With the COP30 climate summit’s success threatened by the high prices of rooms on the official accommodation platform, residents of the Brazilian host city of Belém have told Climate Home news that restrictions for listing their properties are stopping them renting out cheaper rooms to delegates.

A survey carried out by the UN in early August found that the vast majority of government delegations – particularly from poorer countries – had yet to book rooms just a few months before the start of the November talks. Most cited expensive prices.

In response, some influential negotiators have called for the talks to be moved to a bigger city with more accommodation. But the COP30 presidency team has pushed back, insisting the event will be held in Belém on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, a vital store of carbon that helps keep global warming in check.

On the official COP30 accommodation platform, prices for rooms start at around $240 a night – with a minimum stay of ten nights. But Climate Home interviewed three accommodation providers in and around the Amazonian city who are struggling to find a way to rent out rooms at much cheaper rates, starting at $54 in one case and $100 in another.

All three have not listed their properties on the official platform because restrictions put in place by the COP30 presidency mean they are not permitted to do so directly.

A COP30 spokesperson told Climate Home that only real estate agencies with at least 40 properties available and registered with the Regional Real Estate Council of the state of Pará (CRECI-PA) can offer rooms on the platform. CRECI-PA is funded by membership fees from real estate agents – and the COP30 spokesperson said agents must be “up to date with their obligations” to use the COP30 platform.

There are currently “more than 20” such agencies, the spokesperson said. The restrictions are intended to “reduce the so-called transactional cost”, as “working with many very small agencies increases the risk and complexity of managing the platform, since each would have access to add and remove properties”, the spokesperson explained.

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Small providers have to pay one of these agencies to list on their behalf. They told Climate Home this was too expensive and there is no way of knowing which agencies are authorised to list on the platform. One – who wanted to remain anonymous – warned of fraud, with companies falsely claiming to be registered. The COP30 spokesperson said the list of authorised agencies was “not available”.

The three providers – Andreia and Rodolfo Herrera who own a nine-apartment building near the COP30 venue, Alcides Moura who runs the 17-room Hotel COP30 and the provider on Mosqueiro island who wanted to remain anonymous – have listed their properties instead on commercial platforms like Booking.com and Airbnb.

There they have had some limited success. The Herreras have rented some of their nine apartments out to a group of foreigners working for an NGO and are in discussions with another group of delegates from Brazil’s Amazonas state. All three still have rooms to rent.

Many COP30 delegates are unable to book these properties as their employers – governments, companies and non-governmental organisations – have blanket rules against using Airbnb and Booking.com, with governments particularly fearful of being tricked into giving taxpayers money to scammers who use these sites.

In contrast, those controlling the purse-strings at these large organisations see the official accommodation platform as