If you are coming to Cuba...

#8... Airbnb has no mechanism to deposit in a Cubans bank account. The cash is muled in, from what I gather or, maybe, credited to one of those payment cards, like AIS, periodically. The latter would incur a fee, I would think . Some casa owners have complained about excessively long late payments.

They get the money from the ATM, so it must be a payment card, then. I was curious about fees as well, but when I asked they showed me the transaction on their phone which only listed the Airbnb commision. They didn't mention other fees. Maybe there's another card fee in there. Anyway, it still works out cheaper for them than other ways to drum up business.

Perhaps Airbnb has come to an arrangement with Fincimex that works out better now.

It would have to be, literally, free or someone is losing cash.

I have a mid level contact at fincimex that has been very helpful in a number of occasions in the past. Not that i am all that curious what, if any, arrangement they may have with Airbnb... If i get completely bored..lol.. I'll shoot her an email.

I have nothing to add about the specifics of how money is transferred from Airbnb to casa owners.

I only know from the two casa owners that I know well enough to be confident that they are truthful with me that they prefer an Airbnb reservation to one over one from a traditional Cuban source because they end up with more money.

Just got off the horn with my friend in Havana. She says they use an AIS card to grab the cash, it doesn't cost them anything to use and payments from Airbnb never take longer than 48 hrs.

No discount other than the 3% that Airbnb charges ? They get their rate less the 3% ?

What do you mean by “Air B&B has some seriously questionable business practices”?

Reply
connergo
May 26, 2018 at 9:06 am
Encouraging casa owners to drop prices absurdly low to remain competitive, aggravating an already critical housing crisis for Cubans (ie gentrification), rewarding the most descarado instead of the most worthy, questionable taxation practices…..

No discount other than the 3% that Airbnb charges ? They get their rate less the 3% ?

Yeah, that is my understanding. Their room rents for $25, Airbnb takes 75 cents and puts 24.25 CUC on the card. I can ask her again next time we talk.

I still don't understand what Conner is on about. Airbnb isn't doing anything other than what the Cubans themselves have been doing for decades. Cubans were doing bnb before the web existed. What I think it does do is encourage more Cuba tourism by making it easy for Cuba newbies to navigate the casa particular system.

In some other places, Airbnb may be incentivizing property owners to convert formerly residential housing into short term rentals. I'm not sure that is the case in Cuba. As we all know, Cuba's situation is unique in the world.

While I have great respect for Conner both on a personal level as well as her on the ground knowledge about Cuba, I simply must disagree with her on this point.

My specific knowledge is only from two casa owners, one in Havana and one in Holguin, that I have confidence in to speak honestly. I do sense they are representative. Both families are 1%'ers but both because of their long history of hard work and frugal lifestyle. I believe those are admirable traits, not those to refer to negatively.

The casa particular owning family in Havana bought a decrepit apartment 25 years ago. They both worked and rehabbed the place in they spare time over many years. When casa particulars became legal long ago they obtained a license. They have built up a good book of returning visitors by delivering good service long before Airbnb existed. They continue to live frugally and improve their facilities.

The family in Holguin did medical missions abroad, one being a cardiologist and the other a pharmacist. They leveraged that nest egg into buying a house, upgrading it, and then getting a license to operate a casa particular. Today, they have 3 rental rooms of which 2 have kitchens. They have high occupancy from repeat visitors plus a new new ones including a small number from Airbnb. They also own two taxis, one a modern Kia, the other an older but nice air conditioned Moskvitch. He still works as a cardiologist but when not at the hospital drives one of their taxis. The rest of the time, he manages drivers for the taxis. The once pharmacist now spends her full time managing the casa staff. They both work hard, live frugally, and invest in upgrading their business.

Airbnb had almost nothing to do with these two casa particular owner's success. That was all their effort. Airbnb may have sustain their success to a small degree but I am pleased with that.

I will also point out that I have met many casa particular owners who did little more than get a license and wait for the waves of tourist to arrive and make them wealthy. They did no improvements, no promotion, just waited for their ship to come sailing in. Many of them have surrendered their CP license. Some have occasional guests regardless of them being listed on Airbnb or not. Now some of them are beginning to be jealous of the 1%'ers and their successes.