Locals share their homes in Brazil for World Cup

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World Cup fever is in the air and homestays are bringing people from all over the world together to share the experience in Brazil.

Gennieve and her husband Chris, elementary school teachers from Miami, Florida booked a homestay in Brazil for the tournament. They stayed with their host, Selma, in her home in Curitiba, in the Barrio San Francisco area near the historic centre of the city.

While the World Cup was their main reason for travelling to Brazil, Gennieve and her husband also wanted to experience the best of Brazil, spending over a month visiting 7 cities across the country.

Gennieve, who is originally from Honduras, secured tickets to the Honduras versus Ecuador game. They were very excited getting ready for the game in Selma’s house, dressing themselves in the Honduras colours of blue and white. Although Honduras lost the game, they had a great time. They also travelled to Manaus for the USA versus Portugal match, where it was a draw at the final whistle.

Gennieve had never used Homestay.com before discovering it while searching for World Cup accommodation. Up to that point all she’d found was lots of overpriced, low quality hotels. Having already stayed in a homestay on a trip to Croatia last year, Gennieve decided to try searching on the word “homestay”, thinking that the locals would have to be renting out their rooms for the World Cup. She was delighted to find her host Selma in Curitiba available and at a reasonable price and cancelled a hotel booking, preferring to stay with Selma.

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As a host, Selma went “above and beyond” her expectations, Gennieve said. “She does things she doesn’t have to” like making great breakfasts for them every morning, allowing them to wash their clothes, giving them rides to the bus station and offering great advice on how to travel onwards to Rio. Selma even told them about a free shuttle to the game in Arena da Baixada stadium that Gennieve couldn’t find when she was researching online herself.

Her favourite experience in Brazil so far was a visit to Iguazu falls. She also loves all the grilled meats!

For Selma, hosting Gennieve and her husband was an experience she loved. She found her guests to be extremely polite and interesting. Everything went smoothly.

Selma, who is an artist, decided to sign up as a host on Homestay.com after her son left the home to go and study in Buenos Aires.

She did her best to help Gennieve and her husband in any way she could, offering tips on where to eat and museums to visit.

She’s watching the World Cup games at home with her family. Her next World Cup guest arrives next week, a Mexican woman who lives in the USA.


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