Looking for something more exciting (and affordable) housing wise than booking a hotel for a few nights, but less than a permanent rent contract?
We made a list of 14 websites specializing in primarily short-term accommodation – whether it’s daily to weekly rentals or places that allow you to stay from a few months to a year.
We also listed some of their more important characteristics, including geographic coverage of locations, available length of stay, access to internet connection etc. Happy browsing!
Locations: Worldwide
Length of stay: Mostly weekly and monthly stays
Whole availability visible: Yes
Can contact host directly: Yes
Price immediately visible: Yes
Can see Internet availability: Yes
Airbnb is a community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodation in more than 34,000 cities and 191+ countries, whether it’s a flat for a night, a castle for a week, or a villa for a month.
You can choose between different room types from the entire place to a shared room. Additional search filters include neighborhoods, different amenities and property type. Note – you do need to make an account or sign up with a social media account to be able to view detail pages about spaces, however, once you do, there is a lot of detailed information about the spaces and hosts.
Locations: San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles Area, New York City, Washington DC, Chicago, Seattle, Boston
Length of stay: 1 month min, 12 months max
Whole availability visible: Yes
Can contact host directly: No
Price immediately visible: Yes
Can see Internet availability: Yes
HomeSuite is an online marketplace that removes the guesswork and hassle from finding short-term furnished housing. It takes care of all the paperwork for you.
Simply search by city and date, and the site will present options that best suit your needs. HomeSuite has short-term, long-term, and even month to month leases.
Locations: Boston, Chicago, Montreal, Vancouver
Length of stay: Nightly to monthly stays
Whole availability visible: Yes
Can contact host directly: No
Price immediately visible: Yes
Can see Internet availability: Yes
Flatbook lists furnished spaces for nightly and monthly stays so you get the local experience with the comfort of hotel services and also 24/7 guest support. Search filters including check in and check out dates, number of guests, number of bathrooms and price range – and, if you’re not sure which neighborhood to stay in or have any other issues, there are travel specialists on hand to help you out.
Once you’ve found an apartment you like, you can check the availability of it for your dates, inquire about the space, book immediately or add it to your wish list to check out again later.
Locations: Worldwide
Length of stay: Varies from weeks to months
Whole availability visible: Yes
Can contact host directly: No
Price immediately visible: No price – skills for accommodation (plus extra pay in some cases)
Can see Internet availability: Yes
Worldpackers takes a bit of a different approach on accommodation – it allows you to find unique places where you can exchange your skills for a place to stay. Pick your best skill from a long list including cooking, arts, farming, web development etc, and then choose where you want to go.
Once you’ve found a location you like that has an offer for your particular skill, you can see all the opportunities in that location, and more information about what is included in the deal (accommodation, meals, laundry etc) and also what’s not (usually flights, visa, etc). If everything sounds good, you can apply for the position directly (you do have to sign up as a traveler to apply).
Locations: London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Rome
Length of stay: From a few weeks up to a year
Whole availability visible: Yes
Can contact host directly: Yes
Price immediately visible: Yes
Can see Internet availability: Yes
One Fine Stay is a home-away-from-home. They seek out the most characterful homes, learn straight from the homeowner how they work, and then prepare everything for you. It’s as easy to book one of the members’ homes as it is to book a hotel room, and the team is available by phone or text 24/7 if you need them.
Besides the usual location, price range and amount of bedrooms, the search filters have an amazingly wide range of different extra options, including:
- Property features
- Equipment
- Kitchen amenities
- Pet friendliness
- Bedroom amenities
- Entertainment amenities
Once you find a place you like, you can dig into details of the place, which include photos, description of the area and the rooms, availability etc. You can either book directly with the host or ask a question first.
Locations: Worldwide
Length of stay: Usually a 4-7 day minimum
Whole availability visible: Yes
Can contact host directly: Yes
Price immediately visible: Yes
Can see Internet availability: Yes
HomeAway is a comprehensive and trusted source for holiday homes around the world. They connect property owners and managers with holidaymakers looking for accommodation to share their holidays together with families and friends.
Search filters include the usual stuff – price, number of people, number of bedrooms and type of booking (pay online or book online) – as well as a ton of extra choices ranging from property type, activities available in the area, facilities etc. You can book directly or inquire the host or manager beforehand.
Locations: Worldwide
Length of stay: Anything from a week to a year
Whole availability visible: No
Can contact host directly: Yes
Price immediately visible: yes
Can see Internet availability: no, but it’s coworking/coliving, therefore we’d like to think that’s well thought out
Startup Retreats lists the best remote working communities and coliving places to retreat to – so, if you’re a true digital nomad looking for a retreat that also allows you to keep working in an environment more than enough equipped for it, this is probably the place for you.
There are options for both year-round retreats as well as pop-up retreats that are available from a certain date for a certain amount of time (for example – 15th of October for one month). You can browse locations and either book right away or contact host for more details.
Locations: Worldwide
Length of stay: Typically less than a week, but depends on the host
Whole availability visible: No, but can see whether host is currently accepting guests
Can contact host directly: Yes
Price immediately visible: No
Can see Internet availability: No
Couchsurfing is a global community of 10 million people in more than 200,000 cities. The service connects travelers with a global network of people willing to share their own homes, making travel even more of a social experience.
You do need to create your account to even start planning a trip, but once you’ve signed up and finished your profile, you can browse cities around the world as well as the locals with couches available. Besides available “couches”, you can also view other travelers going to the same city, upcoming events in the area and also ongoing discussions about the location.
Locations: San Diego, Santa Cruz and Lake Tahoe (Hawaii and Costa Rica coming soon)
Length of stay: Mostly a few days to a few weeks
Whole availability visible: No
Can contact host directly: No
Price immediately visible: Yes
Can see Internet availability: Yes
Outsite merges active outdoor lifestyles and creative work sessions into a new retreat concept designed for professionals, entrepreneurs, groups and digital nomads who want to get away and get focused.
With workspaces, community and accommodation combined, it’s again an excellent choice if you want to get away but keep working at the same time. Besides the usual accommodation details, the destinations’ profiles also include information about the workspace and community. As well as individual stays, Outsite also organizes company retreats that usually last from 3 days to 2 weeks.
Locations: Worldwide
Length of stay: From a few nights up to a few months
Whole availability visible: Yes
Can contact host directly: Yes
Price immediately visible: Yes
Can see Internet availability: Yes
Roomorama allows to book from 300,000 short-term accommodation and home rentals worldwide. The rentals that vary from living room sofas to entire villas in the south of France.
Besides the usual stuff, search filters also include amenities, conditions and neighborhoods. You can either book directly through Roomorama or contact the host first if you have any questions.
Locations: Worldwide
Length of stay: Nightly to monthly
Whole availability visible: Yes
Can contact host directly: No
Price immediately visible: Yes
Can see Internet availability: Yes
FlipKey is a TripAdvisor company that features 300,000 vacation homes and rooms located in over 11,000 cities throughout the world (and was also named “Top Vacation Rental Site” by Travel + Leisure)!
Besides the usual size, price range, amenities etc search, it’s nice to see that filters also include child friendliness as well as accessibility for the elderly or disabled – something that a lot of other sites don’t consider. Booking works through FlipKey.
Locations: Worldwide
Length of stay: Nightly to monthly
Whole availability visible: Yes
Can contact host directly: No
Price immediately visible: Yes
Can see Internet availability: Yes
HouseTrip is yet another TripAdvisor company – with the difference that instead of offering single rooms as well, it only lists whole homes and makes booking them for a holiday as easy as booking a hotel room.
The search filters are pretty basic, consisting of the usual amount of guests and rooms, type of property and basic amenities. However, the locations’ profiles are detailed enough. There’s two types of booking – instant booking and enquiry – both work through HouseTrip.
Locations: Worldwide
Length of stay: A few weeks to a few months
Whole availability visible: Yes
Can contact host directly: Yes
Price immediately visible: Yes
Can see Internet availability: Can choose in filters
FlatClub specializes in connecting hosts worldwide and people looking for flat accommodation for a length of a few weeks to a few months. Hosts can list their flats on the site and receive requests to choose from.
There’s a pretty impressive list of amenities filters available in search, as well as neighborhoods and type of property. You can either book directly through FlatClub or contact the host for more information.
Locations: Lisbon, Porto, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Milan, Rome, London, Paris, Berlin
Length of stay: Most landlords have prefer a minimum stay of 5-6 months
Whole availability visible: Yes
Can contact host directly: No
Price immediately visible: Yes
Can see Internet availability: Can choose in filters
Special treat for those still studying – Uniplaces is creating a trusted, global brand for student accommodation. Since launching in 2013, it has become the fastest-growing international website for booking student accommodation.
The search filters list is pretty simple, but still includes everything students might find important – whether the space is a student residence or private landlord, different neighborhoods, amenities, and probably most importantly for students living the life – house rules filters as well.
What are your favorite sites for finding short-term rentals? Did we miss out on something awesome? Let us know and we’ll add it in!
