"JG" said:
Is that per day?? if so, WOW, is that expensive in my opinion! Im in Mar del plata right now at a 2 star hotel enjoying cable tv, telephone, breakfast and only paying 25 pesos or 9 dollars!! many people i know dont earn 200 dollars a month here. Poor country, just look at the busses and the rusty beat up cars with no headlights on the road everywhere.
You speak in jest, JG. You know it can't be per day. In fact, I think (or hope) it's not even per week. That should be USD per month. But there is a serious point to be made. Many people involved in short-term rentals (i.e. to foreigners) seem to have gone stark, raving bonkers. The market won't bear such rents, and at best, their properties will rent sporadically. It's a poor country, and BsAS is -- let's face it -- not to be compared with NYC, London, or Paris. It doesn't have the cultural attractions, nor the central parks and other amenities of First World capital cities. In other words, there is a limit to how many tourists will arrive, to how long they'll stay for, and what they'll be prepared to pay. I wouldn't be prepared to pay USD 1,000 or 1500 a month to endure filthy air, pavements strewn with dog dirt, homicidal traffic, an army of beggars, and a paucity of cultural and intellectual life.
If the government is beginning to tax foreigners more, it's acting wisely (but perhaps inadvertently so): it's defusing a property bubble (largely fueled by foreign carpetbaggers and larcenous property speculators) before it grows too big and then bursts.