Help with 6 weeks accommodation in Paris!

5-6 weeks at 300 euros.. that was a steal.. and 450 is an amazing price too.. frankly I would grab that if budget is your main concern because I doubt you will find a rental for less then that...

Ann.. I am wondering.. do you have a realistic budget for living away from home for that amount of time....

430 euros is about $730 New Zealand. Yes, I feel that's way too expensive for some kind of dorm room type accommodation for a month. And they require a 1 month deposit - money which I need at this time to live and eat on. I'm nearly 50 and not a student.

Sorry it does not matter what that equals in your money.. ( I am Canadian so do not complain to me about that.. I have to pay 1.72 for one euro myself).. it matters what the norm in where you are going.

As a grown woman .. you should realize that in a large city like Paris what you can get will not be anything like what you might get somewhere else.. but frankly.. New Zealand must be incredibly cheap to live in because a dorm room at our university costs over 1000 dollars for a month.. four weeks.. you are asking for almost a month and a half. On edit.. just looked up dorm acomadation at our university.. for stays below the 8 month school year the prices are WAY higher.. up to 2700 a month..

You need to think what is the norm or reasonable for where you are going.. not for where you live.

Have you looked into Couchsurfing.. its the cheapest option I can think of.. I have not tried it.. so am only recommending it as a possible option, no idea if it would work... but its free or cheap.

If you can live on 1000€ for that amount of time you would be living very economically. This amount would include housing, food, and transportation. It's possible you don't have enough money to do this without getting some help. Can you borrow the money you need?

It is very late in the day to be looking for accommodation for the end of February! Is this TESL course available at a later date when you have saved some NZ dollars? Otherwise I am not at all optimistic you can possibly manage it on your really, really meagre budget. Is there no where in New Zealand to go for a TESL course?

I'm afraid that couchsurfing may be your only option: you can't do a bed in a shared 4-8 person dorm room in a Paris hostel for 430 euro/6 weeks. College dorms here in the states run far more than that too.

You'll probably have to find several couchsurfing hosts as 6 weeks would be a really long time for a houseguest. Paris is not an inexpensive city so if you're unable to swing even the (amazingly cheap) 430 euro room +deposit, you might want to think about doing your training in a more affordable city with a more advantageous exchange rate?

TESL courses are available in Montreal! The NZ dollar is close to the CAD so it may be affordable for you. You can pretend you are in Paris.

"Airbnb has nothing left at this point"? (Seriously, I have never seen them sold out :) ) I assume you mean 'nothing basically free' Since 300 Euros for 5 -6 weeks was to high for you to commit I am not sure there's an affordable option out there (I did find a "room' in a house out by the Beauvis aiport for $357 US for a month on there)

http://www.eurocheapo.com/paris/hotels/all.html?sortby=price

This shows the cheapest places this site dedicated to "cheap" can find. I figure it's $1,176 US dollars on thier cheap option.

You have left this rather late if you are going the end of Febuary.

I you can't afford 450 for 6 weeks lodging you simply do not have enough money to do this; food isn't free either; transport isn't free either. Paris is an expensive international city, you can live cheaply but not this cheaply unless you literally find free lodging.

This close to the date of travel, trying to find something in one spot on airbnb for 5-6 weeks is going to be impossible, so yeah, they'd be sold out. The only alternative would be to move around to diff airbnb's that are available and in your price range.

Couchsurfing could work, but I think it would be a rare host who would want someone for more than a week. Unless you chip in for expenses of course. Try posting on the Paris group on couchsurfing and see if someone can help. I'm ready for couchsurfers to leave my place after 2 nights. :) Another option - I've never used it - Hospitality Club.

Here's an article that may help...

http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-tips/finding-cheap-accommodation/

Contact the school and see if they would be willing to somehow work with you on the payment of a 1 month deposit (e.g., pay 2 weeks up front in advance of your trip and then pay remainder part way through). The school is giving you a rock bottom price even at 430 Euro for a month.

A bunk bed in a shared dorm room at a hostel would cost you about 20-25 Euro a night, and the majority of hostels won't let you book a bed longer than 1 week, maybe 2, tops. So you'd have to keep switching hostels every week or so. Maybe you could find a cheaper hostel way out in some suburban area, but then how are you going to get around because your public transit costs just went up.

I just don't see any one couch surfing host wanting someone staying with them free of charge for 5-6 weeks, so you'd have to continue to keep your fingers crossed another couch surfing spot became available somewhere else. And I just can't envision a lot of couch surfing hosts would be ok about your using their kitchen every day to cook your meals. It seems most hosts just want to welcome someone to flop on their sofa for 1-2 nights, tops (with the unspoken expectation of perhaps your buying them dinner or taking them out for drinks in exchange for the free lodging).

Why not just take training like this in Auckland or Christchurch if you think you can find cheaper or free lodging in your own backyard? Are you not able to get a refund at this stage if you cancel the training in Paris?

You could try to find something on Craigslist's room shares, or post what it is you are hoping to find with your limited funds and see if you somehow manage to get a response. They might have something in your price range, but I would guess it's going to be way outside of Paris central (and you'd need to check very carefully on who it is you might be dealing with since it's not any sort of arrangement that's been vetted through the school).

No - I just happened to be trying to find the name of the other website where you could get free hosting and that was the website that popped up when I did my google. I didn't even notice the name of the poster...which is Ann...not Matt. Sorry conspiracy theorists!

Have you considered home exchange?
We stay in Europe for extended periods of time by doing this and it costs nothing!
If you have a place of your own it's a great way to be in another country (or anywhere in the world for that matter) for a long time and have someone in your home to take care of it and watch it while you're gone.
We use the website homeexchange.com and have completed over 13 exchanges all over the world.
If you are interested PM me and I'd be happy to tell you more!
I also have a blog about home exchange at homeexchangernut.blogspot.com if you want to know how to get started.

The problem with a home exchange is the timing. I doubt there are many people looking for a 6 week exchange starting in the next week or so.
But it does not look like the orignal poster has been back so... either we didn't come up with what she wanted or she's found someplace and moved on :)

When someone asks a question it would be polite to return and make some kind of comment - either "thanks for the info/advice" or "I found a place, thanks", rather than leave us hanging and new people posting when it's a done deal.

Nancy i think she is mad at me because i basicallly said her wishes were not reasonable for Paris...sorry but i tried not to be rude about it, but a small dose of what is realistic and what is not was in order, as i really think that other then trying to arrange multiple couchsurfing stays, she will not get cheaper accomadation in Paris then what the school offered.

Hi all. Sorry I haven't been back to reply. Didn't mean to seem rude. I'm doing volunteer work in India at the moment and the wifi is iffy here. I would have arranged a place to stay in Paris sooner...but I changed to an earlier TESL course. So I completely did this to myself with the short notice issue. I have found a place on a site similar to airbnb. Not absolutely ideal, but within my budget. It will work. You are all correct, I probably didn't budget for this trip adequately. I just left my abusive husband and spending a month in Paris has always been a big dream of mine. I could have done the course somewhere cheaper...but I just threw caution to the wind and went for it. After living in rural India for two months, I feel like I can adapt to anything! Thanks everyone for your advice, I do appreciate it.

Hi nomadic.writer4,
Glad to hear you have a place in Paris, from your latest post, it seems like you deserve a trip there! I hope it's great.
Thanks for the update. Sorry some other posters had unfriendly comments -- perhaps not realizing that we all have other things to do and cannot always respond to comments in a timely matter. Usually we are all pretty friendly here.

" unfriendly comments" actually BG my comments were exactly what i would say to a loved one, friend or daughter.

I also don't think my comments were unfriendly - they certainly weren't meant to be. But I do feel that I must apologize to Ann for my comments because I did goof - I truly thought that the thread had been running for several days, not just one. If I had realized that, I probably wouldn't have said anything about some posters not returning timely, I would have given her more time to respond before commenting. Sorry about that.

I'm late coming to this thread, but I'll add what no-one else has said directly. I hope you are having a great time in Paris and that doing this course there is proving to be exactly the get-away-from-it-all that you needed.

Hello!

Aw thanks, that's lovely of you to say that. Once again, my home stay fell through (why do people even offer to host?). But I kept the faith and have been offered a studio flat to stay in. TESL course starts tomorrow. Life is good...and getting better;)