In Lausanne, Switzerland, it's very difficult to find an appartement because there are too few appartements for too many people and it mostly follows "First-come, first-served".

So I created scrappers for 3 websites + 1 facebook group. It simply looks for apartments with my specifications and notify me when a new one comes up.

I can say, I successfully found an apartment. The whole process usually takes at least 3 months, I did it in 1.