DO NOT STAY HERE! DO NOT STAY HERE! DO NOT STAY HERE!
This is the worst experience I’ve ever had while traveling. The owner Elisabeth and her property manager Manuel are racist.
From the moment I booked my reservation, and they found out I was Black, the issues started, they tried to get me, and my girlfriend out of the home. We found this fact out from Airbnb after we tried to check in and they wouldn't let us. The only thing that stopped them from putting us out on the street with no other options was a threat of a penalty fee from Airbnb for canceling without cause.
So, instead, they tried to make us uncomfortable that we'd leave on our own, by not providing us with the items listed as included in their rental; bed sheets, towels, garbage bags, paper towels, toilet paper, and filled the home with broken, unusable items.
When that didn’t work, they tried to lie about us, but as we predicted they’d try something, so, we recorded our interactions and proved they were liars who were discriminating against us.
The situation was so bad we had to call the police on the owner, property manager, and staff for their threats and discriminatory actions.
Also, by Portugal law, due to a history of racists discriminatory actions like these against other tourist, vacation rental owners are required to provide guests when a situation like this occur a booked called The complaint book / Livro de Reclamações where guests can write an account of what happened to them in the home. This book is part of a national database. If the owner gets too many discrimination complaints, they are fine and/or lose their license to rent.
Elisabeth and Miguel refused to give me their book to document my testimony of what happened to us.
I’m sure you have some questions for me. Here are the answers.
Q: If they were racist, why did they rent to you in the first place?
A: Airbnb has had such a bad issue with discrimination against renters of color that they no longer allow the host to see the profile photos of potential renters until after they accept their booking request.
Q: If it was so bad, why did you stay?
A: We didn't know they were actively working to get us out of the home until we arrived in Lisbon. Before that, we just thought they were unresponsive and unhelpful hosts. At the time of our visit to Lisbon, there was a massive summit taking place. This caused the majority of safe, quality hotels and vacation rentals to be booked by the time we arrived. Once we found an available hotel, we left immediately.
Q: Why do you believe they were racist and not just bad hosts?
A: Once Airbnb informed them they could not kick us out without cause, they sent an employee in to create cause to kick us out without incurring a penalty from Airbnb. Yes, we couldn't believe it either until it happened. The same employees called us derogatory racist names and lied about us to Airbnb. Our only saving grace against their lies was the video recordings of our interaction with the employee.
Q: But if they’re so bad and racist, why do they have so many positive reviews?
A: We wondered the same thing. Do what we did and go look at the profile photos of the overwhelming majority of the guests who said they had a great stay with this owner and property manager. You may notice the same trend we did.
As I said, DO NOT STAY HERE!