Getting paid in South Africa

[David62]

Recently the pay out process for hosting in South Africa has changed. Although Airbnb is sending us a message that they have received and released payment, it take a number of days, sometimes over a week before our bank contact us and let us know that they received an international payment. It is then a complicated process to verify payment and source of income before our money is received in our bank account. This happens for each and every payment / booking we receive.

Is there any other way in which we can receive payment, without having to go through the process of declaring international payments each time with our bank?

Your help would be greatly appreciated!

[Richard216]

Hi Mike, what did you put for 'reason for transfer'?

Thanks,

Richard

[Theunisia0]

Hi Sheldon

I am new to airbnb and have hosted onoly twice now but closed all my rooms till I can sort this out. I have now had two payment from airbnb via bank transfer and both times about a R100 was deducted. First of all I dont know if I chose the incorrect pay ot method. I was adviced to chose the direct transfer in ZAR. I have also phoned exchange4free but they say the cannot pick my name up from the e-mail i provided??? What am I doing wrong? Please help! Regards

Theunisia

[Theunisia0]

Good day, 
I am hosting from South Africa -.......I am very new to airbnb. Only had one guest stay with me before and last night second guests.

1) First guest --- payout of R579.23 ZAR. 
I received a shortfall off some money on this transfer., R479.23 was paid into my account, . I have also not received an exchange4free document to complete as an email I received from you guys..

----I had my second guest last night with email as follows -------We've issued you a payout of R627.55 ZAR. This payout should arrive in your account by Apr 03, 2019, taking into consideration weekends and holidays. 
03/26/2019 - 03/27/2019  Payment is now another R100 less R527.55...today is the 8th of April and money not in account yet???



Please , please help me.........which pay out preference do I choose as I am in South Africa and don't want to lose more money on transfers?? HI have been in contact with exchange4free but they cannot pick my paymets up from my emails??

Kindest regards

Theunisia

---

@Mike--Leonora-and-Samant0 wrote:

Hi @Sheldon2,

yes just gone through this myself, it is all legit just fill out the mandate and they will transfer the funds same day.

Good luck.

Cheers

Mike

---

[Les7634]

The number of horror stories I am reading in this chat thread is well, simply, horrifying! Given AIrBnB and Exchange4Free are not helpful perhaps it is wisest to choose another hosting website? That is, not AirBnB for our hosting.  There are at least two others operating in Cape Town that I know of. Though, I do wonder if they, too, have the same financial regulation problems. It seems South Africa has put in place a rule, that other countries are not using, perhaps in an effort to deter its residents from being hosts? Or the politicians and regulators are totally incompetent. 

[Annamarike0]

 Yes, I received it too. But it does not accept my sign in. So now I don't know what to do next.....

[Lauren93]

Hi

I will soon be receiving funds from an airbnb guest. I have a created a new paypal account. BUT, after reading this conversation thread I am confused as to the best payment method. Is there a simple & cost effective way for the guest to transfer US$ funds into my South African bank account?

Thanks for your advice

[Catherine345]

Hi all

We are relatively new AirBnB hosts and I have just made my first withdrawal from my US$ Paypal account to my FNB bank account.  Even with an FNB account it took me longer to set up the link than I had expected but it is possible.  The key is that you have to create the link from the FNB side....for a long time I was frustrated that the Paypal website only allows you to link to a bank account in the US.  Amazingly poor supply of information for users!  

FNB charge a 1.5% fee on the conversion from USD to ZAR; I am allergic to paying fees like that so I thought about changing my Paypal account for AirBnB to my one in the UK but checking the small print I discovered that Paypal charge even more for a currency transfer...2.5%!  Foreign exchange remains a shameful cartel I'm afraid.

I'm still not sure why AirBnB charges our guests in Rand but then pays us in USD....does anyone know?

[Robbie48]

Did you ever find out why AirBnB charges our guests in ZAR and then pays us in US$?

[Les7634]

It's got to be because of the location of your hosting "business". That is, if you are operating a "business" in South Africa then South African currency has to be charged. That is, probably a rule of law. 

[Paul416]

I did not see anybody mention this, and this thread is a little old, but we make use of payoneer. They send you a mastercard and it's possible to withdraw at most South African ATMs. The charge per transaction is a standard R30 (FNB) and R40 (ABSA).

From experience, ABSA is the most dodgy, because if the ATM does not have enough money, they still make it vanish from your account and only refund it a day later.

[Karon5]

HI PAUL

I AM DECIDING ON THE BEST OPTIONS. WITH PAYONEER ARE YOU ABLE TO DO A C

TRANSFER OF FUNDS OR CAN YOU ONLY DO ATM WITHDRAWALS?

[Elaine86]

I have problem loading my banking details. Can't get through on  - plus 1 855 424 7262. Very frustrating. Please help

[Janet111]

Hi Elaine

I understand how frustrating it is.  So sorry you are going through what I did.  I eventually managed somehow to get help via email and a phone call. The reply email address does not remain there, it lasts 24 hrs and disappears so I can’t fwd to you.

For paypal banking you need to go into the bank with your laptop and get them to help you to load the information for Airbnb.  It did not help me as my FNB bank could not get it right but other friends of mine did.  I eventually signed up at my Capitec Bank in order for my monies to be paid into it.  Make sure you get a swift and maybe an iban number needed for any international transfer from your bank.

None of my questions I needed answered were on the Airb&b site and I eventually out of so much frustration managed to find help through google and did not find any answers on AirB&B.  Once i found the help on google and followed the steps,  Airbnb help came through and i actually got a phone call to sort out my problem.

Good luck and you will eventually get there.

[Melissa217]

I am relatively new to Airbnb, and elected payment to my Paypal account, thinking that once I have a month's worth of income I'll transfer the money to my FNB account. However, now I can't find a BoP code that describes this kind of income? Does anyone know which BoP code to use?

[Brandon7]

Guys.. why aren't you using the Airbnb Payoneer card to get paid?

They post you a debit card which you can use at any ATM to draw cash or pay for items.

MUCH easier than missioning with account linkups, PAYPAL, etc

Take a look here