Full Guide to Travel Nurse Housing Rental Options

If you’re looking into rental options for traveling nurses (or other healthcare professionals), you’ve come to the right place. We have plenty of material to help you find travel nurse housing.

When sending healthcare workers to remote locations, it can be challenging to find housing options at all — much less furnished rentals or temporary housing that works for your people.

We put together this full guide to help independent traveling nurses and other healthcare workers, as well as admins, recruiters, or team leaders, book the best rental options possible.

Finding a great place for your healthcare professionals to stay while they’re away from home is crucial in helping them maintain a quality standard of living.

In this post, you will learn everything you need to know to help you navigate the process efficiently and effectively.

Let’s get into it.

The Basics: Understanding Travel Nurse Housing Challenges

The number one challenge for healthcare workers concerning rental options is this:

Most rentals are only available for standard lease terms of six months or a year.

On top of that, while overnight and day-to-day lodging options work for a few days or even a week, they don’t make sense for longer-term stays.

Thus, there’s a housing gap when it comes to travel nurse housing.

This is why (especially in more remote locations) it can be difficult for travel nursing agencies and healthcare staffing companies to find short-term leases for their clients. Traveling healthcare professionals simply need a more flexible option than typical lease terms or standard hotel rooms allow.

Therefore, finding rental options that provide a quality fit for travel nurse jobs is crucial.

This next section will cover rental options you can look for to help make this remote work stay less of a hassle and more of a true home away from home experience.

See also: Best Practices for Creating an Employee-Friendly Housing Strategy in 2022

Rental Options for Healthcare Professionals

Many healthcare staffing companies and agencies wonder if they should be using a housing service to help them find short-term rentals.

The answer is yes.

It would be best, especially if the area is so remote that you’re not finding many great housing options at first glance.

Let’s be honest. By the time you’ve relegated your search to websites like Craigslist — it’s probably time to turn somewhere else for assistance.

This is precisely what Travelers Haven can help you with.

Before jumping into that, let’s first discuss some of the best rental options available when booking lodging for a travel nursing assignment.

1. Extended Stay Hotels

An extended stay hotel is a hotel option that provides longer-term accommodation for guests.

The great thing about this option is that it gives you all of the usual amenities associated with a hotel stay (linen service, housekeeping, maid service, etc.).

The downside is that extended stay hotels aren’t always easy to find in remote locations.

And even when you do find them, there’s a question of whether or not they’ll be nice enough to make the guest feel truly at home for months at a time.

2. Corporate Rentals

A corporate rental usually refers to a turnkey furnished apartment that you can rent on a flexible short-term basis. It’s provided through property managers who offer short-term housing to traveling professionals.

Corporate rentals often come with a range of typical apartment-style amenities and will also come fully furnished.

However, they may not include amenities like maid service, linen service, etc.

The upside to this type of housing is that renters will tend to feel more at home here.

The downside is that they can be tough to find in remote locations.

Further, they can be a hassle to rent if they’re not managed properly (with bundled billing for utilities, proper access to essential life amenities like a washer and dryer, fitness center, grocery store, etc.).

3. Short-Term Rentals

Short-term rental describes any fully-furnished living space available for a short period, either for traveling professionals or for those traveling for pleasure.

These units can be rented anywhere from a few days to several weeks. Generally, a short-term rental has a maximum stay of 30 days, but this can vary from state to state.

For example — corporate housing is technically a type of short-term rental, as is a vacation rental.

4. Airbnb (and Other Sharing Economy Services)

Airbnb is one of the most widely known options for people who want to use the “share economy” to book short-term rentals, vacation rentals, etc.

VRBO is another similar example.

The upside to services like this is that they can sometimes make finding options in more remote locations easier.

The downside to vacation rentals is that they lack the consistency required for healthcare workers who need to know they’ll have their own housing needs taken care of for the duration of their assignment.

In certain situations, Airbnb hosts can cancel reservations without any adverse consequences from the platform.

This would be problematic for healthcare workers.

Imagine booking an Airbnb near a more remote hospital location, only to realize a week before the assignment that the entire reservation suddenly got canceled?

It can also be more challenging to find long-term options in the space-sharing economy simply due to the nature of how the platforms work.

For example, the property owners may only want to rent their housing out for weekends and shorter-term guests — as they may wish to return to the property and enjoy it themselves from time to time.

5. Workforce Housing

In the past, workforce housing has generally been defined as affordable housing located close to the assignment.

Occasionally, this housing would be provided by the company. It would consist of sites that were erected temporarily (for example, with trailers or other portable units) to supply lodging in areas where other options aren’t available.

However, that definition has changed over the last 5-10 years, especially with the subsequent rise of traveling professionals and the increasing need for high-quality short-term housing.

Nowadays, the term ‘workforce housing’ is used to more specifically describe on-demand housing (definition covered in the section below) for workforces related to the healthcare, construction, military, entertainment, and sports industries.

This is a significant shift that’s becoming more and more pronounced as more workers in these sectors travel to perform work in remote locations.

6. On-Demand Housing

On-demand housing is a new short-term housing option that has only recently hit the marketplace.

This is what Travelers Haven specializes in.

With on-demand housing, we source accommodation in remote locations for you. Then we handle all the bills, booking fees, payments, furnishings, and everything else. Meaning you get a fantastic short-term rental with a simple monthly bill that’s easy to pay (especially if you have a housing stipend and need to keep detailed records).

Plus, we do it without charging exorbitant fees or tacking on needless price markups.

This makes finding housing, even in difficult locations, super simple.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1

You fill out a simple inquiry form and supply us with the essential details (time, location, etc.) of what you need in a short-term rental.

Step 2

We search for the perfect housing option for your needs and come back with several options for you to choose from.

Step 3

You choose the option you want. We then handle everything — from setting up utilities to making sure that it’s furnished. We even make sure that every property is pet friendly!

Nowadays, more and more traveling professionals are turning to on-demand housing because it’s so convenient, easy, and flexible.

See also: What to Look For in Furnished Short Term Rentals

Things To Look for When Renting Travel Nurse Housing

Alright. We’ve talked about all your traveling nurse/healthcare housing choices.

Now, let’s talk about what to look for to determine whether or not a potential lodging option will provide a quality living experience while your team is working away from home.

1. A Good Location

Is this lodging option close to the workplace?

This is crucial. Healthcare workers will need housing close to where they will be working.

It’s important for efficiency’s sake and for maintaining a quality standard of living.

2. Access To the Desired Amenities

You always want to look at what amenities are offered in conjunction with that particular lodging option.

For example, some things that you should look for include:

• Nearby grocery and food options
• Access to a fitness center/gym
• Free wifi
• Laundry and dry-cleaning services
• The option for a maid service, linen service, housekeeping, etc.
• A pharmacy

3. Bundled Utilities

Your short-term housing option should include bundled utilities.

This is vital to avoid the needless running-around required to get everything set up with the utility companies.

A reputable housing company will handle this themselves, and lump everything into a convenient monthly payment.

At Travelers Haven, we always bundle utilities and necessary bills together with the rent payments for maximum convenience.

4. A Contract That Fits Your Needs

You always want to go over the contract with a fine-toothed comb to make sure that it meets your needs.

What you want to avoid are:

• Excessive short-term rental fees
• Inflexible contracts
• Contracts that force you to pay for more rental time than you need
• Agreements that contain clauses that might detract from your quality of life (like not allowing pets, making you pay extra for wifi, etc.)
• Contracts that make it possible to displace you in the middle of your assignment

5. Lifestyle Perks That Will Make You Feel at Home

Since this remote housing option will be serving as a home away from home, make sure that it includes lifestyle perks. That is, things that’ll help make it feel homier and less like a place you’re just visiting for work.

Some perks that you may want to look for can include things like:

• A concierge service
• Full-service laundry or dry cleaning
• A shuttle service
• Free parking
• Access to a fitness center
• Extra storage space (like a small garage or outdoor locker)
• Provided moving service
• Proximity to quality of life amenities, like restaurants, theaters, museums, parks, conservation areas, etc.

6. Furnishings, a Stocked Kitchen, etc.

You’ll definitely want to make sure to pay attention to whether or not the apartment is going to be fully furnished.

Most short-term rentals will always include furnishings but always double-check on this.

Also, make sure that there will be linens on the bed, blankets, pillows, towels, and a fully furnished kitchen.

It’s less common to find food in the kitchen, but there should be plates, bowls, cutlery, cooking utensils, basic appliances, etc.

Related: How to Find Proper Housing for Nomadic Healthcare Workers

Conclusion

Hopefully, this post has helped you understand all the crucial details involved in finding quality travel nurse housing while saving you time and frustration.

Of course, we here at Travelers Haven always seek to make this process as painless as possible. Please feel free to contact us if you’re interested in finding a short-term rental in a more remote or out-of-the-way location.

It doesn’t cost anything to fill out a simple inquiry form — and it may surprise you with the level of quality you’ll find in our on-demand housing options.

Stay safe out there!

We appreciate you, and we look forward to talking to you.