On the “official” community center, the belief is that AirBNB is now charging a conversion fee, so it is no longer a rounding issue, but an actual fee. I assume that it is a percentage.
I ran a quote on Airbnb’s API on @dev22’s listings for 4 guests from January 15 to January 18 (3 nights).
For a guest paying in EUR, this is the base price breakdown:
"base_price_breakdown": [
{
"amount": 23,
"currency": "EUR"
},
{
"amount": 23,
"currency": "EUR"
},
{
"amount": 23,
"currency": "EUR"
}
],
"base_price_fx_fee_as_guest": {
"amount": 4,
"currency": "EUR"
},
3 * 23 €, which is what @dev22 is finding here, including a 4 € “fx fee” (FX here must stand for forex fee).
The exact same quote, only changing the currency for the guest to CZK (@dev22 payout currency):
"base_price_breakdown": [
{
"amount": 594,
"currency": "CZK"
},
{
"amount": 594,
"currency": "CZK"
},
{
"amount": 594,
"currency": "CZK"
}
],
"base_price_fx_fee_as_guest": {
"amount": 0,
"currency": "CZK"
},
No forex fee, and probably the raw nightly rate as set by @dev22.
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Very interesting, @smartbnb.io. But I haven’t noticed any conversion fee at my end. My payout is in Indian Rupees. And Indian guests are the exception here. So presumably I would have such a conversion fee all the time. But it’s not obvious. Maybe it’s charged on the guest side, so I don’t see it?
It is “charged” on the guest side (as I say, this adds a cost on the guest’s side), but the guests themselves don’t see it as it is included in the base reservation price. It is not documented in any way.
In any case, hosts payouts are not affected at all.
Well, that sucks. One more thing inflating guest rates. In any case, thank you for letting us know. Have you said anything to Airbnb about this?
I wouldn’t know what to tell them. I am sure they don’t need me to tell how their pricing works 
No, I mean that (to quote you)
To my utter delight, it is documented in the Terms and Conditions when you start looking for it. Who here doesn’t read the rules, and terms and conditions extensively?
Service Fees and Other Fees
Airbnb Payments collects the Service Fees charged by Airbnb pursuant to the Airbnb Terms. Where applicable, Airbnb may also charge Taxes (such as VAT in Europe) in respect of the Host Fees and Guest Fees. Airbnb Payments deducts the Host Fees from the Accommodation Fees before remitting the balance to the Host as described in these Payments Terms. Guest Fees are, as noted above, included in the Total Fees.
Balances will be remitted by Airbnb Payments to Hosts via the Payout Method selected by the Host in the Host’s currency of choice, depending upon the selections the Host makes via the Site, Application and Services. Amounts may be rounded up or down as described the “Rounding Off” portion of this Section 6.
Please note that Airbnb Payments may impose or deduct currency conversion costs on or from any payments or payouts by Airbnb in currencies other than U.S. dollars. More information on any such costs or deductions is available via the Site and Application, and in Section 10, “Currency Conversion”, below. More information on Services Fees can be found at www.airbnb.com/help. Except as otherwise provided herein, Service Fees are non-refundable.
And in the Currency conversion section:
“Booking Currency” means the currency in which a Guest has to pay for his or her Booking. At the time the Guest submits a Booking request, the Airbnb platform will select the Booking Currency, based on the Guest’s country of origin as determined by (i) Airbnb’s platform logic; (ii) the Payment Method associated with the Booking; or (iii) both. Airbnb supports only a certain number of currencies as Booking Currencies. The Booking Currency for a Booking may be different from the relevant Listing Currency.
“Listing Currency” means the default currency associated with the country in which the Listing is located. For example, the Listing Currency for a home located in New York would be U.S. dollars, and the Listing Currency for a home located in Japan would be Japanese Yen.
“Base Exchange Rate” means a system-wide rate used by Airbnb for currency conversion that is in effect at the time the currency conversion is processed, and does not include any fee or mark-up by Airbnb. Airbnb establishes the Base Exchange Rate using data from one or more third parties such as OANDA (www.oanda.com).
“Adjusted Exchange Rate” means a rate for currency conversion that is calculated by adding a mark-up to the Base Exchange Rate. This mark-up represents a charge imposed by Airbnb for its holding costs and foreign currency risks.
Each currency conversion is processed at a currency conversion rate. This rate generally refers to the amount of one currency that must be paid to buy a certain amount of another currency at a given time. For example, if it costs US$125.00 to buy €100.00, the currency conversion rate of U.S. dollars to Euros would be 1.25, and the currency conversion rate from Euros to U.S. dollars would be 0.8. Currency conversion rates will vary from time to time.
Airbnb Payments will process a currency conversion in the following situations:
- Where the Booking Currency is different from the Listing Currency when a Guest submits a booking request for a Listing, Airbnb will calculate the Total Fees in the Booking Currency by applying either the Base Exchange Rate or the Adjusted Exchange Rate at the time of the Booking request to the Total Fees in the Listing Currency. The Guest Fee, which is a percentage of the applicable Accommodation Fees, will be calculated based on the Accommodation Fees in the Booking Currency (i.e. after conversion from the Listing Currency). The Adjusted Exchange Rate will be applied if the Booking Currency is different from the Listing Currency.
- When a confirmed Booking is modified or cancelled, and there had been a currency conversion when the Booking was submitted, the currency conversion for any additional payments required of the Guest or any refund to the Guest will be processed at the same rate as applied to the earlier payment by the Guest.
When you as a Guest submit a Booking request for a Listing, you will be able to view the actual exchange rate used to calculate the Total Fees in the Booking Currency. Where the Adjusted Exchange Rate is applied, the exchange rate will be displayed inclusive of the mark-up. The exchange rate (and any mark-up included in the rate) will also be stated in the billing receipt for your Booking.
Confirming that it is never shown to the guest (I meant “documented” in that sense, which was wrong).
I think it’s visible to some. My recent Canadian Cheapskates noticed there was a 3% fee to convert. This was in addition to the service fee they paid, so somehow it must be visible to them.
By the way, I thought it was odd that at the time of booking my hotel in Prague I was told there was going to be tax due in cash upon arrival on the room. When I got there they told me I did not owe anything else. So maybe they don’t collect VAT on Americans at this hotel although I noticed it was collected elsewhere on us.
May I say again how SMART you are, @smartbnb.io. We are so lucky to have you around. 
excellent work smartbnb, i was suspicious this could be it.
in that case i am really angry at airbnb they dont disclose this visibly and that they dont even tell me this when i contact them and directly inquire about the issue, that is pretty unprofessional 
Haha! We “cheap Canadians” have to watch our traveling dollar right now! It already costs us 35% more to travel than it did 2-3 years ago… ouch!
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Sorry, didn’t mean to disparage all of you. Disappointed by them, as I had rescued them off FK to save them a buck… then let them do all kinds of things I don’t let normal guests do, like use my car to charge their devices. And when all was said and done they left me four stars on everything including value and three on accuracy because the place was bigger than it looked in the pics and it had a kitchen which was not disclosed! (It was in the emails I wrote him, after I rescued him from FlipKey.) He was one who didn’t like Justin Trudeau, as I learned when I was singing his praises to them. Does that make him a conservative?
It was also during our election when I assured him Trump wouldn’t win, and when he did, maybe he marked me down for being an idiot American whose countrymen have elected a lunatic to the highest office in the land. 
Thanks, @smartbnb.io for your insight. I decided to “do the math” on my example above (copied & pasted):
The guest is Australian, but Airbnb is converting their payment to USD and paying me in CAD (Canadian). Note the guest pays $886 USD, which currently would convert to $1165 CAD. So on a $1000 CAD booking Airbnb is making $30 from me, plus $165 from the guest. TOTAL=$195. That is a 19.5% booking fee!!
I wonder if they are actually converting the funds and collecting exchange fees multiple times?
I used the $1000 figure as an example for ease of doing the math.
Thanks @konacoconutz for all the kind words you spread here and there. As for being smart, I am definitely absolutely not, to an absolutely depressing extent. What is smart is my product, and still, that might be a good name, but under no circumstance is it accurate (and it keeps reminding me 
).
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Nah! I knew you didn’t mean to do that. 
But “polite Canadians” should know better than to leave a less than glowing review for someone who bent over backward to help them out.
I don’t quite understand why it was a negative that you place is bigger and has a kitchen… who wouldn’t consider that a positive?
Well, he is at least good looking. ;o) My friend used to babysit him when he was a kid.
Not making good choices now, though. He is NOT going to Trump’s inauguration which is burning a huge bridge, no matter what side of the fence you’re on. I guess mama never taught him “keep your friends close and your enemies closer”.
Haha! There were no good choices this time around IMO. I think the world is collectively shaking their heads.
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No, that is not $1165 CAD, because the conversion fee applies to the basis amount (which is the average nightly rate x the number of nights). The amount on which there is a conversion fe is 784, not 886. There is no conversion fee within service fees or cleaning fees (curiously enough).
That $784 CAD gives US$1028 on Oanda which is used by Airbnb (and to be frank, is an industry standard) for the day rate.
On that example, the conversion costs $28 CAD. A part of that is Airbnb’s mark-up or forex fee, but the bank is itself getting compensated too. That is a near 3% anyway, as shown with @konacoconutz guests.
$28 CAD (total cost of the conversion, of which a share compensate Airbnb)
- $30 CAD (host service fee)
- US$102 (guest service fee, or $133 CAD),
=> Airbnb makes $160 CAD/$US 122, which is a much more reasonable 13.7% commission (122/886).
Would much rather have Trudeau than what we got here. Damned good looking! Whereas we now have an unhinged ghastly orange clown.
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Same here, I won’t mind signing this EU-Canada trade deal if we get to import Trudeau as well.
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It sounds like you’re non-USA as well. I advise you to give it a try in your own site because what you’re saying doesn’t quite make sense to me. (Go to a guest who is not from your country and pretend to Send Special Offer to them.)
In my case the guest MUST be paying in USD because Airbnb would not collect $886 CAD from the guest and pay me $970 CAD. That means ABB would LOSE $84. That was the reason I looked more closely at this a few months ago - and determined that it was the change in currency.
As well, note that my payment states it is in CAD but “Your guest will pay” does not indicate any particular currency.
So assuming the amount is in USD, the exchange rate would remain the same in the end regardless of whether you lumped their payment of $886 together, as I did, or if you separated it out into the rental amount plus service fee - $784 + 102 = $886.
That still puts the booking fee at a whopping 19.5%. But even if it were 13% I find that very high. The reason many people book via Airbnb is because they have the perception that there is a reasonable 8% booking fee. IMO that fee is there to help cover things such as the exchange rate and Credit Card fees, as it does on VRBO (they state that is the reason they charge hosts for taking the bookings for them).
I’m going to give this a try with some of my US friends to see what comes up on their side vs mine.
-
The inquiry, below, is for a guest from the USA.
-
This inquiry is from Taiwan:
I did it with a Canadian inquiry and it also came up with “TWD” funds. I don’t know what that’s all about! But both of these examples indicate that the guest payment is in a different currency than my payout.
The first guest, from Australia, had an extra $10 fee than the USA guest, even though it appears that both charges are in USD.