The Best Websites For Short Term Housing
After our last couple of posts about moving to Maine and the housing dilemmas we faced, we decided it was as good a time as any to discuss how we find short-term rentals.
As I said before, some of the articles we post will be loose and personal, while others will be more professional and to the point. This post will fall into the latter, as it's geared toward helping people who want to find short-term housing for several weeks or months. So, if you're curious about the housing websites we use or you need a temporary home, enjoy the read!
What Are My Short-Term Housing Options?
If you start looking for short-term housing, you'll find that there's a wide selection. From beach houses and entire homes to hotels or bedrooms within a home, property owners can rent out whatever they like. Here are the most common options for short-term rental properties.
Entire Home
If you enjoy privacy and having your own space, renting an entire home is your best option. However, it's also the most expensive and often costs two or three times more than an individual room or one section of a house. Renting an entire house or apartment is also your best option if you like amenities like laundry facilities, a kitchen, and storage space.
Room
If you only care about saving money and having a bed to sleep in at night, renting an individual room is the way to go. Just be aware that your room will be your only alone space in the house, and the rest is shared. Depending on your landlord, you might have access to the kitchen, a bathroom, laundry facilities, and additional services. However, it all depends on your renter's terms and preferences.
Hotels
While it might not seem like the swankiest option, hotels are actually a fairly popular option for short-term renting. Hotels are available through sites like Furnished Finder and exclusively through the hotel's website.
The downside of extended-stay hotel rooms is that it's tough to make them feel like home, and you might struggle to settle in. Hotels also tend to be pricier than other short-term rental options.
The upside, however, is that hotels often come with great perks. For instance, you might have access to a pool, spa, gym, free breakfast, cleaning services, and laundry facilities.
Guest House
Another popular rental option is for property owners to rent out their guest houses or private apartments. This includes apartments above garages, in basements, or in a separate shop area. Guest houses and apartments are available on most long-term rental sites and vacation rental websites.
6 Best Websites For Temporary Housing
Now that you have a good idea of the types of housing options available let's examine the websites that offer them.
Furnished Finder
If you're only going to use one short-term rental site, I would recommend Furnished Finder. Furnished Finder is a leading website for medium to long-term stays. Most of the lodging options on Furnished Finder require minimum stays of 2 to 4 weeks, but there are a few options that only require one week. While it started as a website specifically to help travel nurses, Furnished Finder is open to all traveling professionals
We have used Furnished Finder on several occasions, and they always have decent options to choose from. While certain areas don't have as many homes as others, Furnished Finder is a rapidly growing site, and new properties are getting added daily.
Unlike vacation rental sites, Furnished Finder is geared toward traveling professionals. As such, they only allow property listings that are completely or partially furnished, and you typically don't have to bring anything with you except for your toiletries and personal effects. There also aren't any service fees!
The only downside of Furnished Finder is that the booking process is a little wonky. Rather than simply reserving a property, you need to submit a Housing Request, wait for the homeowner to respond, and work out an agreement with them. While the process is usually quick and painless, sometimes you'll get a homeowner who waits several days to respond or who isn't overly tech-savvy.
Pros
No booking or service fees
A wide range of housing options to choose from
Affordable housing options
Fully furnished with everything you need to live comfortably
Pet-friendly properties
Cons
The website could be more user-friendly
The booking process is done completely off-site
Air BnB
Although it's often thought of as one of the best vacation rental sites in the world, Air BnB is starting to offer monthly rentals. Aside from Furnished Finder, I would have to say that Air BnB is easily the best booking website if you want a furnished rental for long-term housing.
Since they've been around for a long time, Air BnB also has the booking process down to a science. You can quickly and easily make reservations without difficulty and with little to no communication with owners or property managers. We have used them twice to book a long-term stay, and they have a wide variety of housing options to choose from, including private rooms, hotels, entire homes, RV sites, and more.
The main reason we don't use Air BnB more is the outrageous booking, service, and cleaning fees. These fees can easily add hundreds of dollars per month and turn a reasonable price into one that's unaffordable.
Pros
Lots of rental property options
Pet-friendly properties
Long-term rentals are usually fully furnished
Cons
Properties tend to be pricy
Lots of additional fees
VRBO
VRBO is another popular vacation rental site starting to enter the long-term housing market. Because it's newer to the game than Furnished Finder and Air BnB, VRBO is playing from behind and has fewer long-term rental options than the first two sites.
However, they're quickly making up ground and are adding new long-term properties to its site daily. As with Air BnB, the booking process with VRBO is quick and easy, but it can also be expensive, thanks to all the service fees involved.
Pros
Easy booking process
Friendly cancellation policy
Most of the properties are entire homes
Cons
Expensive rentals plus service fees
Not a ton of long-term housing options
Facebook Marketplace
If you're into Facebook Marketplace, it shouldn't be a surprise that it's a good option for finding monthly rental properties. While they don't have a designated area to search for long-term rentals, there's a good chance that there are at least one or two options in your area. These can typically be found on Marketplace itself or by searching for Facebook groups, such as The Gypsy Nurse Group.
However, Facebook is an unregulated and unmonitored site when it comes to housing rentals. As such, it operates mostly on the trust system, and you'll need to take protective measures to avoid scams and mishaps.
Pros
Fairly affordable rental options when they're available
No booking or service fees
Prices and conditions are negotiable
Cons
Unregulated and unpoliced
There's a potential for scams
Housing options aren't always available
Sublet.com
In terms of which of these travel housing websites is the most underrated, it would definitely have to be Sublet.com. Until I started doing research for this article, I had never heard of Sublet.com. Now that I'm familiar with it, however, I can assure you that we'll be using it in the future.
Sublet.com is a great site for both renters and tenants who are looking to lease or rent a property. The site is very much a free-for-all, similar to Furnished Finder, in that each property owner can set their own rates, terms, conditions, and minimum stay requirements. You can find rentals for anywhere from a day to a decade using Sublet.com.
Having said that, most of the properties I've seen thus far are fairly expensive. There's also no guarantee that the property in question will come fully or partially furnished, which is a big deal if you're a professional traveler. As such, it will be necessary to do some research if you're thinking about renting or subletting a property on Sublet.com.
Pros
The site is easy to navigate
Lots of housing options
Great for those looking to rent or lease a property
Cons
Fairly expensive
The site has a history of credit card problems during transactions
Short Term Housing
Short-Term Housing is one of the newer and lesser-known short-term housing websites. As the name implies, however, it's all about short-term housing and requires stays of at least one month. The site is similar to Air BnB and VRBO in that it offers direct leases you book through the website rather than individual property owners.
Additionally, rather than searching for properties yourself, you enter your information into their database, and they find a list of properties in your area. Because the site is new, there aren't many rental options, and most of the options that are available are in larger cities. It also only offers luxurious housing options, which means that the properties tend to cost more.
Pros
Easy to navigate since you don't have to manually search for properties
Geared towards healthcare and corporate housing
Beautiful, luxurious, and fully furnished properties
Cons
The most expensive option on this list
Limited options in select areas
Final Thoughts About Short-Term Housing Websites
In addition to these short-term housing websites, another option is to check with hotels and rental agencies specific to your area. You can also use Extended Stay America if you're ok living in a hotel room.
Regardless of what route you decide to go, we recommend checking the listings on multiple sites rather than fixating on just one. You might be able to find a deal on Furnished Finder or VRBO that isn't on Air BnB or Sublet.com.
However, if you're completely new to traveling for work and don't want to spend hours cross-referencing rentals from different sites, Furnished Finder and Air BnB are your best options.
Glad it could help!