How travel nurses can find short-term housing on assignments (1408 hits)
SEP 09, 2014-Leaving your own rural comforts of home and travelling to a new city can be daunting. With a new job in the horizon, comes the concern of finding affordable housing for your time away. There are a variety of housing arrangements to consider: corporate hotel rooms, where all of the amenities are at your disposal; taking a furnished apartment that provides extra living space, quality furniture, and full-sized kitchens; or renting a room in someone’s home. Once you have identified your needs and finalized how much you are willing to pay, you are ready to begin your search.
Temporary housing solutions for the healthcare traveler are abundant on the internet. Search engines such as Google or Bing make it easy where you can plug in key words including the city where you are going combined with relevant key words: “corporate housing,” “short term rental,” or “vacation rental,” as examples. As these words will be necessary to find the information you are looking for, surround them with quotation marks so the search engine knows to look for the specific words in the order you typed. When scouring the Internet, don’t be fooled by embellished advertisements that tout low “starting rents,” as many of the ads featured are for one-year lease terms. Two online portals that advertise short-term accommodations are www.airbnb and www.vrbo, which offer fully furnished rentals daily, weekly and monthly. With these sites, you can interact directly with the owner in advance and know what your are paying for. As with any ad, be aware of scams and pay attention to the entire advertisement, as well as listed restrictions, such as pets and smoking rules. Before you sign any rental agreement or contract, make sure to inspect the residence thoroughly in the presence of the owner or landlord. If the rental includes all amenities [linens, kitchenware and small appliances] ask for an inventory checklist. New tenants should always inspect the property and sign the checklist to acknowledge the condition of the unit and the inventory. Without a rent inventory checklist, the owner or landlord has no way of knowing who caused damage at the property, or who is responsible for any missing items. If all utilities are included in your new rental, inquire if there is a “utility cap.” With the high costs of energy, most landlords will pay the monthly bill up to a specific amount. So, if your landlord rents his condo inclusive with a $150 utility cap each month, you will be charged the overage if you exceed. With the vast range of temporary housing options, careful research and planning will maximize your chance to secure the housing option that best suits your needs and budget. Your transition into new territory needs to be smooth, freeing your focus on your new job and getting you settled into your new community!
Nora Adams is manager of contract administration and corporate housing at Emerald Health Services in Marina del Rey, California. - See more at: http://healthcaretraveler.modernmedicine.c...
