GuangZhou Guest House

If you are on a tight budget and would like to have value for your money, living in the city and spending less, you can consider lodging into a guest house (招待所).
This kind of guest houses would just offer very simple and basic services; these type of rooms, which is common among Chinese budget traveler, are managed by some large corporation which originally set up guest houses for treating visitors of their own company, but a good number of them now would open to the public. These guest houses could be found not too far from each other, all over the city and in different parts of China.  
The daily rent of these guest houses in non Canton Fair period would range from US$5-10 per night. During Canton Fair period, it is $40---$66.
Besides, you can find very low price guest houses in other cities surrounding Guangzhou. Maybe you can get a double room for less than US$5. Yet, you have to think about transportation, since this kind of guest house would not offer free shuttle bus and you need to take the bus to Canton Fair complexes which would be time consuming.

The major issue you will face in these guest houses is; most of the operators of this type of accommodation do not speak English, so you may have to deal with some communicational problem. The other problem is: some of these guest houses do not welcome foreign guest to stay in the guest house, since they have concern about the language problem. So, you need to make sure to check and find those who accept foreign guest.
Security: In most of them there is 24-hour guardian service.

Tips: Find some Chinese speaking friend to help you reserve the room(s) in advance.

Youhao Guest House
Tel: 86-20- 84418784    Haizhu district, Guangzhou
Normal rent: $ 14       Rent during Canton Fair: $ 55
Relin Guest House
Tel: 86-20- 87032620    Tianhe district, Guangzhou
Normal rent: $ 14       Rent during Canton Fair: $ 20
Nanyou Guest House
Tel: 86-20- 84493413    Haizhu district, Guangzhou
Normal rent: $ 20       Rent during Canton Fair: $ 57
Pazhou Guest House
Tel: 86-20- 34311118-8000    Haizhu district, Guangzhou
Normal rent: $ 9       Rent during Canton Fair: $ 27

You can also find other guest houses from the following links:
http://gz.81355.net/hotel/search.do
http://www.ipiao.com.cn/inn/6/index8_2.htm