How to Rent to Corporate Housing: A Landlord Guide
To rent to corporate housing, furnish the home to a work-ready standard, confirm local rules allow stays of 30 days or more, and get set up as a vendor with the relocation companies and corporate housing providers that place employees in your area. Expect to sign a furnished occupancy agreement with a company rather than a person, send invoices instead of collecting rent through an app, and answer housing requests within hours, not days.
Key takeaways
- In corporate housing, the company or a relocation agency often signs and pays, while an employee lives in the home. Your paperwork, screening and invoicing have to match that split.
- Most of the work is getting approved as a supplier once: a W-9, proof of insurance, payment details and a clean property sheet with photos.
- Speed wins placements. Agencies send one request to several owners, and the first complete answer usually gets the booking.
- Price above your true monthly cost floor, and check the federal per diem lodging rate for your area when the guest is a government traveler or contractor.
- Track every stay, invoice and turnover in one system, or the admin will eat the premium you are charging.
What does "renting to corporate housing" actually mean?
Corporate housing is a fully furnished home rented for a month or longer to someone who is in town for work. The person living there might be a consultant on a six-month project, an engineer relocating with a family, a traveling nurse, or an insurance policyholder whose own house is being repaired.
What makes it different from a normal lease is who sits on the other side of the table. In many stays, three parties are involved:
| Party | What they usually do | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Employer or insurer | Pays for the stay, directly or by reimbursing | Payment terms and invoicing follow their rules |
| Relocation or corporate housing company | Finds the home, signs with you, bills the employer | They are your customer and your contact |
| Occupant | Lives in the home, sometimes with family | Needs a great stay, but may never sign anything |
Some stays are simpler: an employee finds your listing, books it personally and gets reimbursed later. Either way, write down before move-in who signed, who pays and who you call if something goes wrong. That one step prevents most payment confusion later.
Who books corporate housing, and how do they find you?
There are four main routes into this market. Most owners end up using two or three of them at once.
- Relocation and corporate housing companies. These firms place employees for large employers. Some own or lease their own apartments. Many also work with independent owners as suppliers. They keep a short list of homes they trust and send housing requests to it when a placement comes in.
- Mid-term rental marketplaces. Furnished Finder and similar sites list furnished homes for stays of a month or more. Employees and agencies both search them. Our guide to Furnished Finder for landlords covers how to set up a listing that gets inquiries.
- Insurance and temporary housing companies. When a family’s home is damaged, the insurer often pays for temporary housing. Placement companies handle these requests, and they need furnished homes close to the damaged property, fast.
- Direct relationships with local employers. Hospitals, universities, large plants and project-based firms (construction, engineering, film production) often have someone in HR or operations who arranges housing. A short, professional introduction to that person can turn into repeat bookings.
The common thread: none of these customers are browsing for a weekend getaway. They need a home that works for work, they need an answer quickly, and they need paperwork their accounting department will accept.
Is your property a good fit for corporate tenants?
Location matters more than finishes. A plain, well-kept two-bedroom near a hospital or office park will out-book a beautiful home in a leisure-only area. Before you buy furniture, check these points:
| Factor | Strong fit | Weak fit |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Near hospitals, offices, universities, plants or project sites | Far from employers, only busy in vacation season |
| Rules | City, county and HOA allow furnished stays of 30+ days | HOA or lease bans anything under 12 months |
| Size | One to three bedrooms, room for a desk | Studio with no workspace |
| Parking and laundry | Assigned parking, in-unit washer and dryer | Street parking, shared laundry |
| Your setup | You can turn the home over and handle issues within a day | You want to collect rent and never visit |
If you already run the home as a short-term rental, you are most of the way there. If you are converting a long-term rental, the bigger jump is furnishing and taking on turnovers. Our comparison of short-term vs long-term rentals walks through how the economics change.
How do you get approved as a supplier with corporate housing companies?
This is the part the other guides skip, and it is where most owners stall. Relocation and housing companies cannot place an employee in a home they have not vetted, so they will ask you to complete a supplier or vendor setup once. Have these ready before you reach out:
| Document | Why they ask | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| Form W-9 | They report payments to you for tax purposes | Download the current version from the IRS Form W-9 page and sign it in your business name if you have one |
| Certificate of insurance | Proof of liability coverage for a furnished rental | Ask your insurer whether your policy covers stays of 30+ days with business occupants, and request a certificate |
| Payment details | They pay by ACH or check, on their schedule | Use a business bank account and keep the form on file |
| Property sheet | Agents match homes to requests from this | Address, beds, baths, square footage, parking, pets, laundry, internet speed, distance to key employers |
| Photos | Agents forward them to the employee | Bright, current photos of every room, plus the workspace |
| Your occupancy agreement | They will review your terms or send their own | Keep a furnished-stay agreement ready, reviewed by a local attorney |
Once you are set up, you are on their list. From then on, each booking is a request and a reply, not a fresh application.
Lease or occupancy agreement? Many corporate stays use a furnished occupancy or innkeeper-style agreement rather than a standard residential lease, and the rules on which applies differ by state. This is a question for a local attorney before your first stay, not after a dispute.
How should you answer a corporate housing request?
A typical request arrives by email or text and names a city or area, move-in and move-out dates, number of occupants, pets, parking needs and a budget. The agent usually sends the same request to several owners at once.
What wins the placement:
- A complete answer in one message. Dates confirmed, total price, what is included (utilities, internet, cleaning), the property sheet and photo link. If the agent has to come back and ask, someone else may answer first.
- Speed. Agencies are working against an employee’s start date or a family that needs a place tonight. In our experience, replies within an hour or two get booked far more often than replies the next day.
- No surprises. Spell out deposit, cleaning fee, pet fee and early-departure terms up front.
- Flexibility on end dates. Projects run long and repairs take longer than planned. Say whether you can extend month to month.
A simple template you can adapt:
"Hi Dana, the home at [area] is available [dates] for 2 occupants and 1 small dog. Total for the stay is $[amount], including utilities, high-speed internet, parking and one mid-stay cleaning. Photos and property sheet: [link]. We can extend month to month if the project runs long. I can hold these dates until [time]."
How do you price a corporate housing stay?
Start with your floor, not with what the neighbors charge.
- Add up your true monthly cost: mortgage or rent, utilities, internet, insurance, HOA, furniture replacement spread over its life, supplies, and the cleaning and turnover cost of each stay.
- Add a margin that pays you for the extra work compared with a long-term lease.
- Check the market for furnished homes of similar size on mid-term sites and with agencies you work with.
- Check per diem for government travelers. Federal employees and many government contractors are reimbursed up to a lodging allowance that varies by location and month. The GSA per diem rates page lets you look up the allowance for your county, which tells you what that guest can actually spend.
Two pricing habits that help:
- Offer a modest discount for longer stays, such as 60 or 90 days, rather than holding out for top dollar while the home sits empty.
- Quote one all-in monthly price. Corporate travelers and their accounting teams prefer a single number to a list of add-ons.
Gaps between stays are the real cost. A home that sits empty one month in three earns far less than the monthly rate suggests, so build your plan around staying booked, not around the highest rate you have ever been offered.
What paperwork, payments and taxes change?
Invoicing instead of rent collection. When a company pays, you will often send an invoice and wait for their payment run instead of collecting rent through an app on the first of the month. Agree in writing when payment is due, whether the first month is paid before move-in, and how you handle a stay that ends early.
Taxes. Rental income from a stay is generally taxable, and the IRS has specific rules when a home is also used personally. The IRS Topic 415 page on renting residential and vacation property is a good starting point, and IRS Publication 527 covers residential rental property in detail. Many cities and states also charge lodging or occupancy taxes on shorter stays, and some of those taxes stop applying after a certain number of consecutive days. Check your city and county rules, and talk to a tax professional before you set up your invoices.
Insurance. Tell your insurer you are renting furnished, to working professionals, for a month or more. Ask what happens if the occupant is not the person who signed.
Screening. When a company signs, you are mostly screening the company: is it real, does it pay on time, who is the contact. When an individual books, screen them the same way you would any applicant, and apply the same standard to everyone.
How do you choose software for corporate and mid-term rentals?
Corporate stays sit between short-term and long-term rentals, which is exactly where many tools fall short. Here is what to look for, by tool type:
| Tool type | Good at | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Long-term landlord software (TurboTenant, TenantCloud and similar) | Leases, rent collection, screening for 12-month tenants | Calendars, turnovers and invoicing companies are often an afterthought |
| Short-term rental software (Hostfully, Guesty and similar) | Calendars, channel connections, guest messaging | Monthly invoicing, agreements and company billing may need workarounds |
| Spreadsheets plus email | Free and flexible | Missed replies, double bookings, no record of who signed what |
| Mid-term and mixed-portfolio software | Monthly stays, agreements, invoices and turnovers in one place | Check that it also handles your nightly and long-term homes if you have them |
Whatever you pick, it should let you answer a housing request fast, keep the signed agreement with the booking, invoice a company, schedule the turnover and see which homes are empty next month.
Rentology was built for this middle ground. It handles short-term, mid-term and long-term rentals in one account, with proposals and innkeeper agreements for temporary housing, AI replies to Furnished Finder leads, owner statements and maintenance. Plans start at $149 a month for up to three properties. You can see how it compares in our roundup of the best mid-term rental management software, or read more about software for mid-term rentals.
What we see running 35 rentals in Atlanta
Rentology is built by the operators of PeachHaus Group, which manages 35 homes in metro Atlanta across short-term, mid-term and long-term stays. A few things we have learned from corporate and temporary housing placements:
- The first good reply wins. Housing requests from relocation and insurance placement companies move fast. When we answered with dates, total price and photos in one message, we got booked. When we waited until the next morning, the home usually went to someone else.
- Agencies remember reliable owners. After a few smooth stays with the same placement company, requests started coming to us first. Being easy to work with (clean invoices, quick answers, no surprise fees) mattered as much as the home itself.
- Insurance stays are urgent and often run long. Families displaced by a fire or water damage need a home near their own, often within days, and repairs frequently take longer than first planned. Saying yes to a month-to-month extension up front has helped us keep those homes booked.
- The workspace gets noticed. A real desk, a good chair and strong Wi-Fi come up in feedback more often than decor.
- Paperwork is where time disappears. Matching agreements, invoices and payments across several companies by hand was the slowest part of the job, which is a big reason we built these steps into software.
FAQ
Do I need a business entity to rent to corporate housing companies?
Not always. Many companies will work with an individual owner who provides a W-9 and proof of insurance. A business entity can make vendor setup and liability planning cleaner, so ask your attorney or accountant what fits your situation.
How long are corporate housing stays?
Most run from about one month to several months, and some extend to a year. Project and insurance stays often get extended, so be clear up front whether you allow month-to-month extensions.
Can I list my home on Airbnb and still rent to corporate housing?
Yes, as long as your local rules allow both. Many owners fill gaps between corporate stays with shorter bookings. Keep one calendar for all channels so a corporate request never collides with a weekend booking.
Who pays for damage during a corporate stay?
That depends on your agreement. When a company signs, the agreement should say whether the company, the occupant or a deposit covers damage. Settle this in writing before move-in, and take dated photos at check-in and check-out.
How do I find relocation companies in my area?
Search for relocation, corporate housing and temporary housing companies serving your city, look at who posts furnished listings on mid-term sites near you, and ask local hospitals and large employers who handles their incoming staff housing. Then send a short introduction with your property sheet and supplier documents attached.