Uniplaces
Reviews and Complaints

I recently had an unfortunate experience with Uniplaces, an online platform that claims to provide safe and reliable accommodations for students. I feel compelled to share my harrowing story to warn others about the risks associated with trusting this platform.

When I initially booked my accommodation through Uniplaces, I was relieved to see that the place had been marked as "checked," indicating that someone from Uniplaces had physically visited the property and verified its safety. However, my relief quickly turned into disbelief and fear when the ceiling of my room unexpectedly collapsed while I was inside. My life was put in immediate danger, and I cannot stress enough how terrifying and traumatic this incident was.

The fact that Uniplaces had labeled the property as "checked" is deeply concerning. It implies a thorough inspection was conducted, providing tenants like myself with a sense of security. However, the reality was far from it. How could a property with such a blatant safety hazard be marked as safe? Uniplaces failed in its duty to ensure the well-being of its tenants, and I believe it's essential for prospective users to be aware of this grave oversight.

Moreover, I am deeply disappointed by Uniplaces' response to this incident. Not only did they neglect to adequately address the dangerous situation that occurred, but they also made matters worse by re-listing the room on their website as available and marked as "checked" once again. This blatant disregard for tenant safety and the lack of follow-up inspection is absolutely unacceptable.

In light of these experiences, I implore anyone considering using Uniplaces to exercise extreme caution. Trusting this platform could potentially jeopardize your safety and well-being, as it did with mine. The incident I faced was not only terrifying but also left me feeling betrayed by the false sense of security that Uniplaces provided.

Furthermore, I firmly believe that Uniplaces should take responsibility for the trauma and danger they exposed me to. I urge them to refund the service fees I paid, as their services proved to be entirely unworthy and contributed to the perilous situation I endured. Additionally, I believe that compensation should be provided, not only as a gesture of goodwill but also to acknowledge the severe negligence that endangered my life.

It is disheartening to see a company that claims to prioritize tenant safety and satisfaction fail so spectacularly. Until Uniplaces takes concrete measures to rectify their flawed system, I cannot, in good conscience, recommend their services to anyone. Trust, safety, and accountability should never be compromised when it comes to providing accommodation for students or anyone else.

On July 06, 2023, I hit Request Booking after reading the description of an apartment in Milan and I was eager to find a place since I am arriving soon in August. I read thoroughly everything and signed up as if I were booking to not lose out on this great find, but I put a series of questions in the message section of my account. I made it clear that these were needed to be known prior to being accepted. It stated that it would be around 24 hours till I was apporved. This was done at around 10pm EST which is 4am in Europe. Within 3 minutes I received an email that I was accepted, and my account was charged the 675-service fee and the first month’s rent. No questions answered. No information given. Just accepted and charged! It was then I was told that through Habyt, another agency I will receive more instructions for booking. This was not clear prior to booking through Uniplace, or else I would have gone straight through Habyt. I emailed the same day, and I was informed that the fee was not refundable and that I made the mistake of entering my questions in the wrong box. So, the guy acknowledges my mistake but did not care. But if this were the case then with my message why would they automatically accept when I was clear to not accept yet till my questions were answered. I then got a hold of Habyt’s customer service, and they answered my questions accordingly, but it was not until I had to go out of my way to message -> my message on the Uniplace platform must have not gone through to them. But now I was given the contract and there are extra new service/membership fees that is making this reasonable apartment way more expensive than initially thought. This process has been awful and feels like a scam. I had emailed Uniplace twice (on their portal and through a customer service email) to cancel everything and get my money back. Uniplace has taken from me $1,500 and I have not yet signed any contract. This seems like a very fraudulent deceiving way to get money from vulnerable international students. I have yet to hear anything from them. I reviewed all the policies of cancelations and refunds according to the policy stated on the website and based on their policies I have the right to refund and cancelation.

I understand a refund policy, however the way this was managed is totally deceiving and only trying to get money at all costs. Very frustrating

Uniplaces nor the landlord don't deserve any stars. Both are unreliable. I don't recomend anyone to use Uniplaces. Everything is fine when things go smoothly but in case of any trouble they always take the landlords site against the contract.

The landlord doesn't follow the contract at all and only functions with money. He tries to take advantage of you in any way he can if he earn some extra money.

The landlord was Paolo Benassi, avoid this landlord.

Uniplace is an absolute nightmare for anyone looking for housing. Their service is abysmal and unprofessional

I want to express my utmost disappointment with your services. I can confidently say that Uniplaces is the most unethical and low-class platform I have ever come across. You are nothing but scammers who are stealing money from students like me. Your company not only plays with the lives of students but also their future, and it's extremely disheartening.

I booked a place through Uniplaces, paying a service charge of 325 euros and a one-month rent of 500 euros, totaling 825 euros. Later, I was informed that I had to pay another 350 euros for an admin fee, which was not mentioned anywhere on your website. Additionally, I was informed that I had to pay another 250 euros for the next month. When I tried to cancel, you disagreed with your 3rd class policy, which only shows how greedy and unprofessional you are.

I arrived in Barcelona on April 27th and was supposed to collect the keys on April 25th. However, when I reached the landlord, he did not answer my calls several times. When he finally answered, he told me to deal with Uniplaces and hung up the phone. I was left stranded on the road with no place to go. I waited for two to three hours, hoping that the landlord would show up, but he never did. I had to go to my university and explain the situation, and they advised me to find another place to stay. I was forced to spend the night on the road because I couldn't find a place to stay.

When I sent an email to Uniplaces, I received no response. I waited for three days, and when I still didn't receive a reply, I sent another email threatening legal action. Only then did you respond, 3 days they had holiday sorry for late replay,telling me that the landlord had canceled my booking and that there was no refund. You only offered me a 100% free of charge service fee of 350 euros, which was of no use to me. I had to pay rent again for a new place, which cost me another 500 euros or more.At that time lucky I found place 270 euro per month no other additional free from different websites. it’s so fanny this unethical demand offer me [censored]y service, they never think what happen to me or think to refund.

Imagine student who come far away from home facing this kind of issue. they charge so much money not helping at all other than point out customer.I'm a foreign student who doesn't know anyone in this country; I'm lost and I'm the one who suffers from having lost my money and not having housing. Are they getting the landload side, too? For it, we are charged a service fee for it. The customer side, who pays for the service, must be taken into account so poor customer service no refund stole your money and no place stay

I am a foreign student who came to this country, hoping for a better future, but I was defrauded by your company. I lost my money, and I had nowhere to stay. Your poor customer service is a testament to your lack of empathy for your customers. You charge too much money for your services and do not offer any assistance when customers face issues like mine. Your policies are shoddy, and you do not take into account the customer's perspective. his was still a significant financial burden on me as a student. Uniplaces' unethical practices and poor customer service are unacceptable. They not only stole my money but also put me in a dangerous situation with nowhere to stay.

To anyone considering using Uniplaces, I urge you to steer clear of this fake, fraudulent, and downright immoral company. Their customer service is beyond poor, and they will do nothing but steal your money and play with your life. Save yourself the trouble and look for alternative options. Uniplaces is a waste of time, money, and energy

Your company is fake, fraudulent, and provides poor customer service. I highly recommend that no one ever use your services. You are nothing but a 3rd class company that steals money and plays with the lives of students.

This uniplace people only care about stealing poorer students' money, before the booking uniplace stuff called me forcing me to book, once the issue occurs no one calls only care about tricky policy what they made thiear requirements

Booking id - 883812

I booked a hostel and paid the rent of 500 euros plus the service charge of 276 euros for a total of 776 euros on the 18th. When I discussed this with the landlord, he told me that when I arrived, I would have to pay another 250 euros as a deposit and another 350 euros for admin fees, so I objected and attempted to cancel the booking.

I got a property for 250 euros, and I won't have to pay any more service charges or adfree fees.

When I attempted to cancel the book, I assumed I would receive a refund of at least 500 euros if I did so within 24 hours.

I'm very disappointed since i'm a student who tries to do the right thing; I know uniplace will advise me to read the policy and so on, but this unjust website put us in a trap without knowing us,

I would never recommend anyone booking from uniplace; these people are playing with students

What I request consider about this in human manner, I cant just lost 770 euro especially im student have to manage everything be reasonable more than policy that what customer support

Pros - just another website (with tricky policy)

Cons - service charge is too expensive

Tricky policy

- description ux ui - fall in a trap

Customer service not customer-friendly or help full — (only on emails) they only call when we book place didnot pay the payment (otherwise no calls)

- stole our money with their policy

- not resanable policy

- when cusomter are looking for help cusotmer service should help them or forward to upper management find someone who consider the issue

I booked a room through uniplaces where I had put from the beginning my move in and move out dates. I moved in on my arranged dates and now in December (which is my move out month), I contacted my landlord - company to arrange the move out details and they informed me that I have to stay and pay two more months because I had to have already informed them two months earlier. Even when I informed them that I had received an email from uniplaces when I made the booking in which it was clearly written that my contract ends in December, they claimed that they were not informed and since their contracts are open they do not accept anything. Moreover, when I booked the room through uniplaces it was written in the description that I would have personal bathroom and that the building would have central heating. Both those information are untrue. I have a shared bathroom and as for the heating, there are only two air-conditions in the common spaces on the ground floor in an 8-floor building. None of them (Uniplaces and Landlord Company) takes the responsibility neither for their bad communication regarding the termination of the contract and the bathroom and the heating issues. Then, what is the reason of paying 585 euros for service fee and another 200 euros for admin fee, since they don’t offer what they are supposed to do? And finally, they are not even willing to compromise and find a solution with the tenant.

I booked a room through uniplaces and when i called the landlord to make sure everything was alright, he told me that they acceped the same room for me and some other guy for the same period of time. That he was talking to uniplaces and they would give my money back. The landlord tried to sell me his other rooms in toher places, but i accepted that one for the place+price combo.

I was charged for a room that is not avaiable and for a service that wasn´t delivered to me.

Now i need this money because i found another place on my own, and uniplaces is not answering me or wanting to give me my money back.

I honestly don´t know what else to do besides sue uniplaces.

Never book a room through uniplaces. The agents they have tied up are all scammers. We booked a room through uniplaces and the agent was BnB who provided accommodation to us. They didn't return our deposit amount of 1400€. When I did my investigation, I got to know that this agent didn't return money for many students. If you ask them the reason for not returning then they give all stupid excuses.and the funny part is uniplaces is aware of all these scammers but still they are working with these agents.

Uniplaces is refusing to refund me my 908 Euros- even though I cancelled 60 days in advance. They've been ignoring my correspondence. I reached out to the company's CEO two days ago via Linkedin. He didn't even read my message. The same radio silence is happening on Facebook, Instagram message, and their email. I filed a number of notes on their website. In short, this company is not responsive. This is a massive amount- near 1000 Euros that I am not getting back. Frankly, at this point, I wonder if this company is a scam. But, I will not dial down. I will seek legal and media intervention if needed. There are legal methods to get my rights from a company that clearly doesn't respect customers or honor its clients. But, for now, please avoid this company like the plague unless you want to face one of the worst customer service you will ever witness. Below, is proof if my pay.

I’m due to move to a place at Uniplaces on Jan 14. I tried to cancel today (Nov. 16), so 60 days before my move date. The cancellation is due to an emergency and I’ll be lucky if I get quarter of the amount!

I find their policies to be very unclear and this is an emergency. I didn’t plan on this cancellation. Yet, I’ve given them all the notice that I can manage. They can still rent the place 60 days in advance. I’m very disappointed and ready to sue if needed. I’m trying to connect with the company’s CEO on LinkedIn to escalate the matter..

Firstly their 'pre-paid' certificate will not help you! VFS want a rental agreement. Secondly they claim that if you are experiencing any issues with your booking/landlord, they will help you? No they will not, they will only remind you that your their fees are not refundable and to sort yourself out. They also don't encourage landlords to give you rental agreements upfront/in advance even though they are quick to take your money for their security deposit and the 1st month rental, for the landlord for bookings that are 3 or 4 or 6 months in advance, something about it creating legal issues (for who exactly, since money has already been taken from the tenant). So while it is 'legal' for a tenant to pay high service fees to them and upfront rentals, it seems its 'illegal' for the tenant to reasonably ask for confirmation in the form of the contract. Don't believe them when they say they will assist/help you after they have taken their service fee. Find another provider who is actually going to help you like they promise they will on their website.

I had to request a booking last minute, however, not all the information was available through the website and the landlord is asking me for six months upfront without a contract or he is not letting me move in. I cannot get a refund from uniplaces and do not trust to pay that amount of money without knowing if he is even going to let me move in as bank transfers would take more than 48 hours since they would be international.

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.

Uniplaces is not a trustworthy site. They have insensitive people who does not care about the money of their customers.
I took a temporary accommodation in Barcelona for one month, so that i can search for my permanent accommodation easily. I booked one room from uniplaces 25 days before shifting, to avoid last minute problems. They charged me completely for the Booking. Now when I was about to leave my previous accommodation, just one week to go, they called me and said that my booking is cancelled, Find a new accommodation, and we will completely refund your money (including our service fee). This was the first thing i wanted to avoid, so that I am not running here and there at the last minute, but the same situation happened because of them. The mail said that it takes from 5-10 days to refund your money. I told them that i require the refund urgently, as I am a student here, I do not have extra funds. I can only book a new accommodation, when I have that amount. It has been over 2 weeks now, I have not received my refund. They do not reply by mail as well.
The whole mistake has been from Uniplaces end, but it is me, who gets to suffer at the end.
I suggest that Uniplaces is not worth relying and further recommendation.
The Booking id was- 626396

I booked a room for my friend on Uniplace, In Rome, Italy, but the place was so dirty, that my friend had to leave it, When i asked Uniplace for change of apartment or refund they answered after 5 hours and refused and told us, that we had to negotiate with the landlord, but the landlord told my friend, that he had to leave place. Now he has to find a place every night not to stay on the street. and Uniplace support team doesn't care about the fact.

See the photos, everything was so dirty and destroyed.

My name is Valeriia. The thing is that I booked an apartment in uniplaces, paid for the flat and the service but I couldn't get in touch with the landlord. Yesterday, finally, I managed to call him and he said that this flat is already booked by another person who gave more money in cash. Now, I'm without money, without flat, tired and upset. Uniplaces doesn't want to help me, the person with whom I talked, said that he couldn't help me and he didn't know the person who could at least try to help. Nobody calls me from the customer support.

Hello.
I wanted to ask if it there is any forum website or social service or application where i can post a warning for people who are about to use a service that im currently using, more than this, I would definitely want to know if me and my young daughter could be saved of this nightmare por favour, hear my story:
About 4 days ago I have booked an apartment via Unispaces which at first I didn't know much about but quite quickly i have learnt that it was basically a service for students, where you can trace vacancies around the world.
Since ive arrived to lisbon in the worst possible timing of the year.
Being disappointed with airbnb i set down and booked a place for my family and myself for a really long period (1 month) in an apartment that looked rather bright and spacious in the pictures.
As i went on with the booking process ive started feeling slightly uncomfortable seeing there weren't any options at all mentioning children, not at any stage (being so familiar with other services such as "Booking" "Tripadvisor" "AirBnb" and others) something that made me right before confirmation to cancel the whole thing although I was very stressed with time, and then I googled "uniplace" and yes i felt ok it wasn't made for families it was cool to cancel it and move on to "spotahome" and so I did, stressed up because of the time impact (we had to checkout in a different apartment)...and then the phone rang and there was ×××× from "unispaces" client support, he sounded very promising and after a rather long chat he convinced me that the apartment I have canceled could most certainly be appropriate for a family to be staying at for a whole month, since I am a rather suspicious by nature i kept stretching the fact that children are involved and that my husband and son will be joining us within 2 weeks arriving from Tokyo and that the place really really must be suitable because we are working from home etc etc and ×××× assured me there is nothing to be worried about.
The house was available starting aug 2st.so we had to find a place for 4 more days (we means myself and my 8 year old daughter).
And so we arrived today, we were 22 minutes late and as we entered the house (which looked not exactly like the pictures (oh yes yes! The policy of "Uniplaces" does not allow to visit the property before renting it (this too i've found out only after renting the place) I now know why. So aside for the fact that the apartment turned into half a basement (our "kitchen window" is in the height of our neighbours garden in his garden) there's a smell of moss and sewer in the air (landlord saying the only thing that can be done about it is pouring some bleach in the toilet...well there are children in the house.
I wanted kindly, if i get back to the mare reason for this rather tedious post is to ask where is it possible to warn other people with families regarding this service
What can I do if there is any possibility at all to cancel the whole thing.this is a complete rip off and it costs 500euros for the service leave alone the rent price itself.

When I asked to cancel (it took far less than an hour )I received the following email:

Dear Orro,

I hope you are well.

Thank you for contacting us.

We are sorry to hear that you are having issues related to your new accommodation.

Given that the listing does not specify that it is a "family" apartment, unfortunately I cannot validate this particular complaint as there is no discrepancy in the listing. The description states that it is a perfect place for a "student experience" and it does not specify that is it is specifically for families.

Regarding the smell of mould in the bathroom, we can contact the landlord to ask if he could find a way to resolve this. Perhaps it is a question of him arranging a more thorough clean and making sure that the room is sufficiently aerated.

If you do decide to move-out, please bear in mind that in this case we will not be able to refund you as your complaint regarding the suitability of the apartment for families is more subjective and is not due to any discrepancy in the listing.

If you wish to remain in the apartment, please let me know and we will contact the landlord to help resolve the issue in the bathroom.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Sophie

Customer Experience Team | Uniplaces

Help Center: help.uniplaces.com

Hello,
my name is Vivianne Cameron and I booked with your website an apartment in Porto from the 1st of febuary till the 31st of may 2019.
It was a little house, Beco central 6, in Foz do Douro, Porto.

I had a very bad experience with the apartment I rented from your website. The agency on site was called Holiday home. Several problems occurred during the session, including the failure to respect several aspects of the contract. But what they did to us in the end was disrespectful and we tried to talk to them to fix the situation, but they were not conciliatory at all. So the situation is that the contract ended on May 31, but if we wanted to stay until June 15, because we had exams until that date. We had a written agreement by email on this. Stimulating that we could stay the extra 15 days for 20Euros per day. We agreed to do so. Then 10 days before the 31st they send us an email telling us that we must leave within 10 days... So 4 students were evicted from their homes in the middle of the university exam session even if we had an agreement! We had 10 days to find another place to live and move out... This was by far the worst situation that could happen.
In addition, several closures on the contract were not respected, such as a cleaning lady had to come twice a month... She hasn't been here in four months! Many things were broken and non-functional, such as the stove, and they knew it. In short, we found ourselves without resource. Without help to find a new home in early June, or it is the tourist season that begins, so rising housing prices and scarcity. I understood that they had evicted us because they wanted to rent the accommodation more expensive because it was the tourist season. Because we talked to the owner of the house himself and he wasn't aware of the situation. It was Holiday home that set it up.

So I would like to make a complaint and have something done about it. Holiday Home made fun of us. They didn't take us seriously and were disrespectful. Legally speaking several misdeeds were committed by them. Beginning with non-compliance with contract clauses.
We booked this apartment in Porto on your Uniplaces website and I expected much better, more organization and support. It was by far the worst experience with Holiday home.
What can you do to help us in this regard?

On april 18, 2020 I got an email confirmation saying great news: your booking is confirmed! - id 564432. Not only I could not check in, the room was occupied and when I asked a refund the same day, they refused. They are still refusing my 512.00 refund for a month of rent I could not get in rome, italy. Do not do business with uniplaces. Chances are they will scam and rob you as much as they did to me and a lot of peiple on this board. This company rob and scam costumers.