(Edit 2019: guys, please look at the date of this post. It’s over 5 years old. I no longer live on Roatan and cannot find a rental for you. Do not email me asking about rentals. See my suggestions below if you’re looking for a place, or look at my Roatan FAQ page. There are many people on the island working as property managers and they deserve your business!)
I had such a huge response to my last Roatan Rent post that I decided to dig through my iPhone photos and do another post on my last apartment that I rented! I guess people are looking for this kind of information online, and I think budget rentals on Roatan are not represented online much. When I was looking before I moved down here, all I could find were expensive vacation homes and hostels.
My advice if you’re looking for a cheap rental: first, these are only cheap because these are LONG-TERM prices. They’re not this cheap for a month or two. They’re cheap because that price is for six months or a year. Second, everything on Roatan is done through word-of-mouth and in Roatan Facebook groups. Search for the Roatan Rentals groups on Facebook, post your dates and budget and wishlist, and see who gets back to you. Don’t send any money to book a place unless you’re 150% sure it’s legit. There’s really no way to prevent someone taking your deposit and then renting the place out from under you (and fun fact, there’s no functioning legal system there so good luck getting that back). For this reason, I personally don’t recommend booking in advance for a long-term rental.
My recommendation is always to book a hostel or vacation rental for the first two weeks and then start asking around when you arrive. Viewing places in person is best. You can also get a feel for the neighborhood – the pictures of the house might look nice but they won’t show rowdy neighbors with hundreds of screaming kids, a tied-up dog next door barking non-stop, the bar nearby blaring bachata music until 3am… you get the idea.
So now that you’ve seen what $300/month gets you (remember, that one includes water, drinking water, cable, propane and a cleaning lady once a week), check our what $400/month could get you:
This is my old studio apartment that I lived in last year. It cost $400/month and included water, propane and electricity. It was small and hot, but came with a pretty cool upstairs neighbor. The studio next door to mine was rented as a vacation rental so sometimes cool people were in it and sometimes they were weirdos. The screened deck you see in the first photo was shared by both studios.
I think it was pretty expensive for what I got, but there are two reasons for that: 1) the location – this place is right in the center of West End and even in a village of 300 people, the closer you are to the action, the more money it is (this one was right behind a bar, which was probably one of the reasons I had to leave), and 2) electricity was included in the rent. Electricity is SUPER expensive here, so to have it included means they figured out what it would cost if I left everything on all day long and then added that to the rent. I used to leave fans running while I was out to keep the house cool…my dog was in there, but I mostly did it cause I figured, what the hell, I’m paying for it anyway. I think it’s better to pay your own electricity here, cause landlords will cover their asses, not yours!
Hi there, unfortunately I do not offer free assistance in finding rentals (people do this as a paid job here!). The only advice I can offer you is to find an affordable hotel for a week or two upon arrival so that you can get on the ground and view places in person. Nearly all rentals here are done by word of mouth or through Roatan Facebook groups. You will definitely want to see places in person to get a feel for the neighborhood (and pictures can be very deceiving!) Good luck!
Hi Rika, we are moving to Roatn in Aug 2015 and are very excited and need a place to rent for few months. Any idea how we can find a place? Thanks
Hello! I know your post is old but i am curious to know if you are still living in Roatan? Was it easy to find an affortable place to live? I m planning to move hopefully this year! I will go in April to shop around for a place to stay and even a job! If you have any suggestions or recommandations to give me, please do! I need all the info i can get!
Thanking you in advance,
Sincerely,
Chantal Petrauskis, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Hi Chantal, it says right in the post that I no longer live in Roatan. My suggestions are all in the first four paragraphs. Please have another read over it, and check out my Roatan FAQ section for more tips. https://cubiclethrowdown.com/roatan-faq/ Good luck!
Hey rika
This place looks really nice. Heading to roatan in a couple of weeks and searching for a place to stay 2 months. Any address you could recommend ?
Thanks ! 🙂
Well, both! I lived in the $400 one for three months… then I house-sat for eight months… now I've been living in the $300 one for two months! I like the $300 one better 🙂
Just from the pics, the $400/mth one has better floors and finishings, but they are both amazing – which did you choose?
I like the $300 better too 🙂 I also like seeing how people live in different locations! Too funny that you mentioned House Hunters…they actually scouted me for the show in my $300 place, but my landlord refused to sign the release so it never went ahead. I was bummed! Maybe in the next place…
I think I prefer the $300 option, but even then, I think both options are awesome!!!! I also like just getting to peek at how you live, too! And as a House Hunters fan, I'm also just super into these posts!
I always wanted to live in New York when I was growing up, until I found out how expensive it was to live there!!
That's nicer than my first apartment in NYC which cost triple that amount!
I don't think I've ever had anything under $400/month either…but the quality has been a lot better than what I get here. The diving every day IS a pretty nice perk though 🙂
That's kind of awesome and makes me want to live in Roatan (and dive every day, *swoon*). I've never lived anywhere where you could get anything for under $400/month. Even in college in Knoxville 10+ years ago (wow, I'm old!) I paid $400 for my portion of the rent in our apartment.
I like both! They both seem like a bargain to me 🙂 Before Beijing, we'd been living in London for a few years and rent there is so expensive! You couldn't even get a shoebox for under £1000. Rent is quite expensive in Beijing too, but luckily for us, we don't have to pay 🙂
Rika – very cool look at the apartment layout and what you can get for the price. This makes my all too expensive shoebox apartment in Manhattan look that much worse.
What's the deal on the internet? Pay per use/MB?
ok, what does one have to do for work to afford such luxury??? Not being sarcastic. It comes with an ocean, beach, no polar vortex-es…..sounds like a steal either way!!!! (honest question….work?)
Currently our future travel plans are very much hazy and up in the air once we return home this summer. We'll certainly be moving too fast in the months leading up to that to rent anywhere even remotely long-term, but once we're back in North America, we're not sure what we'll be doing, but it certainly won't be what we're doing now. Once we have some plans of how we might proceed, I'll post them on the site, but for now we're pretty much in the dark!
My porch at my new house is a lot bigger, but it's not screened in which sucks for bugs. I prefer my new place too! Do you think you guys will get a chance to stick in one spot long enough to rent a place somewhere else going forward or will it be mostly traveling?
I *had* a dog 🙂 She's living with someone else now.
I prefer my new place by a long shot, but I didn't want to influence anyone through the post – I wanted to see what others thought!
I probably would have gone for the old place if it had air conditioning and electricity was included, but I only had fans. New place has A/C….I have to pay the electricity but I don't care, I'm just so happy to have A/C!
Rent is very expensive on Roatan, unfortunately 🙁 Even a lot of places in the North America you could get something better than that for $400!
The place looks beautiful, it's small and cozy, but for this price I am not sure if it's worth it. So expensive!!! :-/
Ooooh super interesting! I actually like your new place better I think, but it seems they both have their mega perks and that'd be so nice to not have to worry about electricity, especially in the extra warm months.
Well, I am a sucker for a nice porch, and this one looks really beautiful. But I actually think I prefer the cheaper place you are in now! I think being right behind a bar would probably be a dealbreaker for me too, though maybe for different reasons (I think the noise would get to me). I'm still really impressed with how much space you get for this kind of money. I'm sure our dollar would go further if we were not in HCMC, which is probably Vietnam's most expensive city, but I dream of the day we can afford more than just a bedroom w/ private bathroom.