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Ho Chi Minh is almost twice as expensive as Hanoi? I didn't make it to Hanoi, but everyone told me it was the more expensive of the two. HCM is really cheap everywhere you go if you just stay out of the financial sector.

Keep in mind AirBNB doesn't seem to get sites below the $15 range, and a lot of hotels that are in this range don't list on internet exchanges either. For example in Ho Chi Minh there's a few decent airconditioned hotels next to Bui Vien for $10 a night but you wont find them online. Also in Southeast Asia I've found you can rent most everywhere for 30 days at a time, which in my mind is short term when I consider all the minimum 12 month leases I had to get in the US.

Good job though, I like that you're scraping other sites. This should be good to use in conjunction with Numbeo, which has its own biases.




It's also very easy to find a room to rent for a month for $300 or less in HCMC, even right in the center of District 1. I'm doing just that right now, in fact, and have a serviced room in a very good location. It's been my experience that Hanoi is generally more expensive in just about every respect but I haven't spent as much time there.

Personally if I'm going to put up with the hassles of living as a nomad I want to reap more of the benefits so I prefer to stay in cleaner, quieter beach towns and enjoy the slower pace of life but some people like city life I guess.


I found that Hanoi had a lot nicer and cheaper hotels than I could finnd in HMC. I did book online prior to arriving though - I was only staying in HMC for a short time and didn't want to waste my time accommodation shopping. I also found HMC to be a lot seedier than Hanoi.


Might be sample size related. Or simply that Saigon is in much more demand than Hanoi and the ones that entered the data could simply have stayed in more expensive accommodation such as very central or in the financial sector.


I came here to say the same thing. There's no way Hanoi is cheaper then HCMC, even living in D7 or D2.

Been here the last three years.


Yes, an indicator of ease of renting would be great - lease lengths and bureaucracy.




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