did they have a big sound speaker? And there are some bigger and bigger and bigger events, from a hundred persons to a million. > The street was dark and people were hanging out at the cross-sections. Did they have a big sound speaker? Were they dancing? Another possibility is that during a hot summer night, they had no air conditioner and were just in the open street to get some wind and hang out with friends. I think it's not so uncommon. I agree that some areas are very dangerous, both in Brazil and here in Argentina too. I don't recommend to go clueless to some parts of the city. But without a few photos, a video, and perhaps looking at the situation in person it's very difficult to be sure that they were dangerous. Anyway, better safe than sorry. If you don't understand the local culture, sometimes it's better to bail out. The taxi driver was local, after all, he knew where we were at. It was not during the Carnaval, it was in January.