On SmartCustomer, businesses may not offer incentives or pay to remove reviews. Learn more about our Review Guidelines.
SpareRoom Reviews Summary
SpareRoom has a rating of 1.5 stars from 50 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. SpareRoom ranks 8th among Roommate sites.
We monitor reviews for authenticity
Spare room banned my advertising claiming I was not allowing full access to the kitchen. However, when I myself was looking for rooms, I had found many many instances where landlords did not offer full access to the kitchen. In any case, I did change my ad given that I decided to travel for work for a few days and that I now I could allow full access to the kitchen. However, still they denied my ad. I complained stating that their policies are double standards. I even showed them proof of advertisings that did not even mention kitchen use, and they still do not change their mind. I am looking to complaint outside of spare room. Please do you guys know is the next Ombudsman or Financial Conduct Authority? I honeslty do not think Spareroom is safe. Please stay away!
Finding a room shouldn't be this difficult, they needs to start banning non responsive landlords from the site as they just waste everyones time. Landlord wants to know more about you? Cool I'll spend 20 minutes writing something that conveys that only to get ''read''. At least allow us to put a BIO section so we don't need to waste time introducing ourselves what we do etc, absolute waste of time, this site sucks so bad I'm starting to use gumtree instead.
UK ONLY
Hi Daniel,
We're sorry to hear you didn't always get a reply. We're aware since the UK opened back up after the pandemic, the demand for rooms has been extremely high, so landlords have been inundated with requests for their rooms and are doing their best to get back to everyone in turn. We're currently highlighting our bulk auto reply features to them so they can get back to everyone in one go to help them keep on top of replies.
You can also post your own room wanted advert stating all your requirements (a bit like a bio) and landlords and flatmates with rooms to offer can also reach out to you directly.
In the meantime, if you need any further help and to make sure you're getting the best from your account, please contact us at [email protected] or on 0161 768 1162 and a member of the team will be pleased to help.
Best wishes,
The SpareRoom Team
The site has a lot of sketchy landlords who will not return the security deposit, speaking from my personal experience as well as a few others' experiences. You are better off finding a room on other websites like Airbnb that handles all the finances through the website rather than giving it to an unreliable landlord.
They charge excessive fees to list a property
There is no guarantee of any return on investment, despite this being the "number 1" place to rent a room
The LL has to do all the chasing, wrong imo as i've got a room for rent, but am not the one who needs a room.
The site admin team are down right rude and disrespectful
Never again - use roomgo, idealflatmate and other sites now, awful company never recommended by me
UK ONLY
Hi David,
We're sorry to hear you didn't find the service as expected and we'd like to look into your comments further.
We do allow everyone to use the site completely free of charge and provide some optional paid features to enhance your advert. While these are not a guarantee of letting a room, they can significantly help to promote your room advert in the listings.
We know in today's rental market, more landlords have been proactive and used the option to reach out to room seekers, with the paid features also opening up more contact opportunities.
We'd like to make sure you're getting the best from your account and rectify the contact experience you mentioned you had with our team. Please do contact us at [email protected] or on 0161 768 1162 and we'll be happy to help.
Best wishes,
The SpareRoom Team
I have used this site for 2 years and found it very well organized, the search is easy and fast and it has a lot of people from all over the world, so your choice is great. It is a little bit expensive but considering I was able to find good roommates within a week, I really can't complain. As i have stayed without because of Covid 19, I'm not sure what I'll find this year (2021) in terms of choices. But yes, you can trust this service.
Spare room pretend so hard to tackle 'fake' profiles, insinuating for the most part that these 'fakers' are pretending to have a property to illicit money from a tenant. This is distraction technique. Nobody nowadays needs to be told that they should not hand over bank details or money without checking the accommodation and landlord first. Those scam artists are few and far between. Their advertising revenue comes mainly from Landlords and people looking for a housemate. The scam that THEY are involved in is creating false profiles, many, many of them. This keeps landlords etc, paying for contact. There a number of ways to identify that they are doing this which the ASA is aware of. Just don't use this scam artist of a company.
UK ONLY
Hi Antony,
It looks like you may not have understood the service and we'd like to help clarify how it works. We don't post any ads ourselves as this is not company policy and our time is spent assisting our customers and improving our service as best we can. We have many users who are brand new to seeking accommodation online, some for the first time ever when moving from home either for work or study and even from overseas, where renting in the UK may be new to them.
We include plenty of safety tips information on the site as well as the ability to email or calls us to help users and indeed receive lots of positive feedback on the fact that we do offer this type of information and have a security team monitoring the site.
Our customer services and/or site moderation team team would be happy to speak with you to make sure you're getting the best from your account, talk you through why safety online for everyone is important and address any other concerns you may have. Our contacts details are [email protected] or [email protected] or on 0161 768 1162. The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) are also welcome to contact us via the same details.
Best wishes,
The SpareRoom Team
Read the ad very carefully before the landlord responds to your ad. You be ready to ask questions about whose going to be living in the home. You are the one that's going to be spending your hard earned money. Remember your in control and the landlord is counting on you to help pay down their mortgage. If you need to sign a lease, you aren't happy with your house, you aren't obligated to stay another day if it causes you any problems.
Hi Marie,
It looks like you've placed your comments on a review site versus a forum on tips for renting online. We also don't sell physical goods so these don't apply to us. If you use SpareRoom and have a review about that service, you're welcome to post about that. If you have an account with us and need any further help, please do get in touch directly.
Best wishes,
The SpareRoom Team
In my opinion, Spareroom is a very untrustworthy website. I have been in touch with * from their site moderation team about a potentially bad agent. This agent currently seems to not be returning the deposits of tenants, engages in bad trade practices, the agent's website contains malware according to a major antivirus software, and they seem linked to another expelled agent. However, Spareroom only defends the agent with the risk of infecting the tenant's computers or of them losing money as they likely get ad revenue. Spareroom has been acting more like a spokesperson for the agent and not as a platform concerned with tenants' well-being.
**UPDATE**
Following the Spareroom representative's response, I checked my inbox and spam folders and there was no response from Spareroom about contact information for a UK authority. Even if this email did not reach my inbox, the readers of this review can make up their own mind about Spareroom's practices and advertisers based on them having to provide information to UK authorities about their own advertisers that Spareroom seem to be still willingly keeping at this point. In my perspective, the platform needs to do a much better job keeping tenants away from such agents.
*Personal information redacted by admin
UK ONLY
Hi Rosen,
Thanks for your review. Our UK team have been in contact with the relevant UK authorities as part of their investigation, which is not yet concluded as per their reply to you. As an advertising portal, we may only remove an advertiser where there is sufficient evidence that they may not operate on our site. Advertisers are removed where this is is the case once an investigation has been completed. We can see we've provided contact information for a UK authority regarding the unrelated suspicions you may have about them or their website, which as we've confirmed would need to be taken up directly with the authority as it is not something related to or occurring within our own systems. Our moderators will be happy to talk to you again about your report and can be contacted on 0161 768 1162 or at [email protected].
Best wishes
The SpareRoom Team
A lot of fake properties and people in this website. Their system doesn't work properly saving old expired ads. Anyone who even don't have any link with a property can advertise it … any current tenant put anything and were not able to carry on any responsibility for this. How is the current tenant can say – accept DSS?! They refer you to a landlord or estate agency who refuse fairy tales of current tenant and sometimes they are not aware the property is advertised! Just a waste of time with this fake website SCARErooms))
UK ONLY
Hi,
Thanks for your comments ad we're sorry to hear you have come across a misleading ad. You can report these directly to our moderation team at [email protected] and they will be pleased to help.
They do ask for proof of ownership where this is required, however, many current housemates do advertise correctly if their landlord has allowed them to manage finding a new housemate to join them. Of course we would expect that they've checked any details with their landlord first so everyone is on the same page, as we understand it can lead to disappointment if one of the details is incorrect.
Our site moderation team look forward to any further details you may have so they may investigate further.
Best wishes
The SpareRoom team
They don't let your adverts be seen but they take a full payment and don't let you post your adverts.
UK ONLY
Hi Char G,
Thanks for your comments and we're sorry to hear you've found an issue with your account If you'd like to get in contact with us directly at [email protected] or 0161 768 1162 a member of the team will be pleased to check your account for you and make sure everything is working as it should be.
Best Wishes
The SpareRoom Team
I have been running a bad now for at least 3 months. And all of the people come on say they are French in Project Management or finance day they are interested you never hear back. Days later they are still on the site looking. Most don't have pics and have recently joined the site. Very unusual activity and SpareRoom is not addressing. I have used them b4 no problem so I know something is wrong.
Hi Marilyn, Thanks for your feedback, that's appreciated.
You may have a business in the area where several people may have moved for work, though we're sorry to hear you've not had a reply back from them yet. It may be that they've had lots of contacts to deal with or are currently at viewing stage and will then come back to any rooms that might be on their shortlist for an area if they haven't found what they're looking for.
Sometimes groups of workers will try and look individually for themselves as well as look for whole properties to move in together, so there's some familiarity, especially if they've moved from overseas to start a new job. If you think any of the ads don't look right, please contact us at [email protected] and our team will be happy to check them for you.
Best wishes,
The SpareRoom Team
I'm a Landlord looking for a tenant to join our house share I was contacted by a young girl who sent me a message as she wanted to view my room, I replied and never got a reply. I managed to find the girl who's picture was on her advert and got in contact through Facebook to my surprise she said she never made an advert on spare room and was living in India and only dreamed to come to the UK. Her profile stated she was in project management in the UK. Such lies this website makes false profiles and fools people like me who paid for there services. Stay away.
Hi Sonia,
Thanks for your review. As all accounts, ads and messages are created and sent manually by users, we've contacted you directly with our site moderation details as we'd like to take a look at the account concerned. While we do allow people to browse the site, registration (compulsory) ad creation and messaging are only for if you intend to actually move or let a room out. Our moderation team look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes,
The SpareRoom team.
Avoid at any costs.
At the very beginning it was a decent company, but now they are bunch of crooks.
Don't ever give them your bank details or make any payments from their website. They will be taking money from your account without your knowledge.
UK ONLY
Hi George,
We're sorry to hear your feedback. We have a range of upgrades, some which are one-off purchases so no repeat billing, while others are clearly marked as subscriptions on the site, so you know that these will be billed monthly. We also don't store any card information or take any bank details from any of our users, so your comment sounds like this may relate to an advertiser during contact made outside of our platform. Our moderation team would therefore like to be able to look at the account this may relate to and investigate further so have asked if you can contact them at [email protected] or on 0161 768 1162.
Best wishes
The SpareRoom Team
Sorry but you're getting too much
Sorry but is not right your strictness with Agent & Agencies you're getting too much...
I am an agent who joined recently the industry and due to COVID19 broke indeed, keen to build a transparent business but apparently a tiny hard to understand 4 you... Millionaire company...
You have the right and I am with you on protecting your customers as everyone should but you can't kill new agents or people who's willing to build something but obviously, need time hence may has not all the money you have...
This is completely unfair...
You might be great with a part of your customers but remember that us agent are one of your the CORE of your business... not only Tenants are your customers...
Without us posting you would have none seeking... remember that...
UK Only
Hi Carl,
Thanks for your review. Our security team will ask all advertisers to provide further security details if required for the safety of our users and quality of listings and do check all accounts regardless of advertiser type.
If you have any further queries or concerns, please do contact us at [email protected] or on 0161 768 1162.
Best wishes
The SpareRoom Team
I paid for one month upgrade via PayPal. They did not upgrade my account and they don't respond to my phone call and my emails. I am very disappointed.
Hi Margie,
We can see your upgrade was successfully applied to your account and is currently being used. We also received an email from you a few hours ago and aim to respond to all emails within a 24 hour period where possible so do look out for a reply! If you have any further queries or need any help with your account, we'll be pleased to assist on 877-257-4944 or at [email protected].
Best wishes,
The SpareRoom team
After paid hundreds pounds for rent a room they closed the account with a silly reason stay away. Give all the evidence and still close you account waste of time
UK ONLY
Hi Sergio,
We can see you've been in contact with our moderation team and unfortunately do not have permission to advertise the property you tried to place on the site and your account has also been used free of charge to do this. If you still have any queries please contact our moderation team directly at [email protected] / 0161 768 1162 and they'll be happy to help.
Best wishes,
The SpareRoom Team.
So far its been a pleasant experience. Was able to rent to a nice young college student. His work experience checks out. Met with other roommates and home pets.
Hi Darmailya,
Thanks for your comments that's great and we're really glad to hear the service was helpful in finding a roommate and we look forward to you advertising with us again in the future should you ever be looking for another roommate! In the meantime, if you do need any further help at all, please let us know.
Best wishes
SpareRoom Team
Useless site. Don't even bother registering they will suspend your account after you pay. I m really disappointed.
UK ONLY
Hi Ricardo,
Thank you for your feedback,
I can see that our Site Moderation Team has been in contact with you. Your account was found to be conclusively linked to an Agent that we no longer host advertising for on SpareRoom.co.uk due to their continued breaches of our website terms and conditions.
As a result, your account was closed permanently and a full refund processed on the 18th of September 2019.
If you'd like to discuss your account further please do get in touch with our team on 0161 768 1162 and ask for a Site Moderator.
Best Wishes
The SpareRoom Team
Spare room don't care when you get ripped off by one of their paying clients. This company needs regulating and there should be some sort of protection to the person renting the property. Avoid these jokers
Hi Carl, we're sorry to hear the letting process may not have been as expected. As we're not involved with that in any way, if you can contact us directly we'll be able to look into this further and we always offer advice if it's something where we may not have any jurisdiction. Our moderation team can be contacted at [email protected] and look forward to hearing from you.
They will cancel your subscription at any moment for no reason. Total waste of time and money. Stay away and use other platforms. I have very good results with facebook and gumtree. In general spareroom will bring you useless leads and mainly people who is there just to waste your time. They will arrange a viewing and then will not even bother to show up. On the other hand, if you invite them in your office to better qualify the potential tenant before taking them for a viewing, they may report you. Spareroom became ridiculous.
UK only
Hi Phillip,
We can see our moderation team have asked for some further security details a few times, so if you could provide those to them, that would be great as unfortunately we can't reopen an account without them. We do recommend determining suitability as much as possible before inviting anyone to attend a viewing, so as not to waste either your or their time. Our users apply to specific rooms advertised, and unless they've been advised beforehand a room may be about to go and other options offered to see if those would also be of interest, doing this at viewing stage is more likely to cause problems and lead to complaints. Our team will be happy to provide any additional advice.
Best wishes
SpareRoom Team
From the business
SpareRoom: Find Roommates and Rooms to Rent
See reviews as you browse!
Get the Chrome Extension.
Add Extension
- SmartCustomer’s sole mission is to increase online transparency for buyers and businesses
- SmartCustomer has helped over 200M buyers make better purchasing decisions online
- Suspicious reviews are flagged by our algorithms, moderators, and community members
- SmartCustomer’s sole mission is to increase online transparency for buyers and businesses
- SmartCustomer has helped over 200M buyers make better purchasing decisions online
- Suspicious reviews are flagged by our algorithms, moderators, and community members
UK ONLY
Hi Venera,
Thanks for your review. We can see you've been in contact with our moderation team regarding your account which was under review. We can also see your latest email was only submitted yesterday evening and the team do endeavour to reply to all queries within a 24 hour time frame. Our team will be in touch again today where they will be able to discuss your account and advert with you.
Please note if an account or advert is flagged to us for any reason and by any means, we'll look into each case and attempt to come to a resolution as quickly as possible. If there is any evidence or direct account holder contact to us confirming something about an advert that doesn't comply with UK legislation, we may need to suspend an account while we investigate.
As mentioned, a member of the moderation team will be in touch again, however, you can also contact them on 0161 768 1162 and they will be pleased to help.
Best wishes,
The SpareRoom Team