Avoiding the Foreign Transaction Fee

[Terrence0]

I have a suggestion for Airbnb.  Currently, they have a very inefficient policy that they pass off onto the traveler.

I have a credit card that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees (like many other avid travelers) - my bank covers these fees for me.  Airbnb charges foreign transaction fees to book based on location - in fact, if you are booking and you switch the currency to the local currency of the listing, you will see a 3% lower cost (the foreign transaction fee cost) than if you look at it in another currency.  For my last 2 trips I have attempted to pay in the local currency (for example, if I am travelling to France, I will try to pay in Euros), but Airbnb will not let me do this.  Instead, they force me to pay in US dollars because I live in the US (even though I want to and have tried to pay in Euros), then they take my US dollars, convert them to Euros themselves, charge me a 3% fee (which my bank would have done for me for free!), and then pay the host in Euros.  This is dumb and inefficient - even worse, they pass this inefficiency off on me.  Give customers the option to pay in the currency of their choosing.

[Sarah977]

Listing property is in Mexico. Listing in US dollars. Host US resident with US bank account. Booking paid for by US resident with US bank account. No money ever needed to be converted, yet currency conversion fee applied. Total fraud.

[Raymond112]

Has AirBNB changed their policy recently? In the past I saw the conversion fee no matter what currency I selected. I recently noticed that the prices (USD) of the places I looked at changed everyday. At first I thought the owner changed prices. Then I realized the price varied with the exchange rate. I just reserved a place and selected the local currency. I did not see a notice of a conversion fee charge. 

[Jeff-And-Cheryl0]

@Raymond112. Wow that would be nice ....I know airbnb had received some bad press on that 3% hidden fee.  I have some bookings coming up in about 2 weeks so will watch out for it.  I wonder if airbnb just added the 3% into their service fees.  

[Raymond112]

They very well could because they are not very transparent about how they calculate service fees.  However, in this case I don't think they did because the USD rate is higher than the rate in the local currency. 

[Fátima36]

I totally agree something needs to be done, Airbnb it’s great but there a few things that definitely needs to change urgently, this is one of then 

the other is that we don’t know what is criterio that they use to calculate their fees. Those change from property to property and nobody is able to say why . This is really out of order I should be able to know and to choose what’s is more convenient for me .

[Lorenzo241]

I finally understand something on currencies when booking. I have a great international card but can't really enjoy the benefit on Airbnb.

If I may add an example, I do both hosting and renting when travelling. I hosted in Peru in USD, Airbnb do not allow a transfer to my USD account in Peru, they only offer costly transfers, the stupid Pioneer thing (no idea what this is except for the 10% cost), and want to charge me the 3% fee when forcing me to transfer the funds into the local currency of my country (although there are standard USD accounts here). Suposedely they can only do USD transfer within the US. I guess they charge 3% to those who rented my flat and try and charge me another 3% as host. 6% extra fee, I would like to be in this business!!!!

That's the business model. I think as long as the market is a casi-monopoly, Airbnb will do whatever they want to add fees and charge whatever they want.

[Steve306]

Lorenzo, Airbnb is a great service, but where they let themselves down is the complete lack of transparency and extremely poor navigation with regard to fees in particular with regard to FX transactions and it's a complete rip-off that I am sure is in breach of European/UK financial acts. But given that they are busy do ing tax collection deals with various governments no one is taking them to task. I have a villa that is advertised in Euros, but the payout is in UK sterling to my pay pal account which I then have to convert back to Euros. They for the moment are getting away with it and the only thing you can do is use other platforms as i have done, their response rate has been dramatically falling over the last two years. Why do you think there is no worked examples showing you what exactly are their charges, it would be so simple to do using real exchange rates.

[Jean-And-Charlene0]

Sounds like a class-action lawsuit waiting to happen.

[Jeff-And-Cheryl0]

Hi Airbnb Community,

My last 4 bookings do not have the “A 3% conversion fee was applied to this booking” ----to me it looks like Airbnb has gotten rid of this hidden fee that this thread is discussing all the way back to 2016.  I am booking in the local currency (Euro and Norwegian Krone) and using my US credit card.

Can anyone confirm (or have you noticed too) that Airbnb has stopped adding this fee?

Thank you in advance,

Jeff

[Simon510]

My most recent booking where I selected to pay in Czech Korunas with a Revolut card, my primary currency is GBP, for a place in the Czech Republic did not show a transaction fee. The listed price in GBP now is about 1% less than what I was charged, but I can believe that is due to fluctuating exchange rates. 

[Ioana33]

Hello. I am based in Romania and recently booked accommodation in Madrid through AirBnB.

I was quoted and agreed to pay the price in USD and I used my paypal account linked to a bank account in USD, especially to avoid any issues with the exchange rates.

However, the amount I was finally charged to my account in USD was 6% higher than the agreed price in USD.

What happened was that AirBNB converted the USD amount in my local currency at an outrageously high exchange rate and actually charged me in my local currency, not USD, this being obvious both from the paypal excerpt and my bank's transaction details. So my bank received a local currency payment which it debited from my USD account at the normal lower exchange rate and this obviously resulted in a higher amount in USD.

After a little back and forth with AirBnB, they accepted to refund the differrence, implicitly acknowledging the hidden cost.

So the hidden fx fee is there, alive and well.

[Steve306]

Yes, this is common practice, it is far from transparent of how they will charge you, not to mention how hard it is to get them to give you a break down of how they have calculated the transaction/FX charge. I believe it is illegal under EU consumer law, but the regulatory authorities are letting them get away with it.

[Susan17]

@Ioana33 @Steve306

Since earlier this year, the EU Commission and European Consumer authorities have already been cracking down on Airbnb’s  pricing presentation, and a number of its terms which do not comply with various regulations, including the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD)

http://fortune.com/2018/07/16/airbnb-eu-pricing-terms/

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/companies/airbnb-eu-pricing

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-4453_en.htm

Brussels, 20 September 2018

Following the call from the European Commission and EU consumer authorities in July, Airbnb has now committed to making the necessary changes to their terms and conditions and improving the presentation of their prices.

The company has until the end of 2018 to make these changes on all EU language versions of their website.

https://www.hotelmanagement.net/own/under-european-commission-pressure-airbnb-adjusts-pricing-model-...

 http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-5809_en.htm

"A spokesperson for Airbnb said: “We take this issue seriously and are committed to being as transparent as possible for our community. Guests are made aware of all fees, including service charges and taxes, prior to confirming their decision to book a listing, and we will work together with the authorities to clarify the points raised.”

[Dorelle1]

I was not made aware of the international transaction fees!

[Brad196]

This is extremely disappointing to find out, currently organising accommodation throughout Europe for a 6 week holiday in a few months with my wife, we even got a separate credit card that doesn't gouge when exchanging currencies just for this trip. Seems it's hard to avoid getting screwed..