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.

[Steve306]

In other words, she understands the question but will do nothing about it! How long would it take them to put up a page explaining the charges and the options available.  why do they basically hide it? What is the problem they have of paying into or taking monies in the currency the property is advertised? There is no FX risk. 

[Jeff-And-Cheryl0]

@Steve306

Yes.  It is a hidden fee as well as the crappy currency exchange fee.  Total rip off.  These 3% conversion fees and exhange rates that VRBO/Homeaway do not charge.  I would hope some lawyer gets a class act going.  If airbnb wanted to make more profit they should just raise their rates and then we as consumers could decide - dont hide them.

[Vicky61]

This is extremely frustrating. I don't see any reason Airbnb has to impose this on travelers other than wanting to tack on additional fees wherever possible.

No response from Airbnb on this thread either - if this doesn't change I'll be looking for other avenues of accommodation.

[Yuan3]

I agree. Airbnb is already charging a service.  They should give renter the option of paying local currency.  The renter should not be forced to pay the currency of renter's resident country with unnecessary exchange fee added

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Terrence0 @Carlos292 @Yuan3 @Vicky61 @Jade28 

could you please help me understand. 

- If someone from USA books my place and my account is in USD does he pay transaction fee?

- If someone from EU books my place and my account is in EUR, does he pay transaction fee twice? From € in $ in € ?

Will the amount I get be the same?

[Cormac0]

@Terrence

I have a Polish Zloty account, a Euros account, and an American Dollar account in my Polish Bank, when I asked Airbnb that I wanted to get paid in Euros they told me I could only get paid in local currency where I’m hosting.

When one considers the combined fees both the guest & host must pay and the additional loss on exchange, AirBnb in not cheap!

I wonder what we’re paying these absorbent fee’s for, because when things go well it’s like clockwork, but when things go badly the service which we're paying the absorbent fee’s for is deplorable.

My comments are based on the endless complaints from both Guest and Host a like about their interaction with Airbnb.

It’s Absolutely ridicules that we cannot get paid in the currency we have bank accounts for and take this on warranted charge off our Guest, Airbnb have no problem telling us to lower are prices, how about they take their own advice for a change and do away with needless currency exchange conversions.

[Dave116]

This is what happened to me 3 weeks ago and, last evening.

I am in the usa, and I had viewed a place in Canada, had their site display to me in CAD – Canadian dollars. Priced out the place to be 630$ CAD total.

Their site will ‘convert’ for me from CAD over to USD for me.

Yesterday was March 9th, 2017  and the official rate for CAD to USD was $1.35 for $1.00 USD.

If they allowed the charge to come as $630 CAD onto my credit card, my credit card will show (I know from experience while shopping for stuff while in Canada) about $466 USD.

This will be a VISA card conversion of about 1.33-1.34 range for me.  I have a NO FEE card as well.

Instead, airbnb’s site will tell you on the checkout, “THEY” are converting for me at a rate of $1.30CAD to $1USD.

So I’m shortchanged safe to say, .03 to .05 range…. It goes directly to airbnb’s pocket.  If they ever claim they are passing a conversion cost to me, well let me handle the cost directly, I procure a card that give me NO cost, that’s my business.

If they are handling our ‘cost’… the fees are usually .03, as others In thread have said. I took a pic of their ‘rate’ that they give me…   it was 1.30 last night when if you googled, the official rate on 3/9 was 1.35

The .05 - .03 fee, = +0.2, 

Either Airbnb is keeping .02 at least… if not keeping the .03fee as well, we don’t know if they really get his with conversion expenses.

They can keep millions of dollars every day in a float account internally to Airbnb, and buy/sell to their advantage playing the FX markets, quite frankly…

What was my loss in all this?   Look:

If they were as supposed to, allow me to book it in CAD, VISA will convert the $630 to about $466USD.

Instead, with Airbnb converting for me, it went to as I said, at rate horrid rate $1.30, $484USD

So, $484USD instead of $466USD, I pay +$18USD for nothing, right to airbnb

[Steve306]

How did you get the Airbnb exchange rate, do they publish it anywhere? I can't get anyone to give me a break down of what they have charged.

[Gary183]

I am in France using a French credit card in euros for a place in Venice. First it wanted to charge me in USD and charge me 3% even though I have a 0% fee on my bank card. Then I deleted all cookies for ABB and then it gave me the total in GBP again with a plus 3% to exchange.

I finally made another change, the language, now switched to French it kept the amounts in euros. This was even though in my profile, etc., all was indicated in euros.

There is something fishy going on here.

[Brian130]

Is there an official Airbnb response on this anywhere?  I really like using Airbnb, but I can't help but feel like they took an easy excuse to charge everyone who uses Airbnb internationally a 3% fee (on top of their service fee) to line their pockets with.  It seems dishonest.  I want to pay with a credit card that has no foreign transaction fees.  Let me.

[Sam-And-Amber0]

I also noticed this charge, in combination with a poor conversion rate. I had initally planned on booking 2 months of airbnbs for a trip to Europe, but am over-the-top glad that I chose against using Airbnb for this trip. I hope they start to hear their customers.
1) Stop skimming 3% off the top for conversion, it's unnecessary...you're not a bank, you're a multi-billion dollar corporation raking dollars off the top for no reason.

2) Use the actual conversion rate. THere is no reason not to.

3) Allow customers to pay in the currency of their wish. Your choice not to allow this funnels more money into your pockets, get it, but you're going to start losing customers. I'm an early supporter and have been advising friends against your service.

4) Add the features back that customers showed up for! PROPERTY TYPE SEARCHING. we want to find unique properties and you've removed the capability

5) Add filtering. How does saying 300+ search results with no way to sort help anyone?

P.S. losing me fast.

[Alexander139]

Unfortunately, this is a huge rip-off I just paid $150 more as they wouldn't let me pay in Euros. That money goes straight to Airbnb. 

Not happy about this and I will start looking for airbnb alternatives.

[Jeff-And-Cheryl0]

This is really a hidden fee and a money grab by airbnb and an insult to their customers (both guest and host).  These 3% fees really add up after spending a year travelling outside of the US.  Especially as you say - when you have a credit card that already doesn’t charge any foreign transaction fee.  Let me just use my US credit card to pay in the local foreign currency of the host with NO 3% fee.  Shame on you Airbnb - my car rental company, restaurants/airlines, foreign train tickets, other booking sites do not charge the 3%. This forces me to book elsewhere when possible. Not a way to build a hospitality brand in my opinion – I hope airbnb doesn’t go down the route of the airlines and all the crap fees they impose on their customers.  If I didnt have to pay this hidden 3% fee I could afford to stay longer with my host - in turn the host makes less because airbnb takes this fee from me.

Airbnb has plenty of SDE (Software Design Engineers) that could easily fix this for all of us.

[Scott169]

This is fascinating and I'm glad I checked this out before booking places for a two week trip to Spain. Not very comfortable with Airbnb ripping me off like this. What are everyone's favorite Airbnb alternatives that will be honest with me about the fees they're charging?

[Jason197]

Just copy the title of the property you wish to book & paste in to Google to find an alternative site (eg Homeaway) listing the same property but allowing payment in the local currency.