I have booked a lot of hostels via Hostelworld in the last year. I've always noticed that the 10% deposit they charge is slightly higher than what they say it will be--this is because they give the price in the local currency and then covert it to USD, EUR or GBP before billing you. It appears that they add about 1-3% to every transaction.

I've always thought that they justify this by claiming that was the exchange rate they use at the time (obviously, though, it never works in the customer's favor).

However, in my most recent transaction they actually showed it on the screen. My booking cost 6000 CLP and my 10% deposit was supposed to be 600 CLP. But on the order confirmation page it said:

Total paid: $1.19 (CLP658.40) Screenshot here

Granted, I know this one is small but some of the other ones have been much, much larger.

Seems completely shady to me. Do they have to disclose if they are tacking on extra fees for currency exchange? Does this post even make sense?