Airbnb payments in USD

[Dougie]

If you come to Argentina for the first time use Airbnb for sure. They have hundreds of rental apts. and have faced all the posible problems. They have legal and accounting local expertise. You are protected.

Agreed for a first timer, it's better to use Airbnb.

 

[Sequoia1321]

Why does there need to be legislation?

If after your booking is up with Airbnb and you want to rent directly, rent directly. If you value the extra protection that Airbnb provides, use Airbnb.

They don't want you finding a place on the platform then asking the person to accept cash, as they wouldn't get their cut.

Airbnb can't prevent you from ever having a commercial relationship with the other party after your initial booking on their platform.

Are you saying this is not true or that customer service rep misunderstood? Or that what airbnb is doing isn’t legal? When I asked airbnb yesterday if after staying at a place and wanting to do a long term lease, like 6 months for example (mentioned this specifically), is this allowed to do outside of the airbnb system/platform, they said no, and cited me that part of their terms of use that mentions it, which I posted earlier in the thread. I called them earlier today and spoke to another rep who at first said they don’t recommend it but they wouldn’t ban you, but then when I asked the rep followup questions and mentioned what the other rep in chat told me yesterday, she said she made a mistake and indeed it’s not allowed and they can cancel the membership of all the parties involved in that case. I made sure to ask again to verify there’s no misunderstanding, and she confirmed that if you found the property through airbnb you can’t reach even a long term lease deal with the host outside of airbnb, even if it’s a rental agreement of 1 year.

For things like this I think sometimes legislatures get involved and say for example that a company can’t be doing this policy. But it seems, as far as airbnb is concerned, this sort of practice is against their terms of use. Something like this probably often takes legislatures or the court system to change their position, otherwise it’s just their terms of use as far as they’re concerned. The fees of 14% do seem high if you’re going to want to do a long term rental.

For my situation it seems a good deal still to book a furnished place through airbnb, pay with US credit card while getting a blue rate I guess, have some protections from the airbnb system, have the option to do short term or semi-long term options, and to be able to check out multiple neighborhoods and apartments to see which one I like, and then maybe do a semi-longer term deal with the host for a good discount, still using the airbnb system. Anyways, here’s an article on how to get some cash back on airbnb, not sure if it’s any good, but it says possible to get up to 5%:

Compare Travel Credit Cards | Finder.com

Travel credit cards can help you earn miles, save on foreign transaction fees and reap the rewards. Here’s how they work.

www.finder.com

 

[Dougie]

I think you're overanalyzing this

 

[elhombresinnombre]

<snip>

Airbnb can't prevent you from ever having a commercial relationship with the other party after your initial booking on their platform.

Some platforms expect to have an exclusive relationship with their clients: can anybody here who lets out property on AirBnB say if that is or isn't the case with them?

 

[SecretShopper]

Are you saying this is not true or that customer service rep misunderstood? Or that what airbnb is doing isn’t legal? When I asked airbnb yesterday if after staying at a place and wanting to do a long term lease, like 6 months for example (mentioned this specifically), is this allowed to do outside of the airbnb system/platform, they said no, and cited me that part of their terms of use that mentions it, which I posted earlier in the thread. I called them earlier today and spoke to another rep who at first said they don’t recommend it but they wouldn’t ban you, but then when I asked the rep followup questions and mentioned what the other rep in chat told me yesterday, she said she made a mistake and indeed it’s not allowed and they can cancel the membership of all the parties involved in that case. I made sure to ask again to verify there’s no misunderstanding, and she confirmed that if you found the property through airbnb you can’t reach even a long term lease deal with the host outside of airbnb, even if it’s a rental agreement of 1 year.

For things like this I think sometimes legislatures get involved and say for example that a company can’t be doing this policy. But it seems, as far as airbnb is concerned, this sort of practice is against their terms of use. Something like this probably often takes legislatures or the court system to change their position, otherwise it’s just their terms of use as far as they’re concerned. The fees of 14% do seem high if you’re going to want to do a long term rental.

For my situation it seems a good deal still to book a furnished place through airbnb, pay with US credit card while getting a blue rate I guess, have some protections from the airbnb system, have the option to do short term or semi-long term options, and to be able to check out multiple neighborhoods and apartments to see which one I like, and then maybe do a semi-longer term deal with the host for a good discount, still using the airbnb system. Anyways, here’s an article on how to get some cash back on airbnb, not sure if it’s any good, but it says possible to get up to 5%:

Compare Travel Credit Cards | Finder.com

Travel credit cards can help you earn miles, save on foreign transaction fees and reap the rewards. Here’s how they work.

www.finder.com

You're a lost cause. Just rent through airbnb forever or get a local lease and leave it at that.

 

[FrankPintor]

A couple of comments:

1. There's no exclusive relationship between Airbnb and property owners. In fact you can quite often find the same properties listed on other sites.
2. You can contact any property owner who might have listings on Airbnb. Airbnb have terms and conditions that restrict owners and prospective renters, so they can apply sanctions within their platform. You agree to a rental and you're bound for that time by the T&Cs. Anything you do afterwards or outside of Airbnb is none of their business. You are not required to know than an owner you contact has property listed on Airbnb. As a practical matter, it would be difficult for Airbnb to prove you had used their platform to contact a property owner, unless you actually leave evidence on their platform.
3. Airbnb's entire business model is to prevent potential renters having direct contact with property owners. That how they earn their money, obstructing two parties who would otherwise make contact and establish a business relationship, and it's why they create all this FUD
4. Airbnb's "protection" is highly overrated, and Airbnb will almost always act in the property owner's interest. It's a property listing business, the "sharing economy" thing died a long time ago.
5. As I see it, the only reason for using Airbnb is the convenience of using a credit card, which can be very useful in Argentina.
6. Anyone believing that Airbnb charge only a 14% fee is very naïve indeed. See point 1, find a locally listed property (in USD) and compare prices. See https://www.uplisting.io/blog/guide-to-airbnb-service-fees, and evidence of a backlash against excessive fees here https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2021/05/25/airbnb-fees-cleaning-hotels/
7. In Argentina I've found owners on Airbnb to be extremely flaky, I've had to deal with multiple pre-trip cancellations (pre-pandemic, maybe it's better now). There are no penalties for owners cancelling like this (see point 4.)

The Airbnb community page (https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/bd-p/Community-Help-EN) might be a good place to ask questions.

 

[SecretShopper]

A couple of comments:

1. There's no exclusive relationship between Airbnb and property owners. In fact you can quite often find the same properties listed on other sites.
2. You can contact any property owner who might have listings on Airbnb. Airbnb have terms and conditions that restrict owners and prospective renters, so they can apply sanctions within their platform. You agree to a rental and you're bound for that time by the T&Cs. Anything you do afterwards or outside of Airbnb is none of their business. You are not required to know than an owner you contact has property listed on Airbnb. As a practical matter, it would be difficult for Airbnb to prove you had used their platform to contact a property owner, unless you actually leave evidence on their platform.
3. Airbnb's entire business model is to prevent potential renters having direct contact with property owners. That how they earn their money, obstructing two parties who would otherwise make contact and establish a business relationship, and it's why they create all this FUD
4. Airbnb's "protection" is highly overrated, and Airbnb will almost always act in the property owner's interest. It's a property listing business, the "sharing economy" thing died a long time ago.
5. As I see it, the only reason for using Airbnb is the convenience of using a credit card, which can be very useful in Argentina.
6. Anyone believing that Airbnb charge only a 14% fee is very naïve indeed. See point 1, find a locally listed property (in USD) and compare prices. See https://www.uplisting.io/blog/guide-to-airbnb-service-fees, and evidence of a backlash against excessive fees here https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2021/05/25/airbnb-fees-cleaning-hotels/
7. In Argentina I've found owners on Airbnb to be extremely flaky, I've had to deal with multiple pre-trip cancellations (pre-pandemic, maybe it's better now). There are no penalties for owners cancelling like this (see point 4.)

The Airbnb community page (https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/bd-p/Community-Help-EN) might be a good place to ask questions.

Dude, you're wasting your time. Trying to explain this to this person is like trying to turn dirt into gold.

 

[Sequoia1321]

You're a lost cause. Just rent through airbnb forever or get a local lease and leave it at that.

Dude, you're wasting your time. Trying to explain this to this person is like trying to turn dirt into gold.

I just reported what airbnb says is their terms of service if you chose to use their website and agree to those terms, and that I’m not comfortable going against that to try to save some money, for reasons of not wanting risking doing something dishonest, and not wanting to potentially get in trouble with airbnb. Why go through all of that trouble of shady deals under the table for something that obviously airbinb says is against their terms of service and that you shouldn’t use their service if you disagree? I’m not necessarily saying airbnb’s policy is right or wrong, and even mentioned that the fees seems high in those cases, that I can understand why people would want to try to avoid paying those fees in those cases, and that the legislature/courts could get involved. With all due respect, to attack me for that and call me a lost cause, etc., seems out of line. Anyways, I don’t know what else to say and don’t want the discussion to go off topic. Probably best to just leave it at that please and move on.

 

[Caribbean Cool]

This discussion is weird.

 

[jblaze5779]

Shady business is normal here. You're going to have to get used to it.

Rent a place for a few weeks and in the meantime look for another place where you can work directly with the owner.