I HAVE NOT HAD ONE SINGLE PERSON REPLYING TO ME REGARDING MY ROOM RENTALS... EASYROOMATE WAS BETTER

Note: Everything I've written is from the perspective of someone seeking a housemate to take a room in my unit, I have no idea how good or bad it is as a tenant.

I can't say that there's too much that EasyRoommate does horrendously bad but the lack of absolute basic features make it come up short when comparing to it to pretty much any of its competitors. My first issue with the site is that the search function is quite honestly garbage, the most apparent problem that stood out to me is that you can't set a price range, meaning that you can (and will) get people that have their budget set below the price that you've set, clogging the results with profiles that likely won't have any interest in your listing at all.
Another problem with searching is that the lack of requirement for people to write their own descriptions makes the site look like it's filled with fake accounts, even if that's not the case it gives a pretty poor first impression and makes identifying potential tenants so much more difficult than on places that ask users to write their own. While it's ultimately up to the users to sell themselves I'd much rather a half-assed, 5 word description of someone than a wall of automated text that makes me feel like I'm reading a list of spam.
Ultimately though, the biggest issue with the site is the way that it handles free and premium users and the features that are restricted to those who decide to spend money. Let me be clear here, if you aren't willing to spend money then the site is near-useless to you, if you don't have premium membership you can't contact people and they can't contact you (beyond "sending interest", which just sends you a notification) unless they themselves have a premium membership. The very idea of restricting a fundamental aspect of a housemate-seeking service to those who pay is ridiculous, especially in a market that relies on having as many people using your service as possible and there are so many other options that have much more generous terms for their free users (i. E. they're actually usable). Honestly, this one thing completely kills the site for me, I wouldn't recommend anyone to use it as the main place to do their search for a tenant and I especially wouldn't say you should spend money on it, there's nothing particularly noteworthy about the site and you'll have much better luck in places that have a decent user experience without having to spend money.

EasyRoomates is just ne of the sites I advertise my many rooms for rent. In the years I communicated with their customer service team regarding site improvements too many times to mention. Imploring them to improve safety, as well as making the site more user friendly and provide better value for both parties. These improvements would-be childs play to even a novice web master. In the 10 years we been renting we have picked up more than one stranded, scammed individual from the Airport via this site. Not due to any action on EasyRoomate part, however it would have been effortlessly preventable with a few precautions, which should be provided to users traveling across continents in many cases. Be that at very least a basic safety protocal / warnings.
Its a business! OK I get that. Add a fee to be verified or find a least labouring option to some level of security. - Its clear ER is very much apposed to anything that remotely spells work. Be that site improvement - being user friendly, update, adding a service option... etc. As a landlord who has several listing, design is so poor I NEVER know which listing the possible tenant is interested in. After countless emails - ZERO results.

What I don't get is how ER remains to be NON responsive to such a consistent level of BAD REVIEWS from people across the board. I read the ERreplies to the reviews from users and sadly it's consistent with how they deal with any suggestions, recommendations or complaint via emails from users. "were sorry" & some lame excuse and that's that!
ER is so poor in preformace and devoid of life force, I had to see if I can find ANY sign of leadership, ownership, any info at all who are the people behind ER.

The company is W3 Ltd. Founded in 1998 - It sure looks like they have not changed much since. YET, Around the globe their usuers have transformed significantly. Bloomberg has some info: https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapid=*******.

This page actually has some photos of the founder and his team: http://035a03b.netsolhost.com/team.php
Mr. Yannick Pons -Founder
Mr. John Mayfield -Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Karim Goudiaby -Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Benjamin Block -Chief Technology Officer
Mr. Jeremie Berton -Vice President of Business Development
They own: Vivastreet, HomesForStudents and WhereToSleep

http://035a03b.netsolhost.com/team.php
On this site we can read the responsibility of each leader in the team.
Here is a snippet from the IT (CTO)
"As Chief Technology Officer, Ben is responsible for overseeing the technical operations of W3 Ltd. He manages an extensive team of Developers, Project Managers and QA Analysts as well as a large network of vendors and consultants who support the infrastructure and maintenance of each brand. As part of the Leadership Team, Bens input and recommendations are extremely valuable and is therefore involved in many product development projects."
WOW... that sounds great! If this is so... How come ER can't make the simplest of improvements to it's site? How come NOBODY is willing to GROW and GIVE A DAMN about it's users needs? Well it looks like we need a hero with passion in this industry who is hungry to REALLY fill the void in providing service in a world where HOUSING IS BECOMING A CRISIS!

My husband signed up on www.easyroommates.com and purchased the Premium Membership to help us find a room to rent until we sell our home out of state. Within a day he received an email from a potential landlord with details including the home address, pictures of the home, what is included, etc. They stated the rent amount and the refundable deposit amount. They then continued communicating via text and set up a date/time for us to go look at the home and room.

Next we got an email from *******@easyroommates.com; *******@usa.com with the subject line: "Action required! Confirm your viewing request on Easyroommate" which in the body of the email stated reservation requirements include a $500 deposit to take the listing off the website and it would be refundable, but had to be Bitcoin as the website is located in the UK. Victoria is listed as a customer service contact on the website. The person who initially emailed us is using someone else's name who is a property manager in San Jose (we are in Texas). I have notified her and found out someone else has reported the scam to her as well, so she can pursue as she chooses. I also was able to locate the REAL home owner by searching the county property tax database for the home address the scammer sent, and then googling his name and actually found his land line phone number. I left a message and he called me back and confirmed his home is not for rent and never has been. Bitcoin is untraceable; if we had paid our money would have been gone forever. I believe easyroommates.com at minimum is selling customer information (as there was no initial message to or from this person on the website and no Listing ID was in any communication) -- but I now believe the website is a complete scam or their website is seriously compromised.

Luckily something felt off and we were able to find all this information online and put the pieces together before we were scammed. But it's a slick scam preying on people in a specific situation, using real property addresses and people's names.

The FAQ's on the easyrooommate.com site actually list all of this, but I only found it by googling and couldn't access it on the site when logged in as a Premium Member.

The third link below is pretty much the identical format to what we received, just different details.
https://easyroommate-uk.helpscoutdocs.com/article/1151-online-scams-trends-and-techniques-updated
http://easyroommate-uk.helpscoutdocs.com/article/1146-report-a-scammer
https://s3.amazonaws.com/helpscout.net/docs/assets/5655d3c8c*******b26a5a72e/images/59a08b*******033a1c4d06/Bitcoin-scam.jpg

I also notified *******@easyroommate.com via email (who the website lists if you think there is a scam) but don't expect much of a response, if any.

See attached screenshot. I blacked out my husband's email address, the property address and the name of the landlord as they are legitimate people not associated with this.

SCAM SITE! Nothing but fake ads that spam you the same scripted private messages asking you to email them directly where they can further spam you before the profile gets shut down, another pops up, and sends you the same message with the same scripted private message.

Then they are not professional when contacted for a refund, begin long, innacurate arguments, and won't refund your money. No worries. My credit card has outstanding service, so I stopped payment with my credit card and reported them to the Better Business Bureau.

I got several dozen *real* responses from *real* people for *free* on HotPads, Trulia, and Craigslist. Or for a pay site that works, try Roomster. Save your money on EasyRoommate.com, unless you like being scammed.

EDITED TO ADD: In response to the damage control that EasyRoommate.com is now trying to do below, well, it's simply untrue and I have digital proof. I began an account fall 2016, got nothing but spam, and closed the account. When I needed a renter again in 2017, I had forgotten that EasyRoommate.com was the site that I had been spammed on, and accidentally reopened a membership. Once the same scripted fake emails started coming in, I remembered it was them, and closed the account. I have since marked my notes going forward so when I need a renter again, EasyRoommates.com is not a site I get suckerd by again. Just because I have a lapse in memory because I am an exhausted, multi-tasking single mom of a young child does not mean this site is not a scam. It was a scam the first time I used it, and the second time I used it not realizing it was the same site that scammed me before. I have even saved the scam emails. And I have a history of all the responses I got to my ads, and no matter how much EasyRoommates.com is trying to do damage control now does not change the fact that I got not double, but 8x the response to my ads on Roomster, Craigslist, and Hotpads, and all by real people, not the same fake spam email. Sorry, but there are a ton of reviews on here that agree this is a scam site.

They like to scam you. Will contact a lawyer.

Came across easyroommate.com.au as i was looking to rent a room in my property.
The site showed potential options but was unable to contact them without paying for an upgrade. Once upgrade done i found that there were very less contacts with proper details, very few responses to the email sent. Most of the site is filled with flatmates who have incomplete or really doggy details.
I have gone through there customer satisfaction guarantee and basically it is also a complete non sense. Sign up pay money and if don't get a tenant we will renew your service for a month.
There is no mention on any thing about what if there is no response to your advert placed or the details of the member you have are not correct or complete.
Moreover the search criteria to narrow down the searches does not work. I search for females and it gives me details of couples, men etc.
Considering people are putting their property for rent is to get some financial stability not be ripped of by sites like these. I don't mind paying if it results in an outcome but this is utter nonsense, the keep sending you matches which are completely opposite to your requirements it is just a waste of time and efforts to look for individuals whom seem legit and than the details are incomplete or near to none.
My advise is stay away from this site and don't pay any money at no condition.
I think if you are paying $49.90 for a service you should get proper commitments from the company

In response to the reply from easyflatmates
Hi thanks for your prompt response and action.
In regards to your explanation, i am sorry but i respectfully disagree.
My ad has all the information a possible tenant will need when looking for a property.
Like any real estate ads which specify smoking, non smoking, pet friendly or non pet friendly, for a couple or family, i have made the listing as through as possible. Giving my preferences as well as what the basic expectations might be in the house hold.
Considering Melbourne has a population of over 4.4 million there will be a few suitable matches to my requirements.
Moreover as your website sole purpose is to find flat mates or accommodations i think common understanding will be to have all people from all race, culture or believe to look for options and advertise there.
The same ad has also been posted to other online platforms like gumtree, facebook, realestate and uni housing sites and i have received much better response in comparison to what i had from your site. If it is a paid service i think my expectation is fair.
Lastly if i had had a chat with someone with in your business i would have been advised not to go for paid advertising or i would have been given a heads up on low results, its quite hard to find where you have the contact us tab on your site. From what i can see first you have to go to FAQ than surf through the topics to find which one is relevant and than there is a contact email provided on that page.
People can contact me for free after 7 days but for me to even look at other people details or contact them myself i still needed to pay for your service.
In other words i can understand your point of view but as a user experience you can see what my complaints and concerns are and how as a paid client my expectations are not over the top.
I do appreciate your response and refund but if there are some restrictions on possibilities of finding enough or suitable matches i will recommend you mention them in your terms and conditions, FAQ or some where on the site. If you are intending to have paid clients than you should also have some ways to verify that the person when placing there details i putting correct information like Male rather than couple as your is a platform where both the tenant and the landlord are in a vulnerable situations, both the parties are strangers and looking to either move in to someones place or allow someone to move in theirs. I am not saying that the users are not genuine or good but there are alot of people who can be harmful. I think as a website you should have some social accountability and that can only be if you have rigid measures on the site.
Thanks again and please know i will like for your company to succeed and i think this constructive feedback is in no way religious or bias

Easyroommate - very promisingly designed and lures you into buying a premium membership. Even having payed for a membership, it didnt allow me to se listings outside of San Francisco (ie for any other cities) and when I tried to use their email system to contact Customer Service, the mail would not send because allegedly I hadnt filled in the "Message" parameter. I most certainly had, with this message - "I have recent; y upgraded my account to Premium. I am not able to search for a room outside of San Francisco. If I click on the option of "All Cities" at the bottom of the page (I'm on the URL - http://www.easyroommate.com/results-room/loc/*******/pic/0/amax/99/amin/18/gen/0/occ/0/rmax/1200/rmin/0/ptyp/0/bed/1/doub/0/furn/0/shor/0), it takes me to a list of states (http://www.easyroommate.com/all-cities/?l=1) from where I click on "California". This takes me to a list of areas in California (http://www.easyroommate.com/All-Cities/california). Now I click "San Jose Area roommates", it takes me to a list of counties/regions of San Jose (http://www.easyroommate.com/All-Cities/california/san-jose-area). All this functions as its expected to; however if I click "San Mateo County" or any other region for that matter it redirect me to - http://www.easyroommate.com/results-room/loc/*******/pic/0/amax/99/amin/18/gen/0/occ/0/rmax/1200/rmin/0/ptyp/0/bed/1/doub/0/furn/0/shor/0 - ie a link to a search query for rooms in San Francisco that I had first clicked on the "All Cities" button on. So I am unable to access any listings outside of San Francisco at a city specific level. Im also redirected to this link if I click on any other of the major cities (for eg Chicago, Boston, Atlanta). Now, I need to look for housing in San Mateo and surrounding areas and I need to do so quickly. Please fix this issue or return the money I have spent in order to make my housing search easier.

Your service needs to ensure that I have access to listings outside of San Francisco. I have a friend who registered for a free account and even they are able to see listings outside in many cities. If I am not as a Premium member, that is something that needs to be fixed.

I hope you attend to my issue promptly.

Best,
Rayaan Anil Khatau"

They must immediately fix my accounts problems or return the money I paid for a premium membership!

This site is terrible - 0 functionality and 0 ability to complain about it - TOTAL SCAM

Beware!