AN EXTREMELY DISHONEST HOST. Oscar was very kind when I asked him about the room, which I had booked for a month to start my Erasmus in Lisbon. 4 days after the reservation, I learned that Portugal was asking its universities to close because of Covid. So I could no longer go to Portugal, under lockdown, having no essential reason to travel. Not being able to get a refund of my reservation if I cancelled it, I then contacted Oscar to see if he could cancel it on his side. He told me it was impossible because penalties could have been applied to him and suggested me to deal directly with Airbnb.
The Airbnb customer service was great and offered to cancel the reservation for me, without any penalties on Oscar's side. I just had to make sure that Oscar agreed to fully refund the reservation. What a surprise then when I told him about it and he immediately changed his tone to tell me that he didn't accept! I didn't understand this sudden change of intentions, especially since he had suggested himself that I contacted Airbnb.
As a consequence, I didn't cancel my booking, hoping that the situation would improve during the month of booking and that I could go to Lisbon. I told this to Oscar, that I would arrive as soon as possible to Lisbon, to which he replied "all the best, and see you soon! "via Whatsapp, where we were communicating.
But a week later, he contacted me via Airbnb's messaging system. He wanted to know why I was not in the Airbnb room because he had tried to come and see me so that we could meet. By doing this, Airbnb was alerted to take care of the matter and cancel my reservation because I wasn't there! Airbnb doesn't allow us to cancel a reservation due to force majeure and on top of that the system forces us to lose reservations without any refund if we can't get there! And Oscar knew this and was playing along, even though I had explained my situation to him a week earlier. It was getting worse and worse.
I explained him that I would arrive a few days later, and then he told me to keep him informed so that he could prepare the room for my arrival (where is the logic? ). In short, I came across a host who is as dishonest as possible, who takes advantage of young people and their limited financial resources to line their pockets without their knowledge during these times of crisis. This kind of host should not be present on Airbnb.
PS: This host describes himself as happy when he looks in the mirror, happy with his accomplishments. So I note that stealing and scamming students makes him happy.