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.
