I’m from South Africa and Airbnb has stopped paying hosts here in our local currency, there are now significant banking costs associated with each payment (I’ve setup a minimum payment amount to offset this slightly.)
Here is their communication to local hosts:
We hope you’re doing well. We wanted to let you know that our banking partner has informed us that they’re no longer able to support local payouts in South African rand. Moving forward, your payouts will be sent via an international wire transfer.
Your bank may apply fees to each international wire transfer so, to reduce bank fees, you might want to consider adding a minimum payout amount to your Airbnb account. You can learn how to set a minimum payout amount in our help center.
Alternately, Payoneer pre-paid debit cards are now available as a USD payout method to South Africa. If you switch to Payoneer and receive a payout by March 31, 2016, Payoneer will give you a bonus $50 USD on your first payout. Learn how to add a new payout method here.
We’re very sorry for this inconvenience. We don’t know if our ability to send South African payouts locally will be different in the future, but if the situation changes we’ll notify you immediately. We appreciate your understanding, and thank you for hosting on Airbnb.
Regards,
The Airbnb Team
We’ve been told to make use of Payoneer, I’m just wondering if any of you have experience using Payoneer and if there is anything to be careful of? I’ve had a look at their site and it looks ok and withdrawls from airbnb are free but it seems there is an annual cost of $30/year.
Any thoughts/comments?