As a student, intern, etc, finding short term inexpensive housing is quite the challenge. Especially, if you want to minimize costs while also minimizing hassle.
As I’m currently looking for potential housing (4–6 months), I went to Airbnb. I was checking out housing in the bay area as well as Seattle and for the purposes of this article, I’ll use Santa Clara. Based on recent data from Airbnb, the median price per night for a one bedroom housing is 75$. This equates to over 2000$ per month!!
While longer stays tend to provide discounts ranging anywhere from 1 to 50%, Airbnb charges a hefty amounts of fees. This is due to the simplistic nature of booking on airbnb. Everything is handled through a credit card and an identity check is done when a user creates an account. Airbnb is simple to use while traditional booking requires contracts, background checks for each housing, as well as the likelihood of lesser amenities.
Thus, some short trips might be more cost effective, but if the opportunity arises for a month to month lease plan for traditional rental, check it out!
I checked out Facebook for housing and came across a monthly rental of roughly 1300$ /month including all utilities and was able to get a month to month lease (probably not possible during normal times). However, there were a lot more hurdles to jump through, such as contracts, deposits, credit checks, and traditional checking payment systems. There’s more to keep track of, such as when to pay or needing to buy furniture, etc.
Thus, if you find a good spot on airbnb during this time, it might be the way to go if your stay is under 6 months, but traditional rental might be cheaper if you keep an eye out.
ALSO, for interns and students, there’s an airbnb equivalent called Kopa.co which offers student and intern housing! They only charge a 2% service fee compared to Airbnb’s 5–20%!