I have no idea what's what. But I did not have any misfortune with Airbnb payments. I have been hosting for over a year. Airbnb calculates the payout amount at their end for each booking, and I get that exact same amount on my personal PayPal amount. Never has PayPal skimmed out anything, so far. Ignorance (without misfortune) was bliss.
Now, today I just had my first eBay sale using the same PayPal account. And on top of eBay's 10% fees (which are billed as a monthly statement to be paid at a later time), the payout sent by eBay to PayPal was reduced by 2.9%+$0.30 as "PayPal fees". All this plus shipping is costing me upwards of $21 on a $102 sale. **bleep**. How the hell are people managing to sell competitively on eBay?
I'm looking at this eBay payment, side-by-side with my last Airbib payment, and they are both very similar transactions. Dangerously similar. I had gotten so comfortable with everything on the Airbnb payment front, that I had even stopped checking the PayPal items if they matched Airbnb payout amounts. Now I am afraid.
Personal payments on PayPal are free of fee. I'm guessing "Airbnb Payments Inc." (the PayPal account that sends us the hosting payout) may be of that nature. I can't explain why else PayPal isn't skimming on the side like they are doing with eBay.
Then again the stucture of the transaction isn't like a personal payment which reads "Money receved". The Aibnb payment reads "Payment received", which is similar to the eBay payment. So my best guess is Airbnb & PayPal cut some sort of a deal. Some amounts from the "3% Airbnb host fees" might be allocated to pay a lumpsum to PayPal, periodically. This eliminates frustration at the host's end, and also a 3% revenue for Airbnb for the hosts who do not use PayPal. As long as they fairly charge every host the 3%, both Airbnb and PayPal benefit. This is the best explanation.