AirBnb seems not to allow payment in local currency

1

Hi,
I’m going to Sweden this summer and, happening to have a bank account there and wanting to exhaust and close it, I want to pay in Sw. kronor (SEK).
AirBnb will show the cost of a room, etc. in SEK but seem to be debiting my Swedish account in euros as I live in Spain.
This will add to my costs (I believe about 3%).
Why can’t AirBnb simply debit my account in Swedish kronor?

2

I think you need to contact Air

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3

Thanks, but I was hoping that others in the forum might be able to comment, as
contacting AirBnb can be a time-consuming business.
Their policy is quite clear, another reason why I was looking for peer-group comment. I just don’t understand why, with a bank account and credit card in a certain currency, the transaction can’t be effected in that currency, no matter where in the world one lives.

4

I would be willing to bet it has everything to do with your address. Do you maintain any sort of address / post box in the currency’s home country?

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5

This. My understanding is that Airbnb bills you in the country where your Air account is, in Euros and with spanish taxes if you opened your Air account from a computer in Spain.

6

In reply, no, I don’t maintain an address in Sweden; and I don’t see how Spanish taxes can come into it, since I’m not paying tax on the room(s) I rent through AirBnb. The money in my Swedish bank account was already taxed here in Spain since I earned it while living in Spain.

All I can see is that AirBnb are helping themselves to a little bit more of my money.

7

Actually, I would like the financial arm of AirBnb to address this issue.

8

AirBnb state at their Help Center, ‘…we also charge a 3% conversion fee, which accounts for holding costs and currency risks’.

In my (Swedish) case, there are no holding costs and no currency risks, since I’m paying with a Swedish Visa card directly from a Swedish bank to the Swedish host, albeit through AirBnb.

9

You pay the VAT on Airbnb service fees, at the spanish rate if you book from Spain. Basically you are billed in Spain by Airbnb Ireland even in you book a room in Sweden with a Swedish card.y

10

If there’s VAT to pay, Barthelemy, my guess is that this would be covered by AirBnb’s costs in the transaction.
AirBnb make no mention of VAT in the part of their statement I quoted earlier.