Caron S.

When I arranged my exchange in Lisbon (starting in September), I decided to get a room via Uniplaces. As the traveling guidelines fluctuate often due to the pandemic, I laid personal contact with Uniplaces about what would happen if I would be obligated to cancel my room due to Covid-19. Daniel, from the service team, was very polite and explained that I would not have to worry. He assured that most landlords are very understanding towards this situation and I would most likely get my money back. A few weeks later, I did indeed have to cancel my booking due to Covid-19 virus. When I asked Daniel to call me, he refused to and later even blocked me. Instead I had to mail a coworker of his: Gonçalo. Gonçalo told me that he felt sorry about the situation, but opined that we all had to make sacrifices. For sake of the "continuation of Uniplaces", they would not return the money I paid: €639,-. I decided to contact my landlord, who actually was very understanding towards me. She told me she would've liked to return me my money, but is very restricted in her actions. Uniplaces namely pays the landlords far less then the tenants pay. If you find a nice apartment on Uniplaces, I would therefore recommend to google and find it elsewhere. I may conclude that Uniplaces' cancelation policy is an absolute scam. Their customer service is polite as long as they could make money out if it. Overall, it could be considered untrustworthy and overpriced. After having to cancel an exchange (you look forward to for about 3 years), the last thing you want is to be robbed of your money. I hope my fellow students will not experience this as well.