How currency works on SpareHolidays

What currency does SpareHolidays use?

Euro, and only euro — every listing on SpareHolidays is priced in EUR, and every card charge runs in EUR too.

That is a platform-wide rule, not a per-listing setting: the code that creates and edits a listing pins the currency field to the literal value EUR, so no listing, offer or transaction can exist in anything else.

It is a deliberate constraint, not an oversight. Every fee, VAT calculation and payout figure on the platform is built assuming euro, so letting a different currency into just one of those places would silently break the other two.

What actually happens if my card isn't in euros?

The charge you agree to at checkout is still a euro amount — SpareHolidays and Stripe never convert it into your card's currency. Your own card issuer does that conversion, when your bank turns the EUR charge into a debit on your statement in whatever currency your card is issued in.

Stripe's own documentation on currencies is direct about who is involved: when the currency a payment is charged in differs from the currency of the customer's card, it is the customer's own bank or card issuer that may charge them an exchange-rate fee — and that bank or issuer can also charge a separate cross-border fee whenever the card and the business are in different countries, regardless of which currency was used.Source: Stripe — Stripe Docs — Supported currencies (checked 2026-08-31)

SpareHolidays' checkout does not offer a currency picker or show a converted total, because there is no code path on our side that performs that conversion — the price shown is the EUR price, full stop.

Who actually sets the exchange rate — SpareHolidays, Stripe, or my bank?

Your bank or card issuer sets it — not SpareHolidays, and not Stripe.

Stripe does have a feature that can show a shopper a converted price and take the conversion out of the issuer's hands, called Adaptive Pricing. But Stripe's own documentation ties it to one specific Stripe integration, and SpareHolidays' checkout is built on a different one.

Stripe's documentation for Adaptive Pricing — the feature that would show a buyer a converted price at checkout — states it works only through Stripe's Checkout Sessions integrated with Elements, and is explicitly not supported on the Payment Intents API.Source: Stripe — Stripe Docs — Adaptive Pricing (checked 2026-08-31)

So today, the exchange rate you get is entirely your card issuer's — the same one they would use for any other euro purchase you make with that card, travel or not.

Will my bank charge a foreign transaction fee?

It might, and if it does, that fee is your bank's, not SpareHolidays'.

Stripe's documentation is explicit that this kind of fee, when it applies, is charged by the customer's own bank or card issuer — not by Stripe, and not by the merchant taking the payment.Source: Stripe — Stripe Docs — Supported currencies (checked 2026-08-31)

Whether it applies at all, and how much it is, depends entirely on the card and the bank behind it — some banks and card products waive it, most do not. SpareHolidays has no visibility into that fee and no way to discount or refund it, since it never reaches SpareHolidays' side of the transaction.

What currency does a refund come back in, and why might the amount differ?

Euro — a refund is issued in the same currency the original charge was made in, same as the charge itself.

The Refund Policy says an approved refund is initiated with Stripe within 2 business days. Stripe and your bank then decide when it lands back on the original payment method.Source: SpareHolidays — SpareHolidays Refund Policy (checked 2026-08-30)

If your card is not euro-denominated, your issuer converts that EUR refund back into your card's currency the same way it converted the original charge — but as a separate conversion, on whatever date the refund actually processes. Exchange rates move, so there is no guarantee the rate on the way back matches the rate on the way out, which is why a refund can land as a different number in your own currency than what you originally paid.

What currency is a seller paid in?

Euro as well — a seller's payout leaves their SpareHolidays-connected Stripe balance in EUR, the same currency their listing was priced and sold in.

If a seller's own bank account is not euro-denominated, the same principle applies in reverse: their bank, or Stripe's own payout conversion into that bank account, is what converts it — not SpareHolidays, and not at a rate SpareHolidays sets.

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