DISCLAIMER: PLEASE DON'T READ IF YOU ARE LIKELY TO BE DISTURBED BY THE FOLLOWING DESCRIPTION OF A WIDESPREAD THOUGH THEORETICALLY ILLEGAL PRACTICE.

Really, this should be obvious to anyone, but I read some tripadvisor reviews complaining about the pricing of the hotel I'm staying in and thought I'd just remind people here.

Long story short: The Chavez administration is maintaining an "official" exchange rate of 2.15 bolivars per dollar. The real exchange rate is a function of some Venezuelan ADRs in the NYC stockmarket and can be found here, currently standing at 6.90.

Hotels that publish dollar rates do so at the OFFICIAL rate, which means you can either pay in dollars or in bolivares at 2.15 times the dollar amount. Which, in turn, means that my "$270+12% tax" room really costs $94 (incl. tax), which is a pretty reasonable deal for a 5-star with all mod cons.

Now, you need CASH to do it, because using a credit card/making ATM withdrawals will only yield you the official rate. Changing cash isn't much of a problem, though don't expect to get the full rate- I got 5 by a shady lady at the CCS airport (only changing $30 to pay the airport tax, mind!), 5.5 by the owner of the 3-star hotel in MAR I had to initially stay in due to lack of availability in the better properties, and 6 through friends and acquantainces (and I could probably get 6.5 if I wanted to bargain, but it's not worth it, particularly bearing in mind that most of these people are suffering under Chavez!). If you have Euros, it should be possible to change them, too (expect to get around 8-8.5).

The practice of "unofficially" changing dollars or Euros is, of course, illegal, but it is VERY widespread. If you run out of cash during your stay, you may be better off taking a daytrip to AUA and coming back with more greens in your pockets than withdrawing from the ATMs...