Roommates.com offers users an interactive community in which to a) advertise a room or space for rent or b) to find a room to rent.
While Craigslist offers a similar service, Roommates.com takes the service further allowing people to develop profiles of themselves, what they’re looking for in a roommate, and their criteria such as pet preference, rent amount own bathroom etc…
Craigslist is more of a free-for-all. Anyone can write, anyone can answer. There are no filters. Roommates.com is a more refined service allowing users to filter their responses and to accurately portray what they’re offering (either their space for rent or themselves).
Perhaps the best feature of roommates.com is that the service personally matches you with other site users based on your criteria. Often looking through Craigslist is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. In viewing a profile on Roommates.com, you are able to see exactly what is being offered. With the matching service, you know that everyone who comes up conforms to your needs, and this saves a lot of time, effort and wasteful meetings.
The major drawback, however, is that the site is virtually unusable without paying the membership fee. While a user can post a profile and look at the profile of others, without paying the membership fee they cannot see the entire profile of others or read any messages they receive from potential roommates.
Initially trying to use the free service, I found this aspect very frustrating. I was getting mail from people that matched my criteria, but I couldn’t read what they were writing me! Eventually, I caved and paid $5.99 for a three-day membership. A 30-day membership costs $19.99
So, did I find a roommate on Roommates.com? Yes, I did. I used both Craigslist and Roommates.com, and by far the more preferable experiences came from Roommates.com. My experience was that there were higher quality offerings on Roommates.com.
My advice for anyone interested in renting a space or finding a space to live is that it might be a good idea to initially scroll through the listings on Craigslist just to see what’s out there. You might find exactly what you’re looking for. If your requirements are a little stricter or nothing seems to fit your needs, Roommates.com is a valuable service. $5.99 isn’t too much to spend on finding the best place or the best person to live with for the foreseeable future.
Rating: 8