Short-term housing ideas?

[GLC1968]

I'm running out of ideas, so maybe you all can help me?

I have two interns coming in from out of town for 3 months this summer. They will need short-term housing that is furnished. We investigated corporate housing, but all the options are extremely expensive. Even the crappy-ish places are $89 - $99 per night. Both interns will have a $750/mo stipend for housing plus they will be making a salary. Both are responsible graduate students and I assume neither will have a car (I know that one won't, I haven't confirmed with the other one yet).

We've tried craigslist, sublet.com and uloop.com with no luck. I've put something up on the bulletin board at work (such as it is) but I don't expect that to really pan out.

Any suggestions on places to find short-term housing?

[Crankin]

Air BnB?
My son and DIL rent out a room in their house with this extremely popular site. They have regular visitors, most of whom are business consultants or scientists who have regular business in Boston or Cambridge. It's all above board. Check the site out.

[GLC1968]

You know, I used that site when I was looking at places in Hawaii but it never occurred to me to try it at home! Thanks!

There were only a couple of local options on the site, but it's better than nothing which is what I've been coming up with lately.

[Becky]

What about a local university's student housing? (I have no idea if schools do this or not....but if they have vacant spaces....)

[thekarens]

My son is doing the same thing, but I'm Austin. He's subletting a grad student's place. He has his own bedroom and bathroom and shares a kitchen with the other tenants. It's a win win since my son only needs it for the summer.

[Triskeliongirl]

I second the idea to try your local university. Its very common for students to sublet apartments for the summer since they usually need to sign a year lease. Fraternity houses also tend to sub let rooms in the summer. I am not sure the housing office can help though, but ask some local students what venues students use to advertise this sort of thing (sometimes there are online bulletin boards restricted to students).

[GLC1968]

Thanks guys! Unfortunately, there aren't any resident universities in the immediate area (only downtown Portland) and both of these students will be without cars. They *might* be able to make that work using public transportation if we could find one...but there are TONS of students looking for places and apparently not much available. Even downtown.

I think there is a serious business opportunity here...if only I had time to investigate further and $ to do something about it. ;-)

[Triskeliongirl]

Another idea is VRBO (vacation rental by owner). We have used them all over the world. If both students wanted to share a small apt. it could be cost effective. http://www.vrbo.com/
Since you are dealing with owners, you could also try to negotiate a bit.