Rio residents out to make a killing letting homes to visitors for Olympic Games

With hotels 97pc full despite near doubling of rooms since 2009 and Airbnb taking 30,000 bookings, enterprising locals are asking as much as HK$18,000 a night for use of their homes

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A terrace of a house for rent in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. With 97.3 per cent of hotels booked, landlords are charging a pretty penny for tourists still seeking accommodation for the Olympics in August. Photos: Reuters.

Published: 4:21pm, 16 Jun 2016Updated: 4:21pm, 16 Jun 2016

With hotels mostly booked, landlords are charging a pretty penny for tourists still seeking accommodation in Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics in August – asking as much as US$2,305 per night for a three-bedroom apartment far from venues and beaches.

With 97.3 per cent of hotels full, according to price-comparison site Trivago, visitors are resorting to room rental websites like Airbnb to find lodging.

From penthouses in the plush beachside neighbourhoods of Leblon and Ipanema to bare brick homes clinging to the hillsides of Rio slums, or favelas, lodging of all types is on offer.

A resting place in a house for rent in Rio. The city has never seen such high demand for accommodation, says the President of Rio’s Hotel Association.

But some Cariocas, as Rio locals are known, appear a little overeager to turn a profit.

Taxi driver Vitor Hugo Alves is trying to rent out his three-bedroom apartment in the traditional neighbourhood of Cosme Velho for 8,000 reais (HK$17,800) per night during the games.

The apartment has a view of the Christ the Redeemer statue, but is 8 km from Copacabana beach and 35 km from the Olympic Park.

“I haven’t managed to rent it out yet,” says Alves. “There’s been less interest than I’d hoped.”