Different price charged to guests!

[smartbnb.io]

@CanadianHost

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.

I have assumed the same the bill for the the guest (from $71 X x 11 nights … to $886) was in USD and the rest was in CAD. As you have found out, this is the only rational choice.

@CanadianHost

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.

I don’t think the exchange rate itself is at the stake, because the effect of exchange rate would be neutral.

The issue is the cost of the conversion in terms of a conversion fee, added to the exchange rate. Per Airbnb terms, and what I have shown from Airbnb’s API, there is no conversion fee on Airbnb’s service fee, but only on the basis amount.

If you are interested, give me a link to your listing (in private message if you would like) and I will tell you clearly, what is the conversion fee under every scenario. I don’t think the special offer window is helping much.

[CanadianHost]

@smartbnb.io

The issue is the cost of the conversion in terms of a conversion fee, added to the exchange rate.

I agree. The guest would have to pay a currency exchange either way. The question is how much do they charge to convert it? A credit card typically charges 2.5%. Actually, if ABB charges the guest $866 USD and they are paying it in Australian currency there could be an additional conversion fee added to that by the credit card company.

Let’s do this the other way around. Let’s take my original amount of $1000 CAD and convert that to USD:

It should be $761 for the base rate, but Air is charging $784, which is $23 extra. Perhaps that’s their “conversion factor”. That is on top of their fee of $102 USD, which is already 13% of $784, not 5%.

Here is what Air is charging on this rental with a base cost of $761 (in USD):
$ 24 (host fee)
$102 (guest fee)
$ 23 (extra fee?)
$149 TOTAL

149 / 761 = $19.58%

[smartbnb.io]

I see the root of the misunderstanding: Airbnb’s commission rate has to be calculated on total, not a part of the amount. I agree with your total compensation of $149 (but for the exchange rate used)

However, the commission rate is not 149 / 761 (which is the basis amount) but 149 / 886 (which is the total amount). Airbnb doesn’t take 149 from 761 (the 761 is for you), but it will surely take 149 from 886. And that’s 16.8% (the discrepancy being due to your use of Google’s exchange rate while Airbnb will use Oanda as an industry standard for the daily rate)

Enough math for today, I guess

[CanadianHost]

I see what you’re saying… I have to admit I wondered about that right after typing that last post. My brain is hurting!

But still… agreeing on the figure of 16.8% - that is more than DOUBLE what I expect Air’s fees to be! I though it was 8%.

I just PM’d you. I think the greedy 16.8% is costing me a booking, which is actually much more that the $1000 I used for testing purposes.

[smartbnb.io]

Actually, 8% has never been a fair representation of Airbnb’s actual commission.

Airbnb’s service fee taxed on the guest is always variable from 6 to 12%, and gets lower as the reservation amount increases. That is why Smart Pricing wants to decrease your rates: Airbnb makes twice more on 1000 bookings at 100$ than on 100 bookings at 1000$.

On top of that, Airbnb charges a 3% commission on hosts for “payment services”.

So you get a 9-15% commission… but you would only reach 9% if you are in a luxury segment.

[konacoconutz]

And you claimed yesterday to not be that smart!!