- Browse Businesses
- Guides
- Beauty & Fashion
- Consumer Tips
- Write a Review
- For Business
- Request a Review
- Discussions
- Backed by the National Science Foundation
- Sign up
- Log in
Roommates.com has a rating of 3.44 stars from 321 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally satisfied with their purchases. Reviewers satisfied with Roommates.com most frequently mention customer service. Roommates.com ranks 2nd among Roommate sites.
This company responds to reviews on average within 13 hours
I have a Premium account with Roommates.com. Why are all messages going unread? I've never had this happen in the past. It's like no matter how many potential roommates I reach out to, this is happening. Frustrating..
I spent the money on a premium membership and completely regret it. I reached out to over 20 people and got a response from one. Let's do a side by side comparison! Number of responses for a roommate: Roommates.com -1 / Craigslist-28 Actual showing for 3 rooms: Roommates.com - 0 / Craigslist - 7 Rooms rented: Roommates.com -0 / Craigslist - 3 Cost: Roommates.com - $17.98 Craigslist - $0.00 Avoid this FAKE website.
The positives: great idea, good site design (lots of features, easy to navigate, etc.)
The negatives: the fake profiles, poorly conceived monetization model
I have been a paying member for a few months. I don't fault the company for wanting to get paid for offering a service, and if I end up finding a good roommate, then paying the subscription will have been worth it. I should also add that I'm not extremely desperate to move immediately, so I wouldn't say it is the company's fault that I haven't yet found a roommate (maybe? More on that later). I have had conversations with definitely real people, and I am sure that I would have found a roommate by now if I had been motivated enough.
The above being said, I must admit that it did take me a while before I realized that the attractive people with cheap, nice rooms being offered are fake profiles and this probably lengthened the amount of time I have spent on the site. Sad to say, if a room/roommate opportunity being offered looks too good to be true, then it probably is. After a while, it becomes easy to spot them because you see the same pictures being recycled. As a person looking for a room, these fake profiles REALLY make a given area look WAY more affordable than reality, which is deeply frustrating when you gradually have to come to the realization that they have created an unrealistic expectation in your mind of what is possible. By the time you realize this, you've spent weeks chasing (unbeknownst to you) fantastical impossibilities.
Also, I have no idea why these fake profiles are on there. Is it an effort by 3rd parties to collect people's personal info? Or is it, as some other reviewers have guessed, an internal effort by roommates.com to get you to subscribe and to lengthen the time you stay subscribed? I'm honestly not totally sure. Before I realized they were fake, I messaged a few of these fake profiles, and I never got a response. I don't appear to have had an uptick in spam either, so I have no idea what's going on with the fake profiles. Here's what I do know, roommates.com REALLY needs to fix this issue for the customer experience to be greatly improved.
Furthermore, while I wouldn't consider this next idea an absolute necessity for them to get a 5-star review (unlike the issues I described above), I do think this next idea would take them from good to great. When you are talking to a potential match, there's a bit of a lack of understanding on both people's part of just exactly how to go from interested to moving in. For example, you make a match, and then you say a few words back and forth, but then what? Roommates.com as it is currently implemented is super focused on matching people but that's pretty much where it views its job as being completed. If the site could work more on helping users navigate the stretch between matching and sealing the deal, I would think that would significantly improve the value they would be providing to users.
Finally, I strongly encourage the company to consider moving away from a subscription model, to a commission-based model where they only get paid when and if they find a match for the "seller" of the room. The monthly subscription creates a really perverse incentive for the company. I'm not saying that the company absolutely IS being motivated by this incentive, but literally no customer is on here loving each additional month it is taking to find a match. So the company wants longer subscriptions, but each additional month is one in which the users are becoming more and more unsatisfied. If instead the company moved to something like a $150 commission paid by the person with the room once a contract is signed, then it really would highly align the incentives of the company with those of its users. Some might object and say that there are some logistical hurdles that make this monetization model unrealistic, and to them I just say that those are hurdles that result from a lack of imagination. In fact, if, as I described earlier, the company moved more towards helping its users all the way to completing the transaction, then I would say these logistical hurdles would mostly be solved.
Tip for consumers:
be aware of the fake profiles
Products used:
roommate search
I roomed with Richard Leiser and he was the worst roommate ever. He is renting a room in his house in Aurora, CO. I roomed with him for ~4.5 months. He would go on tantrums weekly, he never cleaned up after himself, constantly complaining, and I really think he is bipolar. I would STRONGLY suggest to avoid this person at all cost. It is not worth the hassle to live with this person.
Hello,
I am very sorry to hear about the experience you have had with this roommate situation. We wish you all the best moving forward and that you find a safe, comfortable and convenient living situation.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Roommates.com Support
I only had a few matches (6-8) who were seeking in my area for my price but when it came down to actually trying to reach out and get in touch with these matches, no one would respond to my queries. The least they could have done would be to reply, "No thanks, not interested." The gentleman who contacted me was not even one of my matches but I think he searched in a broader range and found me. He moves in tomorrow!
Hello,
It is frustrating when people won't respond to at least let you know they read your messages, but that is great news that you were still able to find a roommate using the site.
Congratulations!
Roommates.com Customer Support
support@roommates.com
Looking for a room to rent, very few useful contacts and the six of them were in the first couple days as they were long existing. The remainder additional contact over the month were a few other persons looking for a room (anywhere location) so seemingly just filling up online space. I found a splendid room via Craig's List.
Hello,
We are glad you were able to find a roommate, even if it was on a different website.
Roommates.com is a bulletin board service. As always, some areas may have more roommate potentials than others. Even though you were not successful in using our website, if you should require a roommate in the future, we ask that you give us a second chance. We would be more than happy to explain how to get the most out of your account with Roommates.com, even with the free service, at support@roommates.com.
Thanks for giving us a try!
Roommates.com Support
If you are looking to rent a room, stay away from the address above. The Owners mother lives in the house and is a control freak. There were 5 women that lived in the house and the mother tried to control our lives, from what we did to what we are allowed to eat in the house. She constantly asked where we were going, what time we were going to be back and if you refuse to do anything she asks of you, you will be evicted. This happen to me and two of the other girls that lived there. BE WARE! Don't let this happen to you.
Hello,
I am very sorry to hear about the experience you have had with this roommate situation. I can't imagine how that must have been.
We hope you have found a new place that you can call home.
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at support@roommates.com. We wish you all the best moving forward and that you find a safe, comfortable and convenient living situation.
Roommates.com Support
I came on site jabber to do the review for roomster.com - because it absolutely sucked with 1 fake lead and tries to auto-renew your membership, while roommates.com actually gave me real leads and got me a room.
So after reviewing roomster.com with 1/5, I decided to take a look here, and surprise, 1/5 also!
From my view roommates.com worked, so it deserves at least a 3/5.
Since the sites needs to make money, it's totally understandable to charge people for its service. Now, if only it allowed FREE members to read messages sent by PAID members, I'd give it a 5/5. I'd imagine it will drastically improve chances of a good match, and not as many messages sent with no reply.
Contacted Roommates.com, and btw, there is no phone number as they can't be bothered to talk to you, even when you're a paying member, so be prepared for that. Anyway, Roommates responded quickly to my written communication, I'll give them that. But, then they tell me that there is no way to block anyone who is bothering the heck out of you, filling your inbox with junk. Yes, there are many spammers on there and others have the same problems. So, I have to wade through valid replies and junk spam that this site isn't skilled enough or doesn't care enough to allow one to sort out or block. Their lame response to me was, and I kid you not LOL, to tell ME that they ask that --- I --- stop sending THEM messages, and that they will request that the spammer stops sending me messages. Just great. Plus, I had to ask them twice, because apparently, they didn't understand the first time I wrote to them. Unbelievable.
Hello,
Roommates.com is an email based website and we keep our prices low by not having a call center. We are glad you got a response quickly through email correspondence.
The system does not have an option to block a member unfortunately, but we are working on upgrades to the site. Your suggestion will definitely be taken into consideration for future site improvements.
If someone is bothering you on the site we do send a notice to both of you requesting that communication cease.
Hopefully the site works well for you in regards to finding a roommate. If you have additional questions please contact us at support@roommates.com.
Roommates.com Support
I have an ad for a room and only paid roomers respond via email. If you want to respond to a possibly roomer, you have to pay to read the responses.
UPDATE 9-2-2015 - Any mail u get - u can't read unless you are a paying person. Any mail you send will get to the other person, but they cannot read it if they are not a paying person. Unless your letter to the person includes all your contact, and they pay the fee, no one can read what you wrote to them. They might pay to read, then they respond back to you, but if you aren't paying the fee, you can't read what they wrote (a waste of their money!). Basically, if you are serious about renting, pay the fee and get the hits. They can't read your description now unless they are a paying member. So, putting contact info in the description is now useless unless they pay the fee. The site does do well, though.
Gain trust and grow your business with customer reviews.
Looking for a room for rent? Roommates.com is the fastest roommate finder to help you find a roommate today. The best part, it's free to start!
Hello,
Roommates.com does not post fake profiles on the site. As a bulletin board service we do our best to keep scammers off of the website. If you feel that a profile is fake there is a Report button at the bottom of every profile that you can click so that the fraud department can review the account.
Roommates.com is meant to just be a means of contact. Once you find a match that you want to move forward with you can exchange contact information so you can communicate outside of the website to go forward with any plans or transactions.
We give several membership options to make it affordable for everyone to look for a roommate.
Thank you for your comments they will be taken into consideration for future site improvements.
If you have any questions about how the site works please contact us at support@roommates.com.
Roommates.com Support