Impossibility to receive Payout in Nepal via wire Transfer

[Camille--Sailesh-and-Co0]

Hello 😉

Since January 2018 , Airbnb hosts in NEPAL mysteriously cant receive their payout via wire transfer anymore (eventhough the method is proposed to them )

I thought i was the only one concerned and that it was a individual problem  but it appears that it is a general issue and that many hosts in Nepal are concerned and clueless. We  receive systematic "BANK TRANSFER REVERSAL" because "INVALID BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS or UNKNOWN ERROR"

Airbnb support team always say   that there must be  an error in the banking details or an unknown error and no one take the issue seriously to a next level of support and investigation to help solving/ understanding the problem.

The only answer we get is  "please recheck your bank details, there must be a mistake". Should there be a mistake in the bank account details of dozains of users?? seriously...

None of our  bank details have  changed, nor our bank swift, nor the format bank use for accounts number. All concerned hosts have tried dozains of  times since January, using different bank accounts from different banks,  it will always reverse saying PAYOUT RETURNED, iNVALID BANK DETAILS. 

We- dedicated hosts of Nepal- would be very grateful if our request was taken seriously .  There is a few leads for investigation:

-is there  a problem with WORLDPAY transmitting money to Nepal (very likely) ?

- does the problem  comes from the intermediary bank airbnb is using to make remittence to Nepal  (Standart Chartered New York / Mashrebank)?
- a new regulation from Nepali gvt that no one would be aware of (very unlikely)?

In all case, things becomes dramatic for frequent hosts: the only other option we have is using PAYONNER which lead to an average 10% extra charge (because of ridiculously low exchange rate and because it is only possible to withraw  100$ at a time with 5$ charge per withdrawal).

To resume: 
Our payout amount need to be deposit to our bank account in Nepal through bank transfer (one of the method allowed for Nepal)

* Our bank details are correct (they never changed, nothing changed from the bank, and it worked  fine for many years up to 3rd january 2018)
* Our banks in Nepal receive worldwide remittence all the time and have valid SWIFT number-
Everything has been checked and is correct

Still we can't received money for a mysterious reason and we are individually considered as mad people from the airbnb support team that don't take us seriously and copy paste the same answer over and over.

Thank you for your help!!!

Camille and other passionate Nepali Hosts. 

[Jason-and-Pemba0]

I echo with Camille!

I have not been able to use Bank Transfer option with Airbnb PayOut to Nepal since October 2018. Over multiple conversations with Airbnb team, nothing has resolved. The Support team insists there is error in the banking details, which is simply not the case. I have received multiple other bank wires with the same details in the time since.

I have had to use Payoneer on a couple occasions to just make sure I have enough cash to keep my operations and pay lease on the property. Using Payoneers for large withdrawals leads to a large because of numerous ATM withdrawal fees and poor exhcange rate (4 units less than market rate). The other option is to wire the money to friends in a Third country, before brining it to Nepal; but, this option is rife with tax issues in multiple countries.

I feel that hosts like us in countries such as Nepal always get the short end with airbnb. We go through multiple hassles in daily operation (electricity, water that are just payment away in most countries) to only find so many features do not apply to us. For instance, we can't host Airbnb Experiences. I know market size matters, but so does a wide network of committed hosts.

Anyone has suggestion in reaching higher ranks of Airbnb Officials. The support team are not invested enough to dig deeper into our issues.

Best,
Jason

[Anne895]

Hello, 

Being a new Airbnb host in Nepal, I found the use of Airbnb very user friendly, convenient and suitable until.... I got my first"BANK TRANSFER REVERSAL". I will not elaborate long on the issue as I am simply facing exactly the same issue relayed by Camille and Jason here. And I am in touch with other hosts in Nepal facing the same challenge. 

For new host, like me, it is extremly frustrating not to receive our money. We put a lot of effort to be good hosts, especially as Jason said, in a country alredy facing a number of challenges and we need to be able to get our money in order to maintain a good level of service.

Instead of getting individual standard reply from Airbnb's support service, the problem needs to be tackle globaly for hosts in Nepal. We would be extremly grateful to receive a consolidated reply and concrete solutions rapidly.

Furthermore, Airbnb  as I personaly do, take seriously legality issue. We need to respect the laws of the country where we are hosting. Being foreigner in Nepal, I could , as a last resort, provide bank details of my country of orgin to get paid, however that could simply be in conflict with the law... 

So please help us to be good hosts, respectful of the law and happy airbnb users : )

Many thanks

Anne

[Santa9]

Hi there i have experienced the same problem last year! As i got an email while i was travelling saying that they wore unable to pay me as they had a problem with my bank accout details. I checked and double checked but they still couldn’t complete the transaction!! I had to reroute the money to my former bnb partners singapore account. It sucks i thougt it was an individual problem but its not! Airbnb need to address this problem we are facing in nepal. We have limited options to receive money!! And this needs to get sorted soon!!!

[Debendra0]

Hi,

I am also having the same problem with the payment.Everytime it says it's time to get paid and the other day it says bank transfer reversal.we have been getting the payment since last 3-4 years with the same bank account and suddenly it doesn't work.We thought it's just us but with the mil of Camilie got to know that it is the problem of most of the host.Hope to solve the problem soon.

Thank you Camilie for this mail and support.

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

@Camille--Sailesh-and-Co0 I dont know if paypal or payoneer is available for hosts to receive payments in Nepal? If it is possible stop using the international wire transfer method which charges more in transfer fees and which is also very slow.

[Camille--Sailesh-and-Co0]

Dear Oomesh, 

Thank you for taking the time to adress our issue. But solutions are not relevant for us in Nepal: Paypal doesn't work and Payonner doesn't allow fund transfer towards our banks. we can only withdraw money through atm, with big withdrawal fees and awful exchange rate. 

We really need Airbnb to find out what is  the issue with  bank transfer in Nepal. No reasons from our side / our banks prevent it to work fine. 

Thank you anyway! 

[Cora15]

My partner and I also host on Airbnb in Nepal and face the same issues. Since October last year, we haven't been able to receive payment into our bank accounts. We even opened another account to try to troubleshoot the problem but to no avail. This is terribly frustrating because the only way to receive money is via an overseas account and that means that we need to engage with wire transfers, remittance transfers and generally, with exchange rate fees in order to receive our money on a regular basis. We don't have Payoneer, as there were stuffups with us getting a card. We have backed and forthed in an unwilling dance with both Airbnb and our bank, and are frankly exhausted by this ordeal. Here's hoping that Airbnb looks into this matter seriously, now that many of us have voiced our frustrations. Thank you to those hosts who intiated this conversation!

Cheers

Shei

[Bhanu4]

the main problem is  (paypal banned in Nepal), another is something that our central bank doesnot want the people to know -Nepal Rastaya Bank doesnot want to let wire transfer like paypal because they want to take as much as interest from it and in this case they cant so right?  if there is wire transfer system in nepal banks going to be in loss. banking system will get affected. so I think there is something to do with our own central bank as rest of the banks have to follow its god **bleep** rules.  on the other hand payoneer takes too much comission(our main system is fooling us)

solution:

go to india or tell your trusted party in india-make paypal account there-open account in SBI in nepal-transfer money from india to nepal.

https://itnepal.net/paypal-in-nepal/#.WwWFxe6FPIU

another solution: tell tf Nepal has no paypal.

[Bhanu4]

quick recomment/recorrect:

yeah wire transfer is available in nepal. wire transfer-paypal is not available for receiving money

[Bhanu4]

anyone found a solution then contact here [Phone number hidden as per the community guidelines]

[Ravi37]

The Nepalese government has strict restrictions in place for Internation Money Transfers, 

I have tried in the past to carry out International Bank Transfers into Nepalese Bank accounts and have been hit and miss or failed mostly. 

The Government nor the banks are ready to accept international payment platforms such as

Paypal or any other platforms, there are many reasons why I feel though it is mainly due to corruption funds being money laundered out of Nepal.

This has affected the digital commerce growth in the whole country and we are decades behind form the rest of the world. 

I don't see these changes coming into force any time soon, to help digital transactions. 

Until there is a change in government and thinking, its a shame to say this but our government and politicians are lost cause.

Anyway with adversity comes opportunity and solutions so, maybe we should all have an AIR BNB MEETUP FOR NEPAL in KTM  and have a group discussion on how we can find a way around this issue.

Namaste!

[Ravi37]

Also, I forgot to mention, PayPal India or other country is not the solution.

Why? Paypal has a limit of funds transfer once you hit the limit you will need to provide further proof of address and bank + other documentation to carry on using the PayPal account. 

And verifying Paypal account past this limit is not easy. 

[Loïc31]

Hello Everyone,

I am interested in this matter and would like to know what kind of solutions you are using.

First, is this still a problem as of 17/07/18?

Is western union a viable option? (setting aside the hassle that it is to have to go to an office, queue and all to get the cash) What are the fees like?

Are you getting paid in cash when the guests arrive?
Did any of you got a proper reply from AirBnB since your last posts?

Thanks in advance, and best of luck to you guys.

Regards

[Camille--Sailesh-and-Co0]

Dear Loic,

After 9 months of struggle and dialogue of the deaf with Airbnb, it seems that our problem is finally solved!  we are now back to normal, finally being able to use bank transfer again.

The answer from AIRBNB has been quite a disaster: everyone is very sweet while you talk to them but the schema of support is extremly frustrating...Even after months of procedure and evidence of a serious problem, you only get to talk to junior support staffs that don't escalate the case properly and never believe the issue could come from airbnb side (which was the case). We all lost dozains of hours explaining the same things to new interlocutors again and again and trying to stop the vicious circle of automatic answers.

Anyway, perseverance pays off - hope you won't get into the same issue  as Paypal and western union are not very  good solutions because of extra fees ( 5%!) practicity reasons and/or tax issues. 

All the best