Post: #1

Ok so I am preparing for my 'Brazilian' escapade in winter and am wondering if anyone has any experience on not paying super rip off prices?

My first stop is Porto Alegre where I plan to do a 5 week Portuguese course. The typical Air b and b price for a studio/1 bedroom place in a non-dangerous area is something like £700-£1100 for a month. Even after bargaining I can't get the price down to even £600.

Maybe I am naive and this is in fact a typical price you can expect to pay for short-term in a Brazilian city that isn't Rio or Sao Paulo, or maybe it is?

I checked out the shared/private room options and the prices are more sensible but there are few offers available and the ones that are have too few reviews...

Does anyone know a good alternative to air b and b for short stay (+/- month) in a Brazilian city?

Post: #2

(09-02-2016 07:05 AM)WannaBang Wrote:  Ok so I am preparing for my 'Brazilian' escapade in winter and am wondering if anyone has any experience on not paying super rip off prices?

My first stop is Porto Alegre where I plan to do a 5 week Portuguese course. The typical Air b and b price for a studio/1 bedroom place in a non-dangerous area is something like £700-£1100 for a month. Even after bargaining I can't get the price down to even £600.

Maybe I am naive and this is in fact a typical price you can expect to pay for short-term in a Brazilian city that isn't Rio or Sao Paulo, or maybe it is?

I checked out the shared/private room options and the prices are more sensible but there are few offers available and the ones that are have too few reviews...

Does anyone know a good alternative to air b and b for short stay (+/- month) in a Brazilian city?

airBNB is always pricy in Brazil.

easyquarto.com.br is what all the locals use but its more for finding temporary lodging and for finding roommates. However, you need to be fluent in portuguese to navigate it so ask a local friend to help.

Sometimes you can find really good deals there similar to craigslist "temporary housing" where its people going out of town for 2 months and they have their room open and sometimes the dates coincide exactly with yours and your can get a steal. That happened to me once where i scored a nice room in 3br apartment in the heart of Ipanema for like $150US a week, cause the guy was just out of town in a specific time so it was hard for him to fill it so better take some money then nothing at all.

Another smart idea is to just book an airBNB for one month and then find something better. Porto Alegre is packed with universities so i'm sure there is affordable housing just not advertised on the internet.

Also be aware the quality of the apartments on easyquarto are brazilian standard not western standard so don't expect much.

Post: #3

I will check it out, thank you.

The best offer I found for 5 weeks was £685 which covers all fees, well reviewed in a good, safe part of town. I'm very tempted but obviously if I can bump off a significant amount I will go for it

Post: #4

Easy Quarto is a good option but I don't know how popular it is in POA - I feel like it hasn't REALLY taken off anywhere.

I'd say your best bet is to look up apartment sharing groups on Facebook, like these:
Dividir apê - Porto Alegre
Dividir aluguel Porto Alegre

It's the same people that would use Easy Quarto but you have a bigger pool of offers and it's less "professional" - i.e. expensive. You can also make a post yourself and ask people if they have a place avaiable.

I'd also troll Couchsurfing and see if any of the hosts with a spare bedroom would be interested in renting it out for a couple of weeks.

Post: #5

You can do what I did, use couchsurfing to rent a room. This is by far your lowest priced option. I wrote a guide: /thread-56566.html

Another option, which I think Ringo is suggesting, is to post a question in the city's couchsurfing page, asking to rent a room.