Where to Stay in the Detroit Area: A Visitors Guide to the Best Neighborhoods for Short-Term Rentals

Detroit isn't a city to experience from a hotel lobby. It's a city of neighborhoods with distinct personalities, where staying on one side of Woodward Avenue versus the other can change your weekend. That's also true when renting a house or apartment here instead of booking a hotel room, which is why so many visitors do.

Greater downtown Detroit, the central business district, and Midtown are compact and increasingly walkable, linked by the QLINE streetcar along Woodward and the People Mover loop downtown. Head north up Woodward for twenty minutes, and you're in the inner-ring suburbs, where the nightlife is dense, and the housing is quieter. Head west forty-five minutes, and you're in Ann Arbor, which operates as its own market, with its own calendar and prices, but is close enough to overlap with Detroit neighborhoods.

Detroit Events That Drive Visitors

Many reasons bring people to Detroit, but a few likely drive more short-term rentals than the rest: Movement, Conventions, Pro Sports, College Sports, and Family Events.

For each, I'll point you to Detroit-area neighborhoods with plenty of short-term rentals (STRs) that are convenient to the events. I'll define each neighborhood broadly and mention smaller neighborhoods within each to help you find STRs.

Four of the neighborhoods are within 20 minutes of each other, while Ann Arbor is 45 minutes from downtown Detroit, so you could conceivably stay in any of the five neighborhoods regardless of the reason for your visit.

Downtown: Movement and Conventions

Memorial Day weekend in Detroit belongs to techno. The festival takes over Hart Plaza on the riverfront for three days. Music blasts on multiple stages all day and late into the evening, though much of Movement's reputation comes from what happens after the gates close. After-parties scattered from Eastern Market to the far east side run until dawn.

Movement crowds often book in groups, stay three or four nights, and need somewhere to return to at 6 a.m. without facing the front-desk staff. Book early; this event draws attendees from around the world and is the hardest weekend of the year to find anything downtown.

Huntington Place, the convention center on the riverfront, anchors the major events business calendar, with the Detroit Auto Show being a top January attraction. Convention travelers are the group most likely to be pleasantly surprised by a rental in Detroit, and it you will be here more than a few days, an STR with a desk and a kitchen, ten minutes from the show floor, can make your visit much more pleasant and cost less than a mid-tier downtown hotel room.

Downtown Neighborhoods

Locals can argue about how to define Downtown Detroit, and will say that Greektown is a neighborhood of its own, and they're right. But for our purposes, both are in the heart of the city, and both Hart Plaza and Huntington Place overlook the Detroit River.

For those attending Movement, you can stay anywhere downtown or Midtown and easily get to and from each destination. Rivertown, aka the Warehouse District, runs along the Detroit River immediately northeast of Hart Plaza, so it's an easy Uber from Movement. The area features former warehouses converted into lofts, with nightlife options for residents and visitors. Outdoor recreation abounds with the Dequindre Cut Greenway, a retired railway converted into a biking and walking path, and the Riverwalk, which follows the river for miles from downtown and through William G. Milliken State Park.

Campus Martius, which sits at the intersection of Woodward and Michigan Avenues, is the center of downtown. It features Campus Martius Park, where you can enjoy a relaxing drink or meal in the summer and ice skate in the winter. Named the country's top public square by USA Today, the area is home to Rock Financial and related companies. A bit further up from Campus Martius is Detroit's second-tallest building, Hudson's Detroit, home to GM's world headquarters.

Nearby is Eastern Market, which hosts Detroit's wholesale food industry and a massive consumer-oriented market offering fresh produce, breads, cheeses, and other delights. Two favorite restaurants in Eastern Market are Marrow in the Market, which serves the finest bacon cheeseburger in the land. (They grind the bacon with the beef.) Also, enjoy Midnight Temple, which offers the best Indian food in an American city located north of Canada.

Midtown: Pro Sports

Detroit's advantage over almost any other American sports city is that its three main venues are a short walk from one another. Ford Field (Lions) and Comerica Park (Tigers) are across the street from one another, and Little Caesars Arena (Pistons and Red Wings) is a few blocks away; each is on or within a block or two of Woodward Avenue. All three venues are in Midtown, which is about 2 miles from the river, so most downtown activities and many STRs are closer than that.

"Midtown" covers multiple smaller neighborhoods linked below and includes Wayne State University, the world-class Detroit Institute of Arts (best known for its Diego Rivera murals depicting industrial Detroit in the 1930s), and a host of restaurants, entertainment, and retail attractions. The area has a younger vibe than downtown and includes a mix of rehabs and new construction.

Little Caesars Arena sits in the Cass Corridor, so a host of businesses have blossomed nearby. STR options range from newly built or renovated luxury and near-luxury apartments to older apartment buildings and townhouses.

The College for Creative Studies' Taubman Center is in the New Center neighborhood, so the area has an artsy presence. The area features the iconic Fisher Building, boutique hotels, a range of housing options, and several QLine stops. A favorite spot is Baobab Fare, a casual, James Beard-nominated East African restaurant. You'll want to take home a jar or two of their Pili sauce.

Brush Park is another Midtown Detroit neighborhood, though it's closer to downtown. The area is filled with elegant older homes, many of which have been restored as residences or for commercial purposes. The area also has plenty of condominium and apartment buildings and is more upscale than other parts of Midtown.

Ann Arbor: College Sports

If Midtown Detroit is the home to Detroit's professional sports franchises, Ann Arbor is an iconic spot for college sports. Home to Michigan Stadium, the largest stadium in the country, Ann Arbor is 45 miles west of downtown along I-94, which runs straight west from downtown, past Detroit Metro Airport, to Ann Arbor and then on to Chicago. Depending on the mix of experiences you want, you can stay in Ann Arbor or Detroit, though you should stay as close to your primary destination as possible.

You don't have to be a Michigan fan to appreciate Ann Arbor. If you enjoy college towns, it stands with the best. The University of Michigan dominates the city of 125,000, and its next-door neighbor, Ypsilanti, is home to Eastern Michigan University and its infamous gray football field.

Ann Arbor has a substantial downtown area that melds into the university, with a host of modern condos and luxury apartments. Downtown Ann Arbor has eateries of every persuasion (see Zingerman's) and cultural interests galore. The university also has several great museums and a highly walkable campus, including the Nichols Arboretum that borders the Huron River and features a hill that only the fittest can run up. I prefer to run down it.

Many older neighborhoods are dominated by student housing, faculty housing, or people from the regular world. The area also has a surprising number of townhouses and other condos, so it offers a range of housing for short-term rentals.

Obviously, demand for STRs increases on football weekends, graduation, the Ann Arbor Marathon, and selected festivals throughout the year.

Woodward Corridor: Family events

If a wedding, graduation, reunion, holiday, or other family event brings you to Detroit, consider staying in the Woodward Corridor. Woodward Avenue, which starts downtown at the river, runs 27 miles northwest to Pontiac, passing through parts of Detroit and a handful of older, dense suburbs, several of which have many restaurants, cultural sites, and shops.

If you are here on the third Saturday of August, you'll enjoy the Woodward Dream Cruise, the largest one-day automotive event in North America, in which muscle cars and selected others cruise between the City of Detroit and Pontiac as others picnic and stare as thousands of vehicles of all sorts pass by.

Royal Oak is dominated by pre-WWII single-family housing, though downtown Royal Oak has many new multi-story condos and apartments. Its central location and access to I-75, I-696, and Woodward Avenue make it easy to get to anywhere in the metro area.

Royal Oak is home to the Detroit Zoo and is a top nightlife destination, with restaurants, concert venues, and other establishments.

Birmingham is further northwest along Woodward Avenue and is the Detroit area's most prestigious community. The downtown area, which sits astride Woodward, has many office buildings, high-end restaurants, and boutiques. Most of the community is densely packed with luxurious single-family homes, though luxury apartments and condos are also found downtown.

Just past Birmingham, you'll find Cranbrook, a K-12 day and boarding school, art institute, and science museum all wrapped up in one. Its beautiful grounds are worth a brisk walk for the natural beauty, architecture, and outdoor sculptures. Or step inside the museum and other buildings to enjoy their contents.

Enjoying Your Stay in Detroit

Wherever you choose to stay, the city and region's geography works in your favor. Downtown, Midtown, and the Woodward Corridor are all within twenty minutes of one another, and Ann Arbor is less than an hour away along I-94. That means the neighborhood you pick for your STR will shape your evenings more than your daytime activities. Match the neighborhood with your primary reason for visiting Detroit, but recognize how easy it is to enjoy other parts of town.

To sum it up, choose Downtown for Movement and conventions, Midtown for a city stadium weekend, and the Woodward Corridor when family and parking matter most. Ann Arbor is the place to be for a game at the Big House, but you're welcome to venture into Detroit to enjoy its many tastes and sounds.

Of course, book early if you plan on being here on Memorial Day weekend, for January's auto show, the third Saturday in August, and every home football Saturday; this market tightens fast, and the best whole-home listings go first. Then read and follow the house rules, and spend the weekend outside, which is the whole point of staying around here.