Payoneer Lets More Airbnb Hosts Get Paid in Local Currencies

Airbnb has expanded its partnership with FinTech Payoneer.

The new version of the team-up allows Airbnb hosts in multiple countries to get paid in local currencies, according to a Tuesday (Sept. 19) press release. The two companies have also agreed to extend their collaboration for another three years.

Payoneer’s platform and network of bank partners “not only [allow] Airbnb hosts in such locations to get paid locally but also to access and spend funds in a variety of ways, among other benefits.”

Payoneer has been expanding overseas, which is part of the company’s mission of helping small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in 190 countries transact, do business and grow globally.

Company officials said last month that international markets are critical to SMB growth, pointing to a survey of 1,000 global SMBs which anticipate that nearly two-thirds of their revenue and 50% of their vendors will come from outside their domestic markets by 2025.

“These businesses must manage accounts receivable and payable flows across multiple countries, currencies and jurisdictions,” Payoneer Co-CEO John Caplan said during a second-quarter earnings call in August.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS Intelligence examined the importance of offering local payments for merchants who want to expand overseas.

“Lacking an adequate selection of locally preferred payment methods can result in customer abandonment, with 44% of consumers in the United Kingdom saying they would forgo a purchase if their favorite payment method were unavailable,” PYMNTS wrote in February.

And eCommerce merchants hoping to grow overseas are often surprised at the degree to which global payment trends vary versus their experience in the West. There is a wide array of local and alternative payment methods around the world, each of which is some customer’s favorite, Andy McHale, senior director of product at Spreedly, said in a February interview with PYMNTS.

“For the U.S. and large parts of Europe, we tend to think of credit cards as the primary method of paying for things, whether that’s in person or online,” McHale said at the time. “But that doesn’t work for every individual, every ecosystem, every region on the planet. You’ve got your digital wallets, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay. You have your bank account and direct debit as well.”