If you are coming to Barcelona for a limited amount of time, for example to teach English for the summer, take a three week Spanish course, or work on a project for a month or two, a good option to look into is a vacation rental.

These are furnished homes and rooms that you can rent by the week or month. Vacation rentals also work well if you are moving to the city and want a place to stay for the first month so you don’t have to hotel/hostel hop. If you want privacy, look for an entire home for rent, or if you’d like to pay less in addition to having access to a knowledgeable and helpful person to get you set up in the city, rent a room. Check out AirBnB.com for rentals of all types. You’ll find nightly, weekly and monthly rentals, from 1000 a month for a little studio in el Born, to 10,000+ square foot 8 bedroom mansion on the hillside that goes for 2000 a day.

I have a few friends here who rent a room out to visitors through AirBnB.com. Guests save money and have a local guide available to them, and the hosts makes a little money and have interesting visitors.

The great thing about using this kind of agency is that not only can you see reviews of the apartments for rent along with pictures, but you know it isn’t a scam-which you really do need to be wary of in Barcelona! For example, if you see a great place for rent on Idealista.com or Fotocasa.com and the “owners” ask you to make a deposit into a bank account after exchanging a few emails, you can be sure it is a scam. All legitimate owners in Barcelona will use an agency if they are not meeting the renters in person themselves. They will even fly from another country to meet potential renters for long term rentals. If it sounds too good to be true, it is!