There are still some reasonably-priced accommodations left in Rio de Janeiro for next year’s World Cup.  That’s as long as you don’t mind bars on the windows, the stench of sewage from the street, and the fading possibility of a gun battle outside your window.

The problem is that despite being an international tourist destination, Rio has only about 55,040 hotel rooms in the city.  At least 600,000 tourists are expected to come to Brazil for the world Cup, with roughly half of them staying in Rio.  Do the math, because hotel owners and managers already did.  Even modest hotels are jacking up their prices to A$515 per bed, per night.

The government doesn’t seem to be dealing with what many would call gouging, and that’s just fine with the hotel owners.

“Rio’s image is being exalted around the world at this time,” Alfredo Lopes, the president of the Brazil Hotel Industry Association’s Rio chapter said.  “It would be absurd to try to regulate hotel prices when there are people prepared to pay what the market determines is the correct price.”

A$515, the correct price?  Yeah, thanks a lot, free market.

Brazil’s Ministry of Tourism has compiled about 150,000 places available to stay in Rio and nearby cities, including hotels, hostels, private homes, and motels.  And a Californian entrepreneur started a website called “Favela Experience”, hooking people up with the Rio beyond the beaches and glitzy hotels – The slums, known locally as Favelas, where people are hoping to make a little money and meet some new people.  49-year old Maria Clara dos Santos is opening her home to as many as ten tourists for US$10 per night.

“We can provide a level of human warmth and authenticity that places down below cannot,” she said.  If adventurous travelers can deal with the bars on the windows and other inconveniences mentioned in the first paragraph of this story, they get immersed in the Rocinha Favela’s vibrant musical scene, cheaper prices, outstanding hillside views, and absence of pretension compared with ritzier parts of town.  Rio Police have conducted several pacification programs in the Favelas to bring crime rates down.