Is there a site with some of the best cheap monthly airbnbs?

December 30, 2020 8:23 AM

So I've been nomadic for a while and I think I'd like to keep doing it. I'm looking for cheapish monthly rentals in interesting places. I've been doing the searching myself on airbnb but I have to think there's something like Curbed that looks for this stuff. Is there?
posted by rileyray3000 to Travel & Transportation (5 answers total)

What kind of lodgings /accommodations do you need? If you are doing a van life thing, many state parks (at least in NC) look for site hosts where you stay for a week- months. You stay for free and just have to do some basic work with helping people check in etc. Most sites have bathhouses and water available if not full RV hookups.
posted by raccoon409 at 8:35 AM on December 30, 2020

I think this will be difficult to find, given the instability of the market right now, but I did find a Thrillist List from 2016 and a PopSugar slideshow from 2018. This Nomad List seemed promising but appears broken at the moment.

Another issue is Airbnb hosts are always offering discounts and rate changes for monthly rentals based on season or their personal whims.

Sounds like a really good idea though. I could build a database for this (as it is also an interest of mine as a future digital nomad) but I am not sure I would ever have the time to maintain it.
posted by Young Kullervo at 9:08 AM on December 30, 2020

You can enter "North America" or whatever region you like into AirBnB/VRBO's search bar, choose your criteria and date range, and zoom around the map as you like. Then save the interesting stuff to a list. (It'd be nice if AirBnB let power users save their searches, but no such luck)

There's no filter for "interesting" but you can search for unique homes like "yurt" "treehouse" etc.

Also I've learned that you can often negotiate a monthly rate even if it isn't offered.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:13 AM on December 30, 2020

Always worth asking. As a host, the best way to approach me is politely (some guests try to bargain by negging the listing which is weird and doesn’t make me want to host them) mention something you like about the place and state your budget and ask if there are any times of the year the host would consider something like that. For me, my down time is late winter/early spring in which case I would negotiate steep discounts.
posted by arnicae at 10:21 AM on December 30, 2020

I do like the idea of doing a database for this stuff. But I think the best way to go would be a monthly substack at some point with the listings. Too bad there's no way to automate it. But clearly the demise of Nomad list has left a hole. Maybe call it...UNLEASED
posted by rileyray3000 at 3:24 PM on December 30, 2020