What are the struggles you've encountered when picking a new place to visit and live in for a while?

Question

With my boyfriend we’ve been traveling through Europe since July. We try to make a month at a time and the last place we got to was Cluj-Napoca, Romania. We soon realized that it’s not a good place to find short term leases. We’ve usually done Airbnbs, but in that city they all seemed overpriced. After talking to some Real Estate agencies we found a place that we could rent for a month. They usually rent to students, but since it’s the end of the semester, it could be rented for just that month. The apartment, however, didn’t have internet.
We notice how hard it is to find places that will meet our “digital nomad” needs: the city, if it’s walkable, short term leases, fast and reliable internet, if it has a place to work like coworking spaces nearby, or if the apartment won’t drive you crazy if you stay in all day (in Spain every apartment we went to seemed to have construction going on somewhere close).
What are your struggles when finding a place in a new city?

kathrynoh · Accepted Answer

I’ve definitely had struggles with accommodation. Partly my fault from not understanding my own needs (eg. it’s better and probably cheaper to get a place with a decent work area than have to go out to cafes – definitely cheaper in the long term when I need to pay for massages to fix my back!)
The other side of it is having issues with Airbnb. It’s getting to be a bit of a joke when I post on social media yet again about the problems.  One of the factors that makes it difficult is that the reviews on the site are often veered towards the overly positive or give scant information.  Photos and the description can only tell you so much and it’d be nice to get the full picture. The nearby construction work is a good example of that – I’d want to know before I booked a place.
I think Airbnb facilitates that too. I’ve noticed when I get the ‘please review’ emails their wording is about giving feedback to the host when I think it’s as important, if not more so, to provide a clear picture to future guests.  I always try to be well rounded when I write reviews for that reason and, obviously, some things that would be a huge issue for digital nomads are not going to be factor at all for a tourist in town for a few days and only in the place to sleep.

yivva · Answer

Short term accommodation is often a problem for us also, not hard to find but usually much more expensive when only for one month. and we never find any good deals on airbnb so gave up on that one.
We have found it easier recently to make somewhere a base for three months and travel/explore from there. Then properly move every three months and do the same with that new location as our new central point. Works out better financially and is nice not to have to pack up everything we own all the time (not that there’s much stuff anyway)
Other struggles we have found is air quality. I noticed this has been mentioned on here a few times, but didn’t even consider it a major problem until we stayed in Hanoi in July this year. It was something we didn’t look up until we arrived and then were very disappointed. My friend there was constantly struggling to breath when he was outside. No amount of cheap beer / accommodation is worth that!

kathrynoh · Answer

I think returning to familiar places can be helpful for a lot of the initial struggles. I was recently in Tokyo, where I used to live, and found I was a lot more productive than I have been in cities that are new to me. There’s none of that settling period while you try to orientate yourself with the city, work out public transport and set up the essentials.
Of course, I’d never want to just keep returning to the same places constantly so the ideal is have a good mix of old and new.

db8871 · Answer

my major struggle is making new local friends, which is the reason I tend to stay long term in the same place, or come back to he same places.

andreadardon · Answer

I know exactly what you mean with the reviews being overly positive. I get it, when you  personally meet the people who are your hosts, it gets harder to say bad things about them. I recently had a problem with a place in London, the hosts decided to remodel the house on our last week of a month long stay. We complained to Airbnb who later declined our complaint because the host “did tell us they would do the remodeling works” even though they told us the day before. The hosts where nice people, but on my review I had to tell the truth. After that I received a very nasty message from them.
It’s hard to pick a place, since most reviews are very nice and you trust them. Then if you want to help the community and say things as they are on your review, you get harassed verbally by the hosts, who had agreed to a system in which they could get bad reviews.
But you’re also right about our needs not being the same as to those of a regular tourist, on this same place when we complained about the internet not being strong in our room, the host quickly said no one had ever complained about it. No one had ever needed the internet as much as we did.

kathrynoh · Answer

I’ve had really good experiences with Airbnb when I’ve had to contact them with issues. They even compensated me for a hotel stay when I had to get out of one place.
One thing though, if you have issues during a stay that means you have to cancel your booking, you are unable to leave a review.  There is just the comment added that you cancelled the booking but that could mean it was cancelled prior to your stay, because you found somewhere else or a number of other factors.
It’s really bad that the host harassed you. I had one host get very passive aggressive because I had to move out and cancel my booking.  It was all in the reviews though and I figure they did themselves more harm by posting something like that.

andreadardon · Answer

That is a real struggle! How much time do you usually stay in one place, out of curiosity?

vong · Answer

[quote=“yivva, post:3, topic:5490”]
Other struggles we have found is air quality. I noticed this has been mentioned on here a few times, but didn’t even consider it a major problem until we stayed in Hanoi in July this year. [/quote]
Clean air is one of those things you don’t miss until it’s not there!
Had to don N95 masks for an extended period due to haze in Singapore & Beijing, and it really makes you feel like crap. No outdoor activities + constant anxiety and guilt that you’re killing your lungs.

andreadardon · Answer

I’ve never even thought of air quality! I’d look more into it when picking a new place!

munly_leong · Answer

my major struggles have usually been finding adequate short term rentals especially when I was in Canada and both decent internet quality and an accessible router/modem to reset or fix things myself if anything goes wrong.

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