Airbnb payments in USD

[jblaze5779]

The ripoff is the cleaning fees they charge. No one in Arg charges 100 dollars to clean an apt.

 

[Rich One]

Somebody suggested craigslist and soloduenos. I found a guy who owns some apartments just by mooching around on booking dot com and contacting him directly instead of booking through the site. Craigslist has very few BA apartments but I messaged one English-speaking owner there.
I don't know what the locals do, just thought to put in my two cents. Rich One posted about locals. If locals book Airbnb using dollars, maybe it's not the ripoff I feared

When locals book Airbnb only offered in dollars the exchange rate to pesos is official rate plus 30% plus 35% in taxes

 

[Sequoia1321]

I chatted with Airbnb customer support and they said it’s not allowed to negotiate any deal, such as long term rental, that’s to be done outside of the Airbnb platform. It must all be done within the platform, but you can negotiate it and the host can make changes within the platform. They’re siting this section of their rules:

https://www.airbnb.com/terms

Under section 12-1

Do not request, make, or accept a booking or any payment outside of the Airbnb Platform to avoid paying fees, taxes or for any other reason. See our Offline Fee Policy for exceptions.

 

[Hippi10]

The ripoff is the cleaning fees they charge. No one in Arg charges 100 dollars to clean an apt.

No way. The ripoff is when they charge you 25 usd for cleaning and they don't get to clean it in the first place. Airbnb provides a cleaing guidelines home oweners need to follow in order to guarantee excellence of their service. When I complained to the owner about paying 5.000 pesos for a cleaning service that did not respected airbnb guidlines he just got mad at me...

 

[jblaze5779]

No way. The ripoff is when they charge you 25 usd for cleaning and they don't get to clean it in the first place. Airbnb provides a cleaing guidelines home oweners need to follow in order to guarantee excellence of their service. When I complained to the owner about paying 5.000 pesos for a cleaning service that did not respected airbnb guidlines he just got mad at me...

Yeah this is true. Most of the airbnb I've been at were obviously not clean. It's not so bad in the city but in the interior we've have used sheets, gross bathrooms, and dirty dishes. We just expect it now.

I sent an owner a note about this considering he might not even know that his cleaning people are poor quality but I never even heard anything back.

 

[SecretShopper]

I chatted with Airbnb customer support and they said it’s not allowed to negotiate any deal, such as long term rental, that’s to be done outside of the Airbnb platform. It must all be done within the platform, but you can negotiate it and the host can make changes within the platform. They’re siting this section of their rules:

https://www.airbnb.com/terms

Under section 12-1

Do not request, make, or accept a booking or any payment outside of the Airbnb Platform to avoid paying fees, taxes or for any other reason. See our Offline Fee Policy for exceptions.

Why would you call airbnb? Book at place for a week or so to see if you like it and then if you do negotiate a rate for subsequent stays directly with the owner. That doesn't break any rules

 

[Caribbean Cool]

I'm a newly arrived tourist from the U.S. I found a hotel online, but the website I used generates the price in USD by taking the hotel's ARS rate and converting to dollars at the official exchange rate. So I talked to the hotel owner who told me his exchange rate (not quite the blue rate, but okay) and I paid cash USD.
I'd like to use Airbnb to rent a short term apartment but Airbnb doesn't allow cash payment. So the question is, how does Airbnb generate the listed price for an apartment? I tried emailing an Airbnb apartment owner here in BA and asking if I could pay cash, but they said no. I guess I'm still in the dark. Is it possible for a dollar-based person like me to rent an Airbnb and get the blue rate?

No, you can't change the conversion which is the official conversion....you have to rent through Airbnb and then start negotiating with the owner. Remember that you are paying AB a fee and so is the owner. Most would like to avoid the fees...but not all. So communicate with the owner, carefully, before you come if you intend on staying awhile. And once you here do not even think of using your credit cards....nada. Put them away. Same with your bank debit card...forget you have it.

 

[El Vagante]

No, you can't change the conversion which is the official conversion....you have to rent through Airbnb and then start negotiating with the owner. Remember that you are paying AB a fee and so is the owner. Most would like to avoid the fees...but not all. So communicate with the owner, carefully, before you come if you intend on staying awhile. And once you here do not even think of using your credit cards....nada. Put them away. Same with your bank debit card...forget you have it.

Ha ha, yes I experienced Argentina's wacko money situation on my first trip here, when the official rate was about 10:1 and the blue was more like 15. That was before Macri. I don't know if injecting politics in the thread is a good idea, but I can't resist expressing the opinion that, as long as people keep electing Peronists, this kind of thing will continue. I have a fat wallet with like eight credit cards and two or three debit cards, among other things. It's entirely useless now. I'm only carrying it because my hotel room doesn't have a safe.

 

[Rich One]

Ha ha, yes I experienced Argentina's wacko money situation on my first trip here, when the official rate was about 10:1 and the blue was more like 15. That was before Macri. I don't know if injecting politics in the thread is a good idea, but I can't resist expressing the opinion that, as long as people keep electing Peronists, this kind of thing will continue. I have a fat wallet with like eight credit cards and two or three debit cards, among other things. It's entirely useless now. I'm only carrying it because my hotel room doesn't have a safe.

Well once you get the gist of it and get a local Credit Cards you start buying everything on 12 interest free payments...! The last payment with devaluation of 50% per annum will be nothing ... compound to this the Blue rate on your dollars..!!

 

[Hippi10]

Yeah this is true. Most of the airbnb I've been at were obviously not clean. It's not so bad in the city but in the interior we've have used sheets, gross bathrooms, and dirty dishes. We just expect it now.

I sent an owner a note about this considering he might not even know that his cleaning people are poor quality but I never even heard anything back.

What a dick.