You can’t choose family, but you can choose travel nurse housing.

Allied and Travel Nurse Housing: How it Works 

If you’re a new traveler, one of the first questions you have is probably how exactly housing for traveling workers actually works. After all, you can’t head home each night to sleep in your own bed, so you need to figure out where you’re going to live during your 13-week assignment. If traveling is new to you, don’t worry. We’ll walk through allied and travel nurse housing: how it works, all about stipends and even how to find a great place to call home for the duration of your assignment.  

Does Travel Nursing Pay for Housing or Find a Place for You? 

Travel jobs that pay for housing are common and healthcare travel is no exception. There are two ways to pay for housing: find travel nurse agencies that pay for housing, or take a stipend and find your own travel RN housing.  

If you’re using agency provided housing, you’ll need to be a little flexible. Agencies that do this a lot typically have contracts with short-term corporate housing or extended stay hotels. The housing will likely be close to the facility, but you don’t get a lot of choice in where you stay—what they have is what you get. If you’re unhappy with the housing situation, it could be a long 13 weeks.  

If you’d rather find your own housing, we’ll go over more information on what to look for and where to start your housing search. Keep reading! 

How Does a Housing Stipend Work? 

If you decide to take the stipend and find your own home away from home, you’ll need to find your own housing and that means you’ll receive a tax-free housing stipend. This stipend is meant to reimburse you for out-of-pocket expenses that are related to duplicating expenses for your housing. The key to receiving stipends is to duplicate your expenses. If you’re planning on traveling home and pocketing the expenses, know that the IRS will likely have something to say about that. No one wants to have that awkward conversation with the IRS.  

Your recruiter will likely do whatever possible to maximize your stipends. Each travel contract has a set amount that’s available for the traveler, but there is a little bit of leeway with how your tax income and stipends are characterized. It’s normal to maximize your tax-free stipends using the government reimbursement rates for travel for your location. But be wary of recruiters who attempt to misclassify your wages by lowering the taxed income too much. If it’s not within the range of a normal salary for the position, it could be flagged by the IRS as trying to avoid paying taxes. If your recruiter tells you they can’t take the taxed income lower, understand that they’re looking out for you. Sometimes the travel nurse housing stipend amount can’t be maximized because of the rate provided by the facility. If this is the case, you’ll have to decide if you want to take the lower stipend but know that Triage recruiters will give you honest and transparent feedback. 

Additionally, if your taxed pay is too low, it could cause issues when you try to buy a home or a car and need a loan. Lenders only look at your taxed income. This can lead to lower borrowing thresholds so beware if you’re looking to make a big purchase in the next two years.  

Many travelers who use a travel nurse housing stipend try to find housing that costs about the cost of one paycheck. That way, they’re able to pocket the majority of their stipend. That’s completely ok to do, as long as you’re duplicating expenses at home.  

Other Things to Consider When Looking for Travel Nurse Housing 

When you’re considering your own housing, you’ll need to think about a lot of different factors. While this isn’t as permanent as purchasing a home, it will be your home for at least 13 weeks (and even more if you decide you like the area and want to extend). While this isn’t an all-encompassing list, here are a couple things you should think about before moving into your temp home.  

Distance from facility: What is the distance from the facility? There’s no right and wrong answer for how far you need to be from the facility—it all depends on your own comfort. Some people want to be within walking distance, especially if they fly to their location and don’t want to bring a vehicle, while others like to have a little bit of space between themselves and their workplace. Often, you may find less expensive housing options further away from your facility, but that definitely depends on your location.  

Parking: If you have a vehicle with you on assignment, you’re going to need a vehicle. Is parking available or is it strictly street parking? The last thing you’re going to want to do is hunt for street parking when you’re done with a long 12 hour shift. Also, if you decide to stay in a hotel, ask about the safety of the area and the hotel parking lot.  

Is it furnished: Most short-term housing should be furnished, but just in case, it’s a good idea to ask. If you do find an unfurnished apartment for a great deal, turn to a furniture rental company. While these are best known as “rent to own” stores, it is also possible to use them just as a short-term furniture rental.  

Is it safe: If you’re traveling alone, especially if you’re a woman, you’re going to want to ensure your area is safe. Look up crime statistics of the area and even consider calling the local police department to ask about crime in the area. The officers will be happy to help you determine whether the area is a good one. 

Research your landlord: Your new landlord is likely going to do a background check on you, so make sure you do one on them too. A quick Google search can give you a little bit of information whether your potential landlord is a good one or if they have a lot of complaints. Read complaints with a grain of salt, especially if there’s only one, but watch for patterns or multiple reviews that call out the same issues.  

What’s included in a hotel: If you’re staying in a hotel, you might be worried about being forced to eat out for every meal. Instead, see if your hotel includes a mini fridge so you can at least store some drinks and snacks. Some travelers like to travel with an air fryer or pressure cooker so they can at least cook a few meals in their room, but this can be difficult, depending on the space. If you want the flexibility of a hotel, but the ability to cook for yourself, an extended stay might be a better option.  

Are utilities included: Lastly, are utilities included in your rent? Or do you need to set up your own utilities like water, electricity, gas and internet? While you can use your cell phone’s data plan for internet, doing so may mean that your phone data plan goes over your data cap or that your data speeds are throttled.  

Travel Nurse Housing Finder Options 

Once you’ve decided that you’re going to find your own housing, you have a variety of places to look. We’ve compiled a list of these spots here to start. Be aware that some of these sites don’t have any background checks or protections for renters so proceed with caution and never sign an agreement or send money to a landlord without actually seeing the property. 

One piece of advice from seasoned travelers, consider booking a hotel for a week or two at the beginning of your assignment to make sure the unit is good and to give you a better idea of where you want to stay. This also helps ensure that you aren’t sending cash to a landlord who has posted a scam property. Although most people are good and honest, there are scammers out there that list fictious properties on sites like Craigslist or Facebook. 

Airbnb: Airbnb is a great place to find a whole apartment, house or even a room in someone’s home. The website or app allows you to search by location so you’ll know how far from the facility the location is, plus you can filter by cost, amenities and even whether the location allows pets.  

Bring Fido: Traveling with a buddy? Bring Fido allows you to search pet-friendly housing. While the majority of the housing on the site is hotels, you can also find pet-friendly restaurants, activities and events, making it a great resource if you’re only in a location for one assignment.  

Craigslist: Craigslist can be a good resource, but it does have a fairly big reputation for being ripe for scams. If you do see a housing option on Craigslist that looks promising, consider asking for a video tour via Skype or Facetime and definitely don’t send any money. It’s common for scammers to find a house or apartment that’s listed on another site and create a fake listing on Craigslist. When the renter arrives expecting the keys, they find out they’ve been scammed.  

Facebook Marketplace:  You may be able to find short-term rentals, as well as people looking for someone to sub-lease their housing on Facebook.  

Extended Stay Hotels: Extended stay hotels are usually less expensive than a regular hotel, plus they come with some extra amenities like a full size fridge, a stovetop burner or two and sometimes even a dishwasher. Many extended stays don’t have daily housekeeping so you’ll have to keep things tidy yourself, but they can be less expensive than a regular hotel. They’re also more flexible than options that require a lease. Popular extended stay hotels include Extended Stay America, Woodspring, Sonesta and Staybridge though there are many others.   

The Gypsy Nurse Travel Nurse Housing Group: You’ll have to head to Facebook to find TGN’s Travel Nurse Housing Group. Travelers and landlords can post available housing, as well as provide reviews to ensure other travelers know what they’re getting into before signing a lease.  

Hotels: If you want to ensure total flexibility and housekeeping services, a hotel is where you want to be. You can book just a few nights at a time, plus depending on where you’re working, you may have more than 20 options within a short drive to the hospital. Check out websites like Expedia, Travelocity and Hotels.com to find options, but consider booking directly through the hotel for the best deal.  

ForRent.com: ForRent.com lets you select a location, as well as a rent range, which means you’ll have an easier time staying under your monthly stipend. You can also choose the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, which is ideal if you’re traveling with a family or have a travel buddy you’re living with.  

Furnished Finder: Like Airbnb, Furnished Finder will let you choose a place that’s already fully furnished, but unlike Airbnb, you won’t have to worry about paying a lot of extra fees. If you want to be able to just move in, it’s a great place to look for housing.  

Vrbo: Vrbo is very similar to Airbnb, but all listings on Vrbo are for the entire house or apartment, while Airbnb can list single rooms. If you’re looking to ensure privacy during your stay, consider looking at a Vrbo listing.  

At Triage, we’re collecting a list of our travelers’ favorite housing options. If you have a place you’ve loved, fill out our traveler housing survey and let us know where you’ve loved to stay while on assignment. 

Now that you understand how allied and travel nurse housing works, as well as all the housing options that are available to healthcare travelers, it’s time to find your first assignment. Check out our board, full of allied and travel nurse jobs (including pay rates in most cases) and then talk to a Triage recruiter to see the pay package breakdown.