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I'm planning on staying in London for a couple months with my wife and look for a job. I've been investigating a bit and there are lots of different possibilites.

What would you recommend for a 1 or 2 month stay? I'll probably extend my stay so I'm trying to make each pound worth.

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  • I think this is more of an immigration question than a travel question. – DJClayworth Jan 25 '13 at 16:52
  • I'm only requesting information regarding accommodations rather than asking if I can or can not do something. Maybe I should give less details yo say? – guiman Jan 25 '13 at 16:54
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    While this is intended as an immigration question, someone who's travelling and wants to stay for 1-2 months could have a similar problem. What I feel makes this on-topic is the short duration of accommodation being sought, which is lower than someone immigrating who'd be looking for longer term accommodation. – Ankur Banerjee♦ Jan 25 '13 at 16:56
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    @Simon thank for the commet but since I posted it here, I got a job in Southampton and moving there in a few weeks. Super exited since it's cheaper and more quiet place. Thanks for the feedback! – guiman Jun 18 '13 at 18:45
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    @guiman Congratulations :) – Simon Jun 18 '13 at 19:31
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I did something similar in late 2012. I used Airbnb, there are plenty of landlords offering long term stay and it's significantly cheaper than hotels. It also allows you to stay in the neighbourhood you want to find an apartment in. Try to find a location near a tube stop so you can go to job interview better. East London, like Bethnal Green, has very good rates and it's easy to reach other parts of town.

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  • Great, if you don't mind. Was it very hard to get an apartment for rent? Did they asked for many requirement? – guiman Jan 25 '13 at 16:39
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    Finding an apartment is easy, all depends of course where and how much you want to spend. Company landlords (aka rental agencies) ask for a letter from your employer ... tricky if you are still looking for a job. Check out Gumtree and SpareRoom for private landlords who are usually just satisfied with advanced rent. – Kevin Schmidt Jan 25 '13 at 17:07
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When I first moved to London 2 1/2 years ago I stayed as a long termer in a hostel for 3 months while I got myself set up. If you can handle living in a dorm I'd recommend it, the other long termers staying there were like a family and I made plenty of great friends.

Not all hostels will allow long term stay, however where I was staying (the Astor Kensington, now sadly shut down) it was not an issue, some of my friends were there for a year plus. There was also specific dorm rooms set aside for us so we wouldn't usually have random travellers coming through and making noise in the early hours of the morning when they left to catch flights.

If you are looking to save money while you look for a job plenty of places will put you on the payroll so to speak, you do x amount of hours around the hostel for free accommodation and a bit of spending money.

To give you an idea of what you can get I was paying 110 pounds a week for a bunk in a 10 person dorm room. Living in a room with that amount of people for an extended period isn't for everyone, but I had an amazing time and would wholly recommend it.

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Short-term accommodation for travellers is indeed available. If you want to sign a short-term rent contract, then you should start your search on rent listings site in the UK such as SpareRooms. We had this situation once at a company I worked, where they hired a summer intern for two months. He was able to find a short term rent contract within a week. However, short term contracts are usually easier to find in summer months because that's when landlords typically have rooms free for a couple of months which may usually get rented out to students (say). I don't know how easy it will be for you in January / February.

Alternatively, and this is possibly a more expensive option, you can also check Airbnb.

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    On my last trip I booked using Roomorama, it worked well, maybe you want to check them out. – JordanBelf Jan 25 '13 at 20:31

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