RoomFlick: Sharing with untidy flatmates encouraged ‘Tinder for renters’ app

A Londoner has publicised how he was enthused by a sequence of awful roommates to unveil a Tinder-like app that aids users find a room on rental.

Ages 32, Entrepreneur Ross Nichols used up numerous years living with discourteous housemates across the capital. He told he had “seen it all” — from untidy tenants to a drunk housemate “thumping” his bedroom entry in the morning hours of the day.

But after he bought his own property in Highbury he had the “equally painful” practise of trying to find an appropriate roomie for his extra room, winding-up with some “equally awful” applicants in the process. 

He said: “When I was hiring out my room I thought there must be a stress-free way of doing things than this. Spending £30 on posting an advert on a rubbish site just wasn’t good enough.”

Mr Nichols therefore decided to leave his high-profile job in marketing to focus on room-sourcing app RoomFlick, alongside co-founders Amit Shah and Martin Bowley. Much like popular dating app Tinder, users make a profile with Facebook before adding details such as the likes and dislikes of housemates, pictures and local amenities.  

Room stalkers then roll through suitable properties, which are generated from their own measures such as number of other tenants, location and price. They then swipe right for “yes” or left for “no” if they find a probable match. Users may also find rooms or flatmates based on shared Facebook friends.

Mr Nichols said: “We have had a fair amount of success and interest with no promotion which has been great. It goes to show how much something like this is needed.”

A project manager, Russ Lamb, 30, needed quickly to move out of a room in a house in Canonbury that he shared with friends. 

Within days of posting the room, he had found a new tenant. He said: “I was devastated when I had to move out rapidly and thought it would be tough to find someone as I only had a month. Chris, who has moved in, is a really good guy who had alike interests to my housemates. Everything worked out really well and RoomFlick was efficient and easy to use.”

At the moment the app is only accessible on iOS devices, but a version for Android will be hurled by the end of the month. It is currently free to use. Over the past six months, RoomFlick has gained 10,000 users and now has 450 rooms listed — a “huge majority” of which are in London.

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