I got a new job 5,000 miles from my old job. My new employers weren't offering to put me up anywhere while I hunted for an apartment, and although I did some looking around online ahead of time, the housing market was pretty tight, so I pretty much had to get on the ground and start showing up in person to look at apartments, then have my family join me once I found one.
I knew that on day one, I'd be working at an organization's main office, but going forward I'd mostly work at a smaller location. So I stayed a couple nights at a hotel near the main office, then stayed anywhere from 1-4 nights each at a variety of other locations around the area, including a youth hostel, another hotel, and people's houses or apartments found through AirBNB or CouchSurfing. As I began to get a feel for the area, I toured a few apartments, and after a couple days of looking, found a good one located between the main office and my usual worksite. My family flew in and we stayed for a week at another hotel midway between my usual worksite and the apartment, then settled in.
Three weeks, 11 beds...
