Roomrs - Coliving Apartments — Local services in New York

I am writing to express my extreme dissatisfaction with my recent experience with Roomrs. After paying my deposit and first month's rent, I moved into my room at 377 South 1st Street on August 7th. Upon arrival, I was shocked to find the room in an appalling condition, as evidenced by the attached photos. The bed had urine stains and flies, there were no linens, the walls were stained, the room was covered in dust, and it smelled strongly of smoke. A future roommate informed me that the room had not been cleaned since the previous tenant vacated it at least two weeks prior. Moreover, there were no chairs in the living room which have not being cleaned "for a while" and a sofa under the tv which should have not been there.

The customer service I received was equally disappointing. When I reported the issue to Support (all the phone numbers found on the contract were useless), the agency did not cover my hotel expenses for those nights, citing a policy that offered an empty apartment in Williamsburg as an alternative. Given the circumstances and the inconvenience of moving with five pieces of luggage from Manhattan, along with my girlfriend who was visiting, I could not risk encountering a similar situation in another one of your properties. As a result, I had to pay for my own hotel accommodations and only received a $125 credit.

I had expected a full reimbursement of the amount paid (over $3,400). However, Roomrs stated that only the deposit would be returned, as they offered "solutions" such as waiting for the room to be re-cleaned (which, upon my visit on August 10th, still had the soiled mattress) or moving to another, less suitable Roomrs location. Furthermore, despite my attempts to communicate promptly (including useless calls to Support and the Director of Operations who even blocked my phone number), I was informed that the full deposit could not be reimbursed because I would be charged for the 9 nights I would have theoretically stayed until I decided to terminate the contract, amounting to over $400. This is absolutely RIDICULOUS, but all I wanted is to get out from the contract as soon as possible and having to deal with them anymore.

I strongly advise anyone considering moving to NYC to avoid this agency. My experience highlights the critical importance of personally visiting properties to avoid such...

I needed a short term rental in NYC and Roomrs had a wonderful selection of properties to choose from. I picked a 4 bedroom in Williamsburg where my room had a door onto the roof of the building. It was amazing to spend the wfh period with this outside space.

TL:DR: I moved in for 3 months and ended up staying 6 months because it was such a good location, a great apartment, wonderful roommates and good customer service.

Communication Roomrs customer service is very prompt. Kevin was just wonderful and incredibly helpful throughout the entire stay. Typically emails are answered to in a matter of hours and almost always under 24hrs.

Moving in The moving in process was a bit messy, I was initially told that I could move in on one date but the documents weren’t ready and I had to pay for extra time in a hotel to wait for my move in. When I moved in it was easy to find the keys and the apartment was clean. It was SO CONVENIENT to have a fully furnished apartment and WiFi set up at move in.

Roommates I got very lucky with my roommates, they were both professionals in their mid twenties who have become my friends, thank you Roomrs for pairing me with such wonderful ppl.

Cleaning The cleaning was so-so. The cleaning ladies did not speak almost any English and I unfortunately don’t speak Spanish which made it very hard to explain anything even with Google Translate. I never felt like the apartment was well cleaned, they would largely only wipe the visible surfaces. The room cleaning is not included. It would be good to have the option to pay extra for bedroom cleaning.

Electronic locks Couple of months after my move in Roomrs installed Latch which made it SUPER CONVENIENT to not have to carry keys around.

Storage space I wish there’d be more storage space, there wasn’t enough space for 4 ppl storage in the living room & kitchen. My room specifically had the smallest closet, so I had to buy boxes to store things under the bed.

I’m grateful to Roomrs for providing a great experience and for being open to feedback from...

I signed a 1-year lease with Roomrs in November 2019. Since the beginning, people entered the apartment unannounced either for touring, or cleaning. When I contacted management about this, (it's actually illegal for landlords to enter the premises unannounced), the first person I talked to said this was normal. It took some back and forth to actually get them to give notice whenever touring or cleaning would happen.

Midway through my lease, management announced that they were breaking their lease with the building where my apartment was located. I could either move "free of charge" to one of their other locations, or I could break my lease. Given that these were the early days of the pandemic in NYC, I decided against apartment hunting and stuck with them. I later learned that "free of charge" actually meant that I had to cover the expenses of moving, which can get pricey in the city. Again, after more back and forth, Roomrs agreed to move my things to the new location using their moving team, and we set a moving date together. For that remaining month I had to stay somewhere else because Roomrs kept touring the apartment and disregarding social-distancing rules, so I just left my things packed and my room locked.

Fast-forward to the moving date: I came to the apartment to meet with the Roomrs team for the move, only to find the apartment and my room completely empty. Without my consent, they had moved my things a week earlier to a warehouse, and it took about a month to finally get everything back into the new apartment. I will say, at least I got my things back.

Oh, and there's no vetting of roommates at all. Horrible experience, especially during the pandemic.

Long story short: if you value your privacy and security, stay away. These people are good natured, but they don't have the capacity or expertise to run an operation like this. Some of them are nice over the phone, but in the end this company is careless, irresponsible, and even...