Comments on: Airbnb Charging in Wrong Currency with Excess Fees

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Aug 2019 19:56:50 +0000

According to Visa’s and Mastercard’s terms, the merchant has to offer you a choice. If no choice was offered, then you can have the amount reversed by complaining to your card company. If the price was 100 euros, but the merchant forced you to pay 100 pounds, then your card company would undo the charge for 100 pounds and replace it with a charge for 100 euros. In other words, the merchant is then forced to refund the difference between 100 pounds and 100 euros. The merchant is also hit by a high chargeback handling fee. This fee is meant to cover the card company’s costs for investigating your complaint. If Airbnb is hit with lots of these complaints, then they might eventually start complying with the rules.

By: Amy

Amy — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 01:23:49 +0000

Well I have just booked a place from the Air B&B NZ site, for a property in NZ, with a NZ debit/visa. After giving me a final price in NZD, the checkout defaulted to RAND. As the hotels are selling out that weekend (it’s a popular annual event) and it was my first Air B&B booking I just hit confirm assuming it was just a site glitch. I’m now hit up for currency conversion into South African RAND when there is absolutely NO South African connection – it’s a 3 hour drive from home!!! It’ll be my last Air BnB Booking, I’ll stick to book a bach in future.

By: Ross Bond

Ross Bond — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 16:28:45 +0000

We have just had the same experience. The accommodation was in France, so obviously in Euros and our account is in Euros, but the bank is based in the UK (an international account). We, however, live in NZ and booked from there so John’s comment about IP addresses seems to be incorrect, although he’s on the right track. Airbnb say that they can charge us in £s because of our bank’s address, without giving us a choice.
Can you tell us if your bank is located in the UK? It appears that Airbnb will use any excuse to charge in £s to gain the DCC charges and subject the payer to a poor exchange rate in their favour.

By: John

John — Sat, 20 Jan 2018 00:43:38 +0000

In reply to Siobham. No, airbnb currency is set by the country your IP is from. So if you reside in the UK, but for some reason are in, let's say France, your currency will be euro, not pounds. That is stupid, because it is not what your bank account currency is, nor it is what you should be legally charged according your residency. I know because I live in czech republic, but reside in slovakia. I always get the price and charge in czech crowns although my address is slovak and bank accound in EUR.

By: Prune

Prune — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 12:16:46 +0000

Airbnb is too stupid to let you select the currency? Don’t use them. There are alternatives.

By: Siobham

Siobham — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 09:41:27 +0000

Currency is based on the country in which you reside……. maybe you need an elementary banking course for numpties?