Nimco

We are family of 4 planning a return to UK in March / April after nearly 8 years in California - kids 12 and 14. Relocating back to SW London during Covid and potentially still lockdown. Trying to think through if we would be better to try and find an airbnb until our shipment arrives (thinking 6+ weeks?) or see if we can get friend or agent to find/rent house before we arrive and get hire furniture until shipment arrives. Would welcome advice or others' experiences on this. Hopeful company will pay (mostly) so cost not over-riding consideration. Thinking pros of airbnb: ease, everything works when you arrive eg utilities, wifi, appliances etc and could 'feel more like a home' ; downside not much choice, need to move twice, no permanent forwarding address. Pros of rental: only move once, more choice, cons: tied in for a year to property we wont have seen, upheaval of having to move furniture in and out. Thoughts? What have we missed? Anyone have experience of either option to share? Thanks in advance...

durham_lad

We moved direct to a rental and bought a little furniture until our shipment arrived, however we did spend the first 2 weeks with friends while shopping for what we needed.

It can be difficult renting unseen from abroad so we were very grateful to our friends for scouting out places for us and visiting on our behalf.

Airbnb sounds like it might work well.

Helen1964

Maybe stay in an AirBnb for the first couple of weeks until you sort out a long-term unfurnished rental?
Is there plenty available for long-term rent in the area you’re interested in? I only ask because there was someone on this forum very recently saying that she and her family were basically stuck in an Airbnb in Devon because of a shortage of long-term rentals. Maybe the problem only applies to Devon.