Did inflation kill the digital nomad dream?

With prices in remote work hotspots surging, cost of living arbitrage is getting more and more difficult — but not impossible. This week, we’ll review 20 hotspots (some up and coming) where prices remain low.

This Week in Nomad Deals

• Find Cheap Flights With AI: A new AI tool from Kayak can scan screenshots of flight itineraries and tell you if a better price exists elsewhere.

• Airbnb Spring Updates: In its spring update, Airbnb says that it will soon introduce badges for the top 1% of listings, as well as warn users about the bottom 10%.

Can AI Help Make Your Flights Cheaper?

With Kayak’s new PriceCheck tool for flights, you could say that AI craze has, well, landed for travelers [hold for laughter].

PriceCheck, which remains in beta testing, is currently available on Kayak’s mobile app. The tool works by scanning a screenshot of any flight itinerary (say, from Google Flights) and using that data to look for cheaper options.

In Nomad Deals’ testing of PriceCheck, we plugged in a screenshot of a $117 one-way Spirit flight from New York to Medellin. According to Google Flights, that was the cheapest option available, but PriceCheck found a $107 ticket from the same airline — a 9% discount.

What’s New at Airbnb

Digital nomads love to hate Airbnb, with many complaints centering around the broken rating system (average listing receiving 4.7 out of 5). While the company hasn’t fully fixed a five-star culture that results in this imbalance, a few future updates should help with that issue.

Here is a summary of what we learned from Airbnb’s spring 2024 update.

• Top 1% badge: This summer, Airbnb will roll out a new badge awarded to listings that are in the top 1% worldwide.

• Bottom 10%: Airbnb will add a mark of shame to listings in the bottom 10%, allowing guests to filter out these bad apples when searching for properties.

Airbnb is also attempting to reduce poor host behavior by introducing tougher penalties for host cancellation, which the company says reduced cancellations by 36% in 2023. Additionally, Airbnb is developing new tools to detect when hosts try to relist a property that previously garnered poor guest reviews.

Cities to Live for Under $1,000 in 2024

Over the last four years, worldwide inflation has put some of the hottest digital nomad hubs out of reach for many remote workers. But there are still places in the world where a digital nomad can live for under $1,000 a month on a strict budget.

Granted, you won’t be “living like a king” on $1,000. Toughing it out on a budget of less than $1,000 often requires nomads to lock in long-term leases and live simply (as many locals do everyday). But even if you’re living a more baller lifestyle, this list will give you an idea of where you can do it for a relatively low cost.

Data for the chart below is taken from Numbeo, and includes a range of approximate daily expenses, plus monthly rent for one person in a one-bedroom apartment downtown.