Roommates Reviews

There’s so much wrong with Roommates from the get. I desperately wanted it to not be as bad as the reviews make it out to be, but literally from the get it was problematic. I opened Roommates and tried to enter the city my listing was in, it would come up, I’d tap it, and NOTHING would happen. You can’t get anywhere in Roommates unless you tell it where your listing is. Ok, so I guess choose something close in the list of offered cities, right? Do that, go through sign up and enter my information and pictures, have to describe myself in EXACTLY and ONLY 50 characters (if you use less, you can’t continue with Roommates , thankfully I finally found the correct combo of words to equal exactly 50), and then I’m allowed to see the folks in the ‘near to my listing’ city. So I go to enter the exact address of my listing, nearly 10min into working with this insanely buggy app, only to JUST NOW find out the reason I was tapping on my city but nothing was happening: ROOMI DOESN'T SERVE MY CITY. Why in the hell do (potential) users have to go through an entire sign up process to find out Roomi isn’t available to them??? It’s because Roommates is just terrible. My husband works in software and app development and his company, which is certainly much smaller than Roomi, would never release a product with so many bugs. Do you guys not have QA testers, or AT LEAST beta testers, Roomi? If not, you desperately need some. Roommates is seriously terrible.

Update: How did my experience get worse?? So, beyond being a terribly glitchy experience, no one is on Roommates. I paid for the last two weeks for both premium subscriptions to boost my listing. Roommates got 4 whole eyes on my listing by its own count. I check my profile and now my listing isn’t even showing up on there. I give up. Im pulling the plug. I’ve been actively reaching out to new roommate listings on Roommates , but no one is really on Roommates as far as I can tell. It’s a ghost town. You’re better off posting on Craigslist.

I’m in a desperate way to find a roommate and Roomi is the kind of app that will make even the simplest step grueling. Literally had to switch to a browser to upload images of the apartment and within an hour of creating my account, banned me. I have no idea why and have received zero contact from Roomi to even tell me I was banned, much less why. I had to find out by logging out and trying to log back in. My best guess is I linked my LinkedIn and it still has my legal name instead of my chosen name, but that’s the closest I can guess as to their reasoning. My icon in Roommates had a little note that said “unverified” but I could not find a way to “verify” myself in their sprawling menus. Went under profile account options and the only thing available was “deactivate account.” At this point I’m guessing it’s the most popular link. 🙄

I’m trying to get two new this app for my place. After going through a bizarrely lengthy sign up process (did it really need ALL those steps) I finally got to the posting part. I did everything correctly, took me a few mins and then I got to the photos part. I have all my photos in one place. Would’ve been awesome if I could just select ALL THE PHOTOS and then arrange them but I guess Roomi doesn’t do that. So you have to select them ONE BY ONE!! Fun!!!! After selecting each photo, I get to the last step which tells me “you’re almost done. You just have to ADD PHOTOS.”

Well that’s weird because that’s what I literally just did. I went back and added the max amount because I figured maybe they needed a certain amount (which would still be weird but whatever). I did that.

Next page says: “You just need to ADD PHOTOS”

I could not continue. I couldn’t post my ad. I did every single thing the prompt asked me for and I still could not post my ad. Deactivated my account and deleted Roommates .

Don’t download Roommates, it is a complete and utter waste of your time.

The latest update has me rubbing my nasal bridge....when I click on a listing, it no longer allows me to swift through pictures within the listing. I’m assuming it’s a bug - a terrible one. I try through the ‘Favorites’ category, and the image for the listing cover doesn’t even show up. It has became increasingly frustrating to simply look at a listing. Not entirely sure how the developers missed that. Furthermore, you cannot message someone about two different adverts. It’ll say you’ve already inquired the person - that is also very frustrating. I use Roommates solely because of it’s listings and the prices. For some reason they’re cheaper than those published on Spareroom. Picking a new “home” is already difficult enough as humans tend to be indecisive and knit picky, don’t make it more stressful with the bugs.

Roommates is a mess, there are more bugs than working functionality. Let alone the confusing and not user friendly interface. I’ve been trying to sign in with EXISTING account for a couple hours now. It’s 15 steps, create one account, create global ID, give us all your info, background check, ID, bla bla bla and then it just crashes with an error. Are you serious? Do you ever test your apps? Or is this a scam to get peoples sensitive info? How can you even hope that people would trust u their ID and let u do background check when you cannot provide a simple login with a third party integration? And it’s not like I have a weird old device - It’s a most popular iPhone! Do you even test your app? Shame! Whoever released a version with this many bugs - shame on you!

Roommates is so buggy it hurts. For some reason it convinced me to connect to my Facebook, which it then immediately stole all my profile pictures from, and added them to my Roomi profile, without my permission, then when I try to delete them, Roommates either crashes, or seems to save my changes, but actually doesn’t because all my photos are still there, which I NEVER added in the first place. These photos were literally STOLEN from my facebook and now stuck in my Roomi profile. So frustrating! And then they think I’m going to PAY for “verification” services?? Yeah right, MAYBE I’d have considered it if your app could accomplish a simple task of letting me control my own profile and not uploading pictures I never authorized you to take. But that’s not Roommates. Download at your own risk!

This company was extremely frustrating to work with. I do not recommend using not only Roommates , but the company as a whole. While I was thankful for their tenacity to keep safety the priority, they kept deactivating my account for fraud. The first time is understood if I wasn’t verified but after sending in my current utility bill and a bunch of pictures of myself and receiving a “you are approved” email, they would only allow one of my posts to be active and wouldn’t respond to why the other bedroom I had for rent was kept as inactive. They just stopped responding. Then again, I get an email that my account was deactivated again for fraud and of course with no response to my emails for help with the account.

Also, for the short time I was using Roommates many of the messages would not appear.

10/10 would NOT recommend.

Outside of the fact that Roommates clearly has some kind of perpetual glitch going on that doesn’t allow it to load properly (Somehow, no matter where you are, the network is unstable and I can’t open Roommates or message/search for this app? You expect me to believe that?), their boost option is a total scam. I should have known better, that I even tried it against my best judgement was on me, but it’s absolutely not okay to ask people to pay to boost something and provide 0 stats—either to provide them with expected results or actual results so a person can make educated decisions. You’re playing on people’s anxieties and desperation. I hope Roommates creators are happy.

Don’t use the boost option. Learn from me. Save your money.

You’re better off using Facebook. And as someone who rarely uses their personal Facebook, that kills me to say.

I advise against getting Roommates. You will waste your time contacting people who never respond. There are no read reports so you don’t know if your message was ever read. I contacted their customer service and was told that places may be unavailable or already rented out but the renters are not required to update their posting or take it off the market. Therefore, potential renters are bound to waste hours contacting places that are already rented. Roommates tries to upsell you all the time with things like having you pay for boosts. I even paid for verification and everything, it was a total waste. I contacted them for a refund and they said they don’t do refunds after 24 hours which is a total scam since it’s standard to wait 24 hours to get a response from the landlords. Not legit. DO NOT GET Roommates. There are much better apps to rent from

i cannot wait for the day i move in with my boyfriend so i never have to use this glitchy app again. it’s obviously a good idea, which is why it’s so popular and everyone in nyc looking for a room is on it, but holy crap you want me to pay you $7 to get verified on an app that barely works?! the messages take upwards of 5 min to load which is atrocious when trying to coordinate tours - i almost immediately just give anyone interested my number so that we can coordinate via text instead. creating and editing your listing is so counterintuitive - the images cannot be reordered and you have to upload them one at a time, plus there’s NO way to set a lower boundary on a roommate’s budget (for instance, you say “i want someone looking for rooms between $700 and $900 and they give you people with budgets from $700 to $5000. WHAT?)
i will be so glad when i can delete it off my phone once and for all

When you swipe left or right for roomates, the next session they all appear again, which makes no sense since I always thought the swipe left means you're not interested in that person. Changing details for listing in app is challenging, as it constantly says "we're sorry" (nothing changes). Took a few tries to actully have the changes stick. Also, third time getting a chat request notification via email, only for it to not open in Roommates , ir perpetually saying "error" when I tried to open it. Totally lost opportunities for roomates because of sub-bar developed app. Seems to also solely cater to bougie Manhattanites or hipsters, as very few people seem to be interested in the immigrant community I currently live in, and in which my advertised my room is 🧐My suggestion would be to spend less money on creepy subway ads and more on fixing your app functionality and ux. But then again, I'd bet that the glitches magically stop when you pay money for an id verification in their app or other nonsense bells and whistles.

I never write reviews but this is just awful. I am desperate for a roommate and a friend recommend Roommates. Turns out I actually had an account in 2021 I forgot about. What I didn’t remember was the insane glitching. Roommates is insufferable. If you’re trying to get something done, don’t even bother. Roommates takes forever to load a page, type anything in, click on a profile and then going back? Minus well start all over again. I’ve been so frustrated for hours just trying to browse and message potential this app but I cannot get past the glitching and seeing everyone else’s reviews, I’m clearly not the only one. It boggles me how they still haven’t figured out the issues after all this time.

The service is fine enough, but is better accessed through the desktop website (which is also buggy, but more manageable).

Every time I stop using Roommates —not even closing completely out of it, but just going to my Home Screen and not using it for a few minutes—it signs me out. To sign back in, every single time you have one screen for your email, then another screen for your password, making it just a little bit more annoying for signing in with iCloud Keychain.

Roommates forgets my presets for preferred income range, gender, neighborhood, etc., and sometimes even when I change it and X out of that panel, it’ll just revert back to the default preferences.

Map view is a nightmare: If I zoom into a neighborhood to see listings there, it’ll bounce me around to a totally different borough instead of loading listings where I want to look.

Chats don’t load/sync consistently, and often it shows the wrong profile picture for the person I’m chatting with.

Again, good core service (I guess), but Roommates is so crappy that it’s rendered almost unusable.

Update: gonna give two stars because the developers actually took the time to respond. However I’ve already removed Roommates . I may try it again.

1) it won’t save your login info. You have “register” every time you open Roommates . 2) it’s search feature filter said a waste. I can ask it to search only female this app in a certain area, and it will still give me the same search results without any filters. 3) there is hardly anyone on Roommates based on my searches. 4) I’ve used two other apps and online site and none of them are as poor and useless as Roommates. I’ve received interest from every other app/website listing I’ve used/created. I got ZERO interest from Roommates. I will be happily deleting Roommates soon.

UPDATE: Roommates now won’t let me delete photos from my profile, and is even using photos I never even selected/approved. I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled Roommates and those old photos are still there. It’s annoying.
————-
I like the idea for Roommates and the layout is pretty simple. I enjoy using it (when it works). It keeps saying “503 - error” when I try to search for things or click on listings, it doesn’t let me message people easily, and it keeps asking me to pay $20 each for a background check and identity verification. This is not a well-programmed app if I can’t get anything to load!

The worst part about Roommates is the map function. For some reason it constantly refreshes and re-centers to random locations, so it’s impossible to search around the map. It also obviously doesn’t prompt anyone to delete old posts - there are rooms up from several months ago, but with no posting date on the listing, it’s impossible to tell if you’re wasting your time messaging. I sent over 15 messages and got one response. Also a NYC specific issue - the web version allow you to sort by neighborhood, mobile does not. And even if you uncheck “verified partners” in your search, they still show up. The one I messaged never even responded. Last, they really want to trick you into paying $20 for a background check by making it seem like you can’t message anyone without it. You can, just hit skip. I like the look of Roommates but that’s about it.

I love the idea of Roommates ...but the interface is rather clunky. For example, it’s pretty much mobile-only (which is great when you’re on the go, but when trying to post a listing or when writing about yourself the small screen real estate of a mobile device makes the experience frustrating). A better designed website would be great for listing/profile creation...and the mobile app can be a great companion to the website.

Additionally, Roommates lacks instant push notification ability. For example, I’ve missed a few messages from potential this app all because I never received a push notification (or a badge on Roommates icon). Better notifications will mean for more instant communication.

Love Roommates concept and branding. I definitely feel safe looking for a roommate on Roomi. However, Roommates experience is lacking in some major ways. I’ll continue to use Roommates to find my next living situation...but admittedly will be a little miffed about using Roommates during the process.

Roomi is great!

So many whiners out there. Seems to be the culture of our time; whine complain whine complain. To the whiner’s review, how much did they charge you for their service? Nothing? WAIT? Seriously? .. you mean NOTHING?!?!

I’ve worked for every major bank in Technology, and they have constant problems while using your money so try appreciating a group that offers an essential service for free.

Roomi provides a great service. Remember when we only had Craiglist? No?? At that time finding a roommate was literally dangerous.

Roomi does the job beautifully. Their format is easy to load up and edit as needed. It has removed much of the terrible stress of finding a good roommate while making the process much safer.

If there is a glitch they respond immediately or within a few hours. I love how I can finally prescreen this app and get quality people. I love the look of the site.

Responsive, kind, professional service, absolutely!
And no, I am not a friend or acquaintance of the company, simply a grateful, satisfied user of Roomi.

Stay safe everyone.

I found my roommate through Roomie and we’ve had a happy home for about two years. Neither of us is planning on changing our situation any time soon. We’re very different people, but that works in our favor because we love meeting each other in the middle. I haven’t used Roommates in a long time, obviously, but it was very user friendly when I did, and I had no issues with it regarding listing or communication. At first, I figured Roommates was going to be about as helpful as Tinder was at finding me a husband. Well, ain’t got no husband but I do have a wonderful flat mate. Score 1 for Roomie.

UPDATE. I have had to find a roommate again and went back to Roomi. A lot of new features since I last looked for a roommate -mostly upgrades. I was able to find someone expected to move in in a few weeks! Thanks again Roomi!! I always recommend to friends looking for a roommate in a pinch.

I used Roomi back in 2018 and had a great experience. When I went back more recently I saw some of the negative reviews, none from recently but still made me hesitate. But I was pleasantly surprised. Roomis AMAZING customer service helped me land the perfect roommate even in the midst of a global pandemic! This company listens to their Roomis and really cares! I was most impressed by the quick response times and desire to help me. Highly recommend giving Roommates a try!!! The boost feature DOES work despite some old comments. Roommates creator really listens to feedback. Thanks roomi!