Des Moines: A guide to short-term rentals

While Des Moines’ economy is fueled by the insurance industry, its culture is fueled by incredible food delivered straight from the farmland that surrounds the city. A short-term rental is the best way to explore all that Des Moines has to offer.

Kasa's short-term rentals in Des Moines

With short-term rentals in the city’s most exciting neighborhoods, Kasa offers comfortable and convenient accommodations no matter what brings you to Des Moines or where you need to go.

Discover Des Moines

After booking your short-term rental in Des Moines, here's everything you need to know for your trip.

A hub of the U.S. insurance agency and a gem of Midwestern architecture, Des Moines (pronounced “Deh Moyn”) is Iowa’s state capital and largest city. It sits at the confluence of two rivers: the Des Moines and the Raccoon. The name “Des Moines” comes from the French name for the river, “Rivière des Moines,” or “River of the Monks.” The monks reference is contested: it could refer to monks who lived nearby, or it could be a corruption of an Algonquian word meaning “loon,” or possibly an Algonquian insult for European explorers.

For thousands of years, the area that is now Des Moines was inhabited Native American societies whose remnants sit under the present-day city. European settlement began when an American captain built a fort in Des Moines’ present-day downtown with the aim of dominating the Sauk and Meswaki tribes, both forcibly relocated by the government to the area from farther east. When both tribes were relocated again, the fort fell out of use. In 1851, a significant flood swept everything in the town away, and later that year Des Moines was officially incorporated and rebuilding began.

In 1866, a railroad stop helped fuel a population surge, and mining in the area began around the same time, supporting the local economy. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the city invested in a series of Beaux Arts public architecture projects, many of which stand today and are responsible for the city’s exceptional old-world charm.

When industry began to flag in the city in the mid-twentieth, the economy struggled, a period that lasted through the 1980s. And in 1993, there was another major flood. 2008 saw a third flood, but by then the once-industrial city had remade itself as an insurance center, and also as a publishing hub. The city is also a key site in U.S. presidential elections. Since the Iowa caucuses are the first in the nation, presidential candidates criss-cross Iowa, and it’s not uncommon to see well-known candidates eating at local diners and posing for photo ops.