Tong Family

One annoying thing about AirBNB (there are many things to like!) is the way it handles currency conversions. If you just take the defaults, then you end up paying in your home currency and not the local currency. AirBNB actually charges a 3% conversion fee and it is not clear how to get around it.
T/here have been many versions of AirBNB so it is hard to figure out what is going on, but as of February 2018, here is what you can do:

1. Go to AirBNB as usual and figure out what you want to book.
2. When you are on the payment page at the lower left there is a nearly invisible button that has the word currency on it. It is set to your home currency, say USD.
3. If you switch it to the local currency of the booking, say it is Canada, then it will say CAD and the values will all change. A quick look at XC.com will show that this amount is less, in one test case, this definitely worked.
4. Then use a card that you have that has “no foreign transaction fees” and you will save dollars. Good luck!