Questions and Answers

Do I have to commit on the night?

No, the event is only intended to help with the filtering process. At these events you are given the opportunity to rule out flatmates/flatshares because of incompatibilities, rather than waste whole evenings doing so the traditional way. At the end of the event you will probably have narrowed it down to 3 or 4 rooms or flatmates. Using your Who's Who list you can look up their profile on SpareRoom when you get home and get in touch (all attendees of paid for events have Early Bird till at least 48 hours after the event, so you will not have to pay to contact anyone. Early Bird access not included with free events).

Can we swap contact details on the night?

That is of course up to yourselves, however we recommend you stick to contacting after the event through SpareRoom (using the advert reference numbers on your Who's Who list). It is free and easy to contact through the site and avoids awkward situations where you or the person you are talking to does not wish to pursue things any further.

What happened to the old Speed Dating style events?

In 2004 we launched Speed Flatmating as a way to find flatmates using (quite literally) the speed dating format: 10 to 20 households sat at tables with 10 to 20 room seekers working their way around one by one spending just 5 minutes with each - plenty enough time to form that all important first impression of someone. The events were a huge success, which got us on the telly, on the radio and in just about every newspaper you can think of! Many happy households (and friendships) were formed through the events.

So why did we stop them? The problem was that unlike with it's dating counterpart, being able to get on with someone isn't the only factor involved with finding the right flatmate. There is of course affordability, unavoidably. Also, some attendees are more open minded than others about location. Some also came with quite set pre-conceptions of who they wanted to live with: e.g female only or must be non smoker. Fortunately the majority of those with these specific ideas surprised themselves when in the end they ticked a male when they thought they only wanted female, or found they could compromise with a smoker so long as they smoked in the garden!...

Anyway, for most the events worked really well, for the odd few they didn't - for the former, 5 minutes wasn't anywhere near enough and for the latter, too much! Now, rather than just 20 people, our events are aiming at numbers up to 150. We're widening everyone's choices and giving them the means to narrow their search on the evening so they can speak to just those they want to (and for as little or long a time as they want!). It doesn't mean there isn't still room for surprises and chance perfect matches, it just makes the evening much less daunting!

One final (though quite big) reason for ditching the old format: a lot of unexpected success came from room seekers buddying up with other room seekers to form a new flatshare with. We wanted to somehow facilitate this, but it was virtually impossible to work it into the old style events. With our new events, Room seekers who are also interested in "buddying up" can take a buddy up Who's Who list as well as a Rooms to let one!

The event is mixed but I only want to live with a male/female

You can use your Who's Who list to pick out just those you want to speak to (the list shows gender; budget/rent and location). There should be plenty to keep you occupied all evening. It's worth keeping an open mind though: we've had a lot of feedback from previous attendees who found their perfect flatmates in a form they weren't expecting. e.g: "Initially I had advertised only for male flatmates, however after this evening I realise I was wrong to rule people out and have found two flatmates, one of whom is female" (feedback from a previous flatmater)

How many flatmates/rooms will I be able to see?

This very much depends on the area and time of year. Our all encompassing "London" events we expect about 150-200 people. We expect our more targeted events such as "Docklands" to have about half as many people. The events are fun and useful, but they can also be exhausting. You may well find that after speaking to 10 people that you have not only found some great potential flatmates but that you don't have the energy to talk to anyone else!

There are different event types - what are the differences?

The main 2 event types are regional and local events. Regional events cover larger areas, such as London Zones 1 and 2, while local events cover a specific area, usually a few postcodes - e.g. Speed Flatmating Clapham. Regional events are more structured with several staff running them and Who's who lists printed for everyone, whereas Local events are free and more casual with only one of our staff there to supervise. No Who's Who lists are printed for Local events. We also run special Free Regional events in the style of local events with no Who's Who lists.