Roomie: Roommates & Rentals

You can only save a few properties before you have to pay. :/

I am an active duty Servicemember. The last time I moved to a new duty station 5 years ago, I was able to find a roommate in 3 days using this app, so when I got to the one I am currently in, I was expecting it to be fairly easy and fast to find a roommate this time. I was given 10 days in a hotel by the military to find a place to live, and I put in multiple messages to listings in my area hoping that I would get a response in a few days, which never came. By day 4 I had no response and about 8 messages sent out to people advertising rooms. By day 6 I started feeling a panic, as in 4 days my stay in the hotel would expire and my wife and I would be essentially homeless without a place to stay. I gave up, applied for base housing and now ultimately have solved that problem by myself, but in the process of applying I noticed that I had over 20 emails from Roomie in my spam folder. These emails were informing me I had new messages, but I didn’t have any in the app itself. I clicked on the link in the email to view the message and it took me to a paywall. At no point was I clearly notified by the app that I would not be able to view, possibly even send, messages without payment or a subscription. As members of the military may know, time spent in a hotel ultimately comes out of the travel fund that if we don’t spend all of, we receive. I will not receive about $800 due to the delay I was in a hotel actively messaging listings and searching for a place to stay. Do not use Roomies, use base housing or the required housing assistance office on base. Additionally if you do want to use Roomies, read into the recent $1.6 million class action lawsuit that was filed against the LLC for shady and deceptive business practices, specifically generating false and inactive listings for the perception of local activity and paying an external source to generate hundreds of thousands of stellar reviews for the app. I am considering legal action.