A lot of people will sit around in hostels doing nothing much. There’s a lot of talk about money saving in hostels, but not a lot of action at times. I believe you can live cheaper and better than in a hostel and get a full feel of the culture – as long as you’re staying for a couple of weeks or so.
I woke up to a bit of pressure and immediately hit http://craigslist.com for some options. People all over the world do everything from find flat mates to trumpet lessons.
My strategy was to find people who were looking for flatmates and act as bridging rental income. That way you just pay normal rent or a little more, and you get to live with locals. Two weeks of rent at that rate is cheaper than hostels. For example a pretty nice room right in central Copenhagen was 2000 to 3000DKK/month = $500 to $700AUD/month. That’s pretty reasonable really.
So I drafted this email and hit the flatmate wanted section…
“Hi, I’m in Copenhagen right now. Your room looks cool, I’m staying for 14 days and can pay you for that time while you find a roommate. I could move in tonight. If that helps you out let me know. Cheers.”
Straight away I got a few responses ranging from 1000DKK a week to 3000DKK a month. I enquired further and just had to send a few docs and a deposit. No big deal.
But then the lazy man in me got an idea.
Sophie was pretty funny and I had since learned her flat was right in the area I was looking for. Her internet worked well and it was nice and quiet for getting work done. She could only say no right? – and I knew she was ballsy enough to do so. That made it easier to hit her up. Besides why not give someone cool some money and help them out a little?
So I rang her and told her I’d weighed it up and offered her 2000DKK for 2 weeks or $250AUD a week. That’s a little bit over the market rate, but it meant I could just get settled and get on with my work. She didn’t hesitate to accept the offer which was a relief.
$500 for two weeks accom in a Northern European country is pretty good.
If I really wanted, I could have probably found somewhere else for half that or about $150 a week. That’s $20 bucks a night. The cheapest hostel I found was $40 a night and that’s sharing a room with 10 farting snoring Israelis, Yanks and Aussies. Here’s a review of one ; “Crappy – dirty. bad vibes. not a big fan of this hostel. dirty side of town. no drinking in this place. staff not so friendly either. rooms crappy and spray painted. small beds. yucky.” – of course some are good.
So what can be learned?
- Stay in one place as long as possible if you can rather than racing around and staying somewhere different every night
- Don’t be afraid to hit people up if an opportunity presents itself.
- Use http://craigslist.com plus some initiative.
- In this case, I could have had a month’s accommodation for $500 AUD in one of Europe’s most expensive cities. If I was travelling with a partner or spouse, that would have been a double room, so that’s pretty good.
- Don’t do it the same day like I did. You could line this stuff up a few days in advance, but any further out and the flatmate fill in trick wouldn’t fly.
After one rough start, my Tight Artistry is really starting to warm up. Now with accommodation arranged, the next step is to find transport the Tight Arts way.
