Amazon is having a promotion now which allows you to get 20% off a US$50 AirBnB gift card. This promotion is limited to 1 per Amazon account but there’s nothing stopping you from getting your friends/relatives to buy on your behalf.
The catch is that AirBnB gift cards by right can only be redeemed by US residents. So you’ll need to (1) indicate your residence country as USA in your AirBnB profile (easy) (2) link a US-based payment method to your account (not so easy).
With regards to (2), there are two ways of doing this
- The first is to use the UOB VirtualPay AMEX Card (which comes with a US billing address). Unfortunately, UOB is not issuing this anymore
- The second is to buy a prepaid online credit card that has a US billing address. I found a provider called US Unlocked that seems to provide just this (full disclosure: haven’t tested it personally but it does seem promising)- a US bank issued virtual credit card with a US billing address that you can top up from Singapore. There are also several other virtual credit card options you might be interested in (this probably deserves a full post in itself)
You’ll be pleased to note that you can use multiple gift cards in a single transaction, and can combine gift card balances with whatever referral credit/other coupons you have with AirBnB. If you sign up using my link, you get S$51 off your first stay.
It’s simple to take advantage of this- all you have to do is go to this link and select the US$50 option.
At checkout enter the code Airbnb and click apply. You’ll see the cost reduced to US$40. I’m using my Citibank Rewards card to buy this so that I’ll get 8 mpd.
Once you finish the order you should receive an email from Amazon. Click on the link and you’ll receive your gift card. 
Then follow the instructions on the AirBnB page to redeem your credit and you’re done.
Even if you’re not a first timer AirBnB user, you can still get S$72 off your next booking by registering an AirBnB for Business account. Keep in mind you don’t actually need to stay for business, all you have to do is add a work email ( I assume this means anything other than a gmail/hotmail/yahoo email) to your account, book a stay and click the box that says “business travel” (see below)
I’ve got upcoming AirBnB stays so it’s a no brainer for me to buy a few gift cards to pre-purchase a 20% discount. I do not know how long this deal will be valid for but if you’re able to link a US-based payment method to your account then I’d act sooner rather than later.
Hi Aaron, thanks for this. So it worked for you? If yes, I am going to jump on this right away.
worked for me with my uob virtualpay amex.
Hey Aaron, I don’t understand how you used UOB virtual pay amex(to fulfill condition 2), and still got the 8 mpd on citibankrewards. Could you explain a little?
to clarify- i used citibank rewards to buy the $50 airbnb gift card on amazon
i linked my uob virtual pay amex to my air bnb account to fulfill the “us based payment method” criteria for redeeming gift cards.
Got this – ?
But the 1 card limit per account is restrictive.
you could always create multiple accounts to get more cards- that’s what i did.
Us unlocked seems to attract a lot of fees greater than the savings. How did u do it ? I might have understood the fee structure wrong though.
i didnt use US unlocked because i have a uob virtualpay amex. but i agree their fees are too high. need to do some sniffing around to see what other virtual cc-s are out there with reasonable rates
Hey Aaron, what postal code do you use for the UOB VirtualPay card for the AirBnB entry? the comgateway postal code or?
you should get a comgateway mailing address complete with zip code.
Hi! Is there any way to change the country of residence? I tried changing it under Profile, but when I tried redeeming the gift card, error said that only US residence can redeem the card.
I have a US prepaid card, so the US billing method is covered.
Thanks for the help!