Originally Posted by
giblet
Hostelworld is based in Dublin, Ireland and they give you the choice of paying in USD, GBP or Euro. However, the prices for local hostels are in the currency of the country they are located in. Based on what you said, does this mean Hostelworld is required to give you the option to pay in the local currencies, or is the local currency actually Euro because that's where Hostelworld is based?
The local currency would be Euro because of where they're based. I don't think the credit card company would refund anything based on the CLP/USD exchange rate from a merchant in Ireland.
That said, if you have a surcharge-free credit card like Schwab or CapOne (or a card like Citi or BofA that charges the same fee whether the transaction is USD or EUR), you might be better off choosing Euros and letting your card do the conversion. Since their "working" currency is probably Euro as an Irish company, they may convert CLP to EUR first and then EUR to USD, so you might only get screwed once if you pay in EUR vs. twice with USD.