Venezuelan black market exchange
The official rate is about 10, but the black market rate is about 1000.  Also, yes, apparently the real exchange rate at the 1000 rate is pretty low, in the sense that one dollar buys a lot of local goods, (like boarding). Indeed, that's what it means, 10,000 dollars buys you 1,000,000 VB's, which pays for years and years of rent. The ratio in your numbers is that Venezuela is about 50 times cheaper. In this story, staying in a hotel costs $5, which is also about 50 times cheaper than staying in a hotel in L.A....

(It would be hard to change such a large amount of dollars without getting noticed though...)