If your company asks you to temporarily relocate to a new branch in another state or collaborate with international coworkers on a long-term project, they may offer to help find you a place to live in that location.
Though they may simply book you a hotel room, your employer may also set you up with an accommodation known as corporate housing, which is a furnished, short-term rental that’s designed to feel more like a home away from home.
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“In some instances, corporate housing is given when an employee is expected to consistently travel to a place for work, yet they are still maintaining a residence in their home jurisdiction,” explains real estate agent Monisha Rana. “All in all, companies offering corporate housing are more likely to get their employees to relocate, either temporarily or permanently, as it causes the least disruption to their personal lives.”
What is corporate housing?
Corporate housing is a private, temporary living setup in an apartment, home, or even an extended-stay hotel. It typically offers more space than a standard hotel room and may include additional living areas, such as a kitchen and dining area.
Corporate housing units are almost always furnished and equipped with all the utensils, linens, gadgets, and other fixtures you need to live comfortably for several weeks or months at a time.
Some properties market themselves specifically as corporate housing. But you can also book corporate housing on property rental sites like Airbnb and Vrbo, too.
Who uses corporate housing?
Companies often lean on corporate housing when sending their employees to a new location for a long-term work project or a permanent relocation. But individuals can also book corporate housing themselves, such as when they’re moving to a new city and want to get to know different neighborhoods first before buying a house or signing a longer-term lease.
“Corporate housing is primarily for employees of firms that need to work in a different location for a short amount of time or as an intermediary step to relocation,” says Marie Bromberg, a real estate agent in New York City. “It’s a cost-effective way for a company to provide temporary housing.”
How much does corporate housing cost?
The cost of corporate housing depends on the location: Units in high-demand areas tend to be more expensive, whereas those in more rural or low-traffic areas may be more affordable. Overall, corporate housing options tend to be more affordable than hotels.
In addition, if your company is sending you to a different location for a work project, they’ll typically pay for your accommodations while you’re there. If you’re self-employed or staying in corporate housing for personal reasons, however, you’ll probably be footing the bill yourself.
Either way, it pays to check around and compare prices to know which accommodation makes the most sense from a budget perspective.
What are the benefits of corporate housing?
Compared to a hotel, corporate housing can be more comfortable—there’s generally more room to spread out, a kitchen to prepare meals in, and a separate living area to watch TV. You can also add personal touches to the space if you want, since you may be staying for a long time.
“Corporate housing allows employees to create a home environment away from their actual home while on assignment in a different city,” says real estate broker Mihal Gartenberg. “Rather than checking in and out of a hotel, employees can actually move in and add little flourishes to the apartment that can make it homier and less sterile than a hotel.”
For companies, corporate housing can be a positive perk to offer employees who may not otherwise choose to work so far from home. In the broader sense, it can also help businesses achieve their goals.
“Employers can allow for cross-collaboration across different sections and even countries of their company,” says Bromberg. “It allows intellectual exchange of ideas that often act as a draw for people considering the company as an employer.”
What are the drawbacks of corporate housing?
While there are lots of different hotels to choose from, you may be more limited when it comes to the selection of available corporate housing options. In addition, corporate housing may not be located in your preferred area and you may have to commute to work each day.
“Depending on the circumstance, it might not be in the center of the city,” says Bromberg. “For example, in New York City, we often see corporate housing in Jersey City.”
Another unavoidable downside is that, no matter how cozy you make your corporate housing feel, you’re still not in your own home. And if you opt to bounce back and forth between your house and your corporate housing accommodation, you may eventually experience some amount of “travel fatigue,” says Gartenberg.
“Such setups usually include weekend travel home and people ultimately want to stay home,” says Gartenberg. “The back and forth can be wearisome once the novelty of a new city wears off.”
Arielle Tschinkel is a freelance pop culture and lifestyle writer whose work has appeared on Shape.com, WomansWorld.com, FirstforWomen.com, Insider, HelloGiggles, and more. She loves all things Disney and is making her way to every park around the world, and is a die-hard Britney Spears fan for life. She’s also obsessed with her Bernedoodle, Bruce Wayne.
If you’re a renter like I am, you can probably relate to this experience. It’s the time of the year when my annual lease is almost up. Someone from building management slips an envelope under my door. I open it and scan quickly through the letter to find those two words: rent increase. And I brace myself a little for what’s to follow. How much is it going up this year?
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In 2021 and 2022, rents increased at annual rates that are higher than pre-pandemic levels. “If they haven’t already gone up in your city, you should at least be prepared for it. It’s impossible to see into the future, but it is possible to prepare yourself in case that scenario continues,” says real estate agent Jon Shefsky, who specializes in short and long-term leases.
As we move into the new year, are rental prices going to keep up the steep climb, will they level out, or even go down? The agents I spoke to stressed that while the market is unpredictable, the trends they see in their profession are pointing to continued increases.
Remember, rents are consistently going up, little by little. “There’s always going to be a modest two percent annual increase,” explains Los Angeles-based real estate agent Ashley Temm. “But the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in this city is up 18 percent from last year. I foresee that trend continuing.”
Many of the emergency tenant protections that were put in place during the pandemic have either been lifted or are about to come to end. That means rental managers can resume raising their rents. And real estate pros believe they will, because landlords are anxious to get back to operating a profitable business. “Landlords are recovering from financial loss because of the eviction moratoriums. They want to increase their rents and get that loss recouped,” says Temm.
There May Be a Silver Lining
Is there any good news for renters in 2023? According to Temm, we can expect property management companies to work harder to attract new tenants. Be on the lookout for more apartment owners to advertise incentives, such as one month of free rent, discounts on renters’ insurance, complementary moving vans, or referral bonuses. “Times are tough, and the cost of living has skyrocketed. People don’t want to pay higher rents, so landlords will end up with outstanding inventory,” says Temm.
Plus, the hot housing market has cooled, so the current renters who were priced out the past several years can finally circle back on their dream of home ownership. But empty apartments don’t create income for their owners. “If they don’t want to eat the cost of so many vacancies, they’re going to have to start offering incentives and perks.”
When my friends went from living a 15-minute walk down the street from me to an hour-long drive away, I took that personally. Kidding — as much as I miss living close enough for a spontaneous week night hangout, I could only be thrilled for them as they did what every renter one day dreams of doing: Buying property. After getting married the summer before, they were ready to buy their first home together.
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The housing market, however, had other ideas. “We wanted to buy a house, but it’s so impossible to afford,” explains my friend, Maren Madison. “Anything we could afford to make the down payment on, the monthly payment would be way too much for us.” So they opted instead to buy a two-unit building, renting out the larger unit so that rent from the tenants could help offset their monthly mortgage payments. A smart money move, to be sure, but one that led to a whole new set of responsibilities: They became landlords.
Now that they’ve owned the two-family home for about six months, I asked Madison how they’ve adjusted to being on the other side of renting. In addition to leaning on her own experience with property managers as a renter, she also confers with her parents, who have also been landlords, for advice on a regular basis. Though the ethics of being a landlord can be murky, as any renter who’s had a less-than-stellar experience well knows, Madison is determined to do the opposite of everything she resented about renting. Here are three things they’re doing that she wishes every landlord would.
Don’t be a helicopter landlord.
Madison and her husband moved every year for six years. Of those living situations, she says their best landlord was quick to respond, but was always around. “He didn’t live there but was there every single day putting around. It felt like we couldn’t really live our lives because the landlord was right there watching us,” she says. “Not that we were breaking rules, but it just felt weird.” Or, she recalls, she’d walk to the car and he’d stop her to have a conversation about the plants. “It was fine, but sometimes I just wanted to go to my car,” she says.
To help their tenants feel like they’re living independently even though their landlords live right upstairs, Madison says they’re making a conscious effort to give them space, especially given their physical proximity. Though it’s hard to toe the line between being friendly and accessible and a little too present, she says she’s “trying really hard not to butt in too much.”
Do be responsive and communicative.
In the worst renting situation Madison and her husband experienced, their heat broke in the middle of the winter and the landlord never fully fixed it. “They were like, eh we tried, and didn’t really fix it. So we didn’t have heat, which might be the worst landlord scenario I’ve had.” Another landlord, who they never met, would fix things only if they were completely dysfunctional. “If it wasn’t absolutely destroyed, they didn’t want to keep stuff working well,” she says.
Though new to landlording, they’re aiming to stay on top of issues as they come up to keep the home looking nice and feeling comfortable. “I just had a very intense morning of landlording,” Madison says when we talk. “The radiator downstairs was leaking so I tried to replace a piece and it literally fire-hose-style poured water all over me.” But when she needed to go into their unit to work on the repair, she was sure to follow the ground rules they’d agreed on. “Today when I had to go in and out of their apartment 100 times I told [the tenant], I’m coming down. I’m not going to knock because you told me not to. I’ve been trying to communicate very clearly.” When we talk about the role of a good landlord, I completely agree — to take responsibility for the maintenance of the building they own, but to respect the autonomy of the tenant at the same time. It’s their home too, after all.
Be the landlord you wish you had.
There are lots of little things Madison says she’s found herself letting go, just to be flexible in the way that she wishes previous landlords had been for her. Their tenants aren’t tandem parking their cars as outlined in the lease, for instance, but she recognizes they have big cars and it’s not a huge deal to give them an extra spot for the time being. They’ve been talking about getting a cat, which wasn’t previously agreed upon, but Madison says they’re fine with it and glad their tenants feel comfortable enough to ask them. “The other thing is we’re upstairs neighbors for them, so I’m very aware of the fact that I don’t want to be too loud,” she says. While you can text a neighbor to quiet down a bit, it’s trickier when that neighbor is the person who pay rent to. “Since we’re also the landlords, I don’t want him to be in a position where they’re uncomfortable with bringing something up,” she explains.
With some past landlords, Madison says, the most frustrating aspect “was the lack of caring about the actual space, and more just caring about the check they got every month.” Ultimately, they’re still learning how to be homeowners and landlords, moving around furniture and troubleshooting leaky radiators. But they’re keeping that one key fact top of mind as they do so: This building is all of their home, and it’s a space they care for.
This is not a post about deceiving your landlord. This post is about updates you can make to your rental that more than likely don’t need your landlord’s permission. My husband and I are landlords. Rentals are a part of our full-time job; so here are some things WE wouldn’t mind you doing if you lived in our rentals … and I bet your landlord might feel the same way. If you’re sick of ugly apartment cabinets and want to cover them, or just can’t stand the light fixtures in your space, here are some simple ideas for you.
1. Create your own walls with pieces of furniture.
Need more rooms or spaces? Create them with furniture.
2. Change up the kitchen cabinet or bathroom vanity hardware.
New knobs can change a bathroom or kitchen, and they are really easy to change. I would buy some fun ones that you might use again … maybe in your new home or on a piece of furniture. Make sure you store all the old knobs with all the screws so you can easily put them back on when you leave.
Don’t do: Don’t drill new holes. You do need to ask permission to drill any new holes. Don’t switch the hardware out with something you would need to drill a second hole or a hole in a different place. If your cabinet does not have hardware then you need to ask to drill holes.
3. Remove your kitchen cabinet doors.
If your rental has ugly doors and you happen to have some awesome kitchenware that needs to be displayed, then go ahead and remove them. Make sure you store your kitchen cabinet doors in a place where they will not be damaged. Make sure you are extra careful if they are painted just to be thoughtful. Don’t want to remove the doors? You can make temporary cabinet covers by concealing ugly doors with removable adhesive paper (contact paper).
Don’t do: Don’t lose all the hinge hardware or putty fill the door holes. Remember, kitchen cabinets are a very expensive fix so store them well. Not storing them well will probably cause you to have to pay a hefty price.
4. Do use temporary wallpaper.
If you have a landlord with a “no paint policy” check out the paint-able and totally removable wallpaper from Tempaper. There are many brands of temporary wallpaper and as long as it is installed and removed well it will more than likely be okay with your landlord.
5. Install plug-in pendants.
If you are allowed to drill into the wall then there should be no problem with installing a hook into the ceiling. This is an easy way to make your rental look custom and then take that custom look with you when it’s time to go.
Don’t Do: Use the wrong hook or hardware to install into the ceiling. Doing this will make the hole bigger than it needs to be and a not so easy fix for your landlord.
6. Do switch up the shades or bulbs of your light fixture.
There are so many ideas out there to spruce up existing fixtures. Make sure your store the original shade or bulb so you can return it when you leave.
Don’t Do: I think changing the light fixture without permission is a bad idea. It never hurts to ask but don’t be mad when your landlord says no. My husband is a general contractor and even he won’t install a new light fixture in one of his rentals. Why? If the licensed and insured electrical company installs your fixtures, then if something goes wrong, only they are liable. How do I, as your landlord, know you know electrical work? If something happens then I am liable. If you are that passionate about it, tell your landlord you will pay for his electrician to come install it and then re-install the original one when you leave. Safe people are happy people, right?
7. Do take the closet doors off.
Again, as long as you store them well and put them back on when you leave then your landlord should have no problems with this removal.
8. Do use rugs to cover ugly floors.
Whether it is gross carpet or really ugly vinyl … a rug can right some wrongs. If you have ugly kitchen vinyl, buy a vinyl sheet remnant and cut it as large as you need it to be. Turn it over to the white side and paint it. Use rug tape and you have a water friendly and mop-able way to cover some serious ugly.
9. Do install outside mount roman shades to hide ugly or broken blinds.
In this living room makeover I hid the white blinds by pulling them all the way up and installing this bamboo roman shade over the window trim. You didn’t even know they were there did you? The family uses the roman shades when they want privacy and the broken white blinds are completely hidden.
10. Do use contact paper.
You can contact paper on walls, your kitchen cabinets, your fridge, your door and so many other places. You can even use frosted glass contact paper on a window to give you privacy.
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Your rental can feel like your home with these simple updates. On another note, while I would be fine with all of these updates, if you are not sure…go ahead and ask your landlord anyway. A trusting landlord will let you do more but you do have to gain the trust at first. Love this post and want more? You’re in luck, because we’ve got lots of great posts planned specifically for all you renters so stay tuned.
