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Structured platform payments
Rent and required security deposits are collected through FlorInnce and processed by Stripe. Travelers should never be asked to send an off-platform payment directly to a host.
My first travel assignment was in New Jersey. Pediatric ICU. I remember hanging up with my recruiter after signing my contract and thinking—okay, now what? She sent me a resource page. Airbnb, VRBO, Furnished Finder. That was it. I was on my own.
Airbnb and VRBO would’ve eaten through my entire travel pay in fees. So I turned to Furnished Finder. Weeks of messaging landlords, waiting days to hear back, trying to get someone to FaceTime me so I could actually see what I was paying for. All of this while preparing for my first ICU assignment in a state I’d never lived in.
When I finally found a place—a landlord who actually responded fast, sent a video, seemed genuine—I sent the deposit. I was so relieved.
“I shouldn’t have been.”
I showed up to an apartment that looked nothing like the video. The landlord was late with the keys. That warm, responsive energy? Gone.
That first night I woke up with a sore back. The mattress sagged straight down the middle. When I lifted it up, there was a stain on the foundation and the frame was snapped clean in half.
The kitchen tiles had dirt and rust packed into every crack. When I opened the cabinet—roach tablets. Just sitting there out in the open.
I called the landlord and told them I was moving out by the end of the week. Suddenly they were warm again. Told me not to worry about the deposit.
A few days after I moved out, I texted to ask when I’d get it back.
I had quoted New Jersey tenant law word for word. It did not matter. The platform had helped me find the listing, but when the situation went wrong, I was on my own again.
