Flat rental in Edinburgh

So, my husband's tier 1 visa was approved and is valid as of June 15. I'm currently teaching, and my school year doesn't finish up until the end of June, so we were looking at moving to Edinburgh in mid-July and looking for a flat for August 1.  I've been doing a lot of reading about the city though, and everything I find seems to indicate that August is a crazy time due to all of the festivals, and that the city will basically be awash in tourists and crowds for most of the month. 

My question then is this:  Will searching for a long-term flat rental beginning August 1 be an exercise in futility? Will most of the open flats be rented out for short-term festival rentals?  Or are long-term/short-term rentals fairly exclusive of one another?  If we need to, my husband can go over earlier and look for somewhere for July 1, but August 1 would really work out best for our own schedule.

Thanks so much for any input!

August is really insane, but most of the short-term rentals are people subletting out their own flats, or student flats that are used as holiday lets in the summer. Fortunately there are loads of Edinburgh estate agents online, so what you can do is start your search there, then get in touch with the estate agents and arrange to see flats in advance. A good starting place is http://www.espc.com/. Edinburgh is wonderful, I'm sure you'll have a great time!

Thanks for your response, superl99!  Good to hear that the short-term festival rentals seem to be from a separate pool, and we'll definitely be getting in touch with some estate agents in advance of our arrival.  Thanks again!

Our family will be moving to Edinburgh in August as well, but we already have already rented an interim apartment in the Bruntsfield area until we find a more permanent place. We let our flat through Albany Lettings, they are really nice and very helpful. You can also use primelocation.com and findaproperty.com. It all depends on the area in which you are looking to let. I hear the Southside of Edinburgh is nice.

Luv2paint, thanks for the info!  Do you mind my asking how long you're giving yourselves in the interim apartment?  I've been in touch with an agency there, and the woman I was emailing seemed to think we could find a place pretty quickly.  We've been looking at renting a short-term place for a week, but I'm worried that that won't be enough time. 

We actually rented a flat for 6 months. That was the shortest term avail. We just found the bare basics for a cheap price to  a- get my daughter into the school catchment area and b-just have a place to stay for a month until we find a more suitable situation. So, right now we just have a flat that we use when we are in town, but we will not be there long.

You can find a place relatively quickly. Most letting agencies will not let to you unless you see the place and won't hold it for you for more than 3 weeks. So, a short-term apartment (serviced apartment) may be your best bet. That way you can give yourself some time to see what you want and get it. My advice is to do research on the areas in which you would like to live and start looking online for what is generally available in those areas, price-wise etc... Then get a serviced apt when you arrive and go from there.

I hope this helps. We have been in the process of trying to get things together to move to the UK since 2007, so we have done lots of research!