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A woman from Wuxi, Jiangsu province, recently faced a financial shock after mistakenly paying 60,000 yuan (approximately $8,300) for a one-night hotel stay on South Korea’s Jeju Island. The error arose from confusion between the Chinese yuan (CNY) and the Korean won (KRW) while booking the accommodation on Airbnb.
The woman, surnamed Xiao, booked a serviced apartment on October 13 during a trip with a friend. Upon returning to China, Xiao discovered that 60,904 yuan had been deducted from her account for the booking. This included the apartment’s nightly rate of 51,944 yuan, plus Airbnb’s service fee of 8,000 yuan, 800 yuan in tax, and a 160-yuan cleaning fee.
Xiao had assumed the price was listed in Korean won, which would have made the stay roughly $37 per night. "It’s not a luxury hotel. We believed the rate was in won," Xiao explained.
Realizing the mistake, Xiao suspected the property owner had incorrectly set the currency and contacted them for a refund. The owner agreed to a refund if Airbnb approved the request. However, Airbnb initially declined her appeal, citing the host's lack of a full refund agreement.
After several complaints and follow-ups, Airbnb offered partial refunds of 44,000 yuan and later 6,700 yuan before ultimately granting a full refund as a "gesture of goodwill."
The incident sparked heated discussions online. Some netizens blamed Xiao for not verifying the currency before completing the booking, while others viewed the situation as a potential scam. One Weibo user commented, “This kind of pricing, so far from common sense, feels like a trap for the unwary.”
Airbnb’s refund and cancellation policies also drew criticism. While the platform allows refunds before specified dates set by property hosts, refunds after the stay are typically at the host's discretion. Hosts can select policies ranging from flexible, which allows free cancellations up to 24 hours before check-in, to strict, which may charge 50% of the booking fee if canceled late.
