Villa deposit
 

The villa we recently stayed in was owned by a lovely British family, (have stayed in it before) unfortunately between booking and staying at the villa it was sold to an American owner. I have had my security deposit returned, but it is £53 short. I questioned why and he stated as it is now done through paypal, there are 'fee's both ends' £53 worth? Do you think I Should question it further, or just let it go.

He suggested using bank transfer, (in the future, presumably, he didn't give me that option) but I always though that encountered fees anyway. What do other dibbers do when renting villas from US owners?

I’m afraid I’d be livid! There are no fees if he pays you friends and family

When I owned a villa, and returned a guest's security deposit that had been paid via PayPal, the full amount was refunded as PayPal also refunded their fees. However, the refund had to be authorised within a certain timescale (think it was a month from the payment date but can't quite remember). This was from a business account.

If your deposit was paid in £s to the British owner, he would have passed this on to the new owner in dollars. Perhaps the fees were incurred when the new owner exchanged the deposit from dollars back into £s. However, if that's the case, I think he should not have deducted them from you but taken the hit himself.

Paypal always used to refund their fees at the same time as the refund was sent however they have recently changed that policy. This means that the owner has to refund the equivalent of the Paypal fees themselves.

If your deposit was stated to be refundable then the owner should be reimbursing you for the entire amount and taking the hit on the fees themselves.

Since this change has only happened it may be that some are not aware that when they refund the fees will be withheld.

is it not to do with exchange rate issues, as I presume you would be doing a £ - $ -£ transaction when its refunded? it would only be exactly the same if you were paying & being refunded in the same currency?

Thank you for all your replies. I am going to contact the new owner again. Even if there were fees, surely they shouldn't be over 25% i.e £53 on £200? Or does that sound about right?

My thought is, they have transferred $ to £ - exchange rate is poor, then it's a business account and that's normally a 3% fee from memory plus the 30p.

So exchange rate and the regular fee, still doesn't add up.
And the owner advised that there were no issues with your stay?

That seems excessive. When I stopped renting last year it was 4% so doubt it has increased that much in such a short time. However, as previously mention, currency exchange may be contributing to some of the cost. Best to ask the owner for a breakdown of the fees deducted and then you will have your answer.

No problems with our stay, nothing deducted for any other reason. I have contacted him again, but he just says international fees on paypal are outrageous. I will try to avoid American owners in future and will certainly not pay anyone via paypal. :nonono:

Did they return $200 instead of £200 maybe?