Furnished Finder: A Traveler’s Ultimate Honest Review

You’ve stumbled upon Furnished Finder and wonder if it’s legit or not. If you’re looking for a healthcare traveler’s review of Furnished Finder, you found one here.

I started working travel speech-language pathology jobs in 2010 and have used Furnished Finder on and off pretty much since their inception in 2014. Without a doubt, Furnished Finder has made my life as a traveler so much easier when it comes to finding travel therapy housing.

What is Furnished Finder?

Before we dive into the center of this review, let’s talk about Furnished Finder.

Furnished Finder is a website that connects landlords with people looking for mid-term furnished rentals.

A mid-term rental is a rental unit that rents for longer than 30 days. Initially, Furnished Finder targeted travel nurses and allied health professionals to find housing on assignments.

Now they have grown to include all professionals who travel for work or are looking for a mid-term rental. You can use Furnished Finder if you’re moving to a new town, relocating for work, or are working a travel contract.

What I love about the site is that they do not cater to vacationers or short-term renters, like Airbnb.

Instead, the landlords on the site want to rent to traveling professionals and understand our work. I’ve felt welcomed and appreciated by the landlords I’ve booked on Furnished Finder, which is the opposite experience that I’ve had during a lot of Airbnb communications.

On Airbnb, I’ve often felt like a hassle to landlords and got the impression that they would rather make more money through short-term rentals than block their place off for months to rent to a traveler.

How Does Furnished Finder Work?

Furnished Finder works differently than the traditional housing websites you may be used to, primarily because nothing is actually booked online. All of the transactions between landlords and travelers are done offline.

To use Furnished Finder as a traveling professional, you can:

1. Go to furnishedfinder.com and search for units based on your location and start date. For any property that you find in your search criteria, you can contact the landlord over the website.
2. Or, you can fill out a housing request form here. Once you fill out the housing request form, your information will be sent to all of the landlords in your area. From there, the landlords will contact you if they have availability.

Once you have connected with a landlord, everything moving forward takes place off of the website.

Often, landlords will want to interview you or screen you in some manner to show that you have income and/or verify that you have a job/assignment. They offer a service called KeyCheck, which helps landlords to screen applicants. 

If it’s a match, the landlord will have you sign a lease. The good thing about signing a lease is that often they are flexible for your lifestyle. This means they usually have fair clauses (14 or 30 days) for you to exit out of a lease.

Unfortunately, on one of my very first assignments back in 2010, I signed a lease with a corporate landlord that required a 60-day notice to terminate. When I got a 30-day notice that my contract was ending, I still owed the landlord 60 days’ rent and they had no pity for me. 

My experience with FF landlords is that they understand what they are getting into when they are renting to travelers. They know that sometimes our contracts get canceled and that we may extend, too. While I know this is just my experience, the landlords are very accommodating to our travel lifestyle. 

No Fees Keep Prices Affordable 

Furnished Finder doesn’t charge landlords any booking fees. In fact, it’s super cheap for landlords to list their properties.

They only pay a low annual fee that allows them to list their unit all year long with unlimited potential for housing leads. That definitely helps travelers because the extra fees don’t get passed on to us. 

I’ve been generally happy with the prices of units that I found at FF. Of course, there will always be high and low units, but I’ve found some gems. 

Some of my better finds were:

• An oceanfront studio in Northern California for $1,100/month
• A 2-bedroom cottage in Hawaii for $1,600/month. 

Both units were excellently maintained, pet-friendly with yards, and had amazing landlords as well. 

Is Furnished Finder Pet-Friendly?

Landlords can determine if their unit is pet-friendly or not. You have the ability to search for units based on whether it’s pet-friendly or not. It is up to the landlord if they require a pet deposit or pet rent. I’ve taken my 80-pound dog to several Furnished Finder units and had good experiences. 

Below are some of the pictures of my pup at the properties we stayed at.

Communication Isn’t Streamlined

Probably the biggest gripe that I have with Furnished Finder is the communication between prospective tenants and landlords is complicated.

Unlike Airbnb, which has a very clear messaging system, the messaging for Furnished Finder has a poor (in my opinion) user experience and it’s hard to follow your communication chains over the website.

The website messages can be forwarded to your email. When that happens, I’ve had a hard time finding out who I’m talking to and about which property.

Then, if you fill out a housing request form, communication can be chaotic.

In my experience, the majority of landlords I’ve dealt with have preferred to call me when they get my information over my housing request forms. Personally, I find it hard to answer calls and often don’t call back or move forward with the people who call me.

I would 100% love it if they got an in-app messaging system together that worked well and translated well to email or text so that we could communicate better about properties.

Do They Have an App?

Yes, they have an app. Personally, I find the user experience to be easier to navigate from their website. But, the app is an option.

Are There Scammers on Furnished Finder?

Like any website, scammers can definitely get through. However, Furnished Finder does do a vigorous background check on their owners and takes pride in keeping scammers off of their site.  

Personally, I’ve never run into any accounts that I felt were scammers. However, I cannot speak for all prospective tenants.

That being said, I am referring to the website Furnished Finder and not Facebook groups.

There are several Facebook groups that are run in part by Furnished Finder. These groups connect travelers and landlords. Travelers can post In Search of Housing (ISO) posts and landlords can list their units.

I have seen many scammers join those groups and try to scam my friends out of security deposits.

Personally , I NEVER USE a Facebook group to connect with a landlord to find housing, even a group run by Furnished Finder. After running Facebook groups for over 10 years and seeing firsthand how many scammers are online and how they operate over groups. I recommend using Furnished Finder through their actual website, which vets their landlords and not their Facebook groups.

Are You Interested in Renting to Healthcare Travelers?

If you’re intersted in renting to healthcare travelers, I have a piece that gives advice on what we are looking for.

My honest opinions in this piece and accompanying YouTube tend to rile up a lot of landlords.

• 2024 Updated Tips for Rending to Travel Nurses YouTube
• 5 Tips For Renting to Travel Nurses & Healthcare Professionals

Furnished Finder Review Conclusions

Overwhelmingly, I’m a fan of Furnished Finder and they win my seal of approval.

They are my favorite place to find housing as a traveler. I like that the landlords want to rent to travelers and, for the most part, don’t price gauge us.

The biggest complaint I have in this Furnished Finder review is that it’s hard to communicate with landlords, especially in the beginning process where you are trying to get a feel for the unit and book with them.