How did RoomMatch begin? Our Story

This is how we came up with the idea!!

In 2010 we opened our Estate Agent within a small village in Birmingham, we traded for 10 years very successfully and was soon the market leader in our area, in 2016 Louise joined the team.

In 2017 we had an opportunity to purchase a small, supported accommodation already set up that housed 12 tenants over two houses we fell in love.

In 2018 We acquired a further two properties, renovated them and moved a further 8 tenants in, which meant Kelly & Louise were now heavily involved with both the Estate Agency & the Supported Accommodation. They were responsible for the tenant paperwork including contracts, exemptions, benefits, and support documentation. They spent long hours furnishing the houses making sure everything was like home from home.

By 2020 as a team, we decided to sell the Estate Agency to concentrate on the Supported Accommodation, as we felt this sector was more challenging yet extremely rewarding. It soon became apparent that there was something missing from this industry and was not working as it should be for tenants. We felt the tenant was not involved when it came to choosing where they live, there were people out there in need of the right room, in the right area but did not know where to start looking. There were services out there who were spending a lot of time searching for rooms, and it was not always the right room for their tenant. We as a Supported Accommodation provider have seen this too many times, where a tenant will move in and will be very unhappy because it is not what they want or what they need, but it’s also the only option many tenants have.

So, in March 2021 on a rainy Saturday afternoon we came up with the idea of RoomMatch, we discussed making a website that would advertise all the spare rooms in Birmingham for the providers, and where the professional services in Birmingham could access this to be able to bring the rooms and the tenants together by one simple click, creating more opportunity and choice. Along with a tenant hub of useful contact numbers to help them live as independently as possible.

April 2021 after working for many years with our local teams, we asked if this would be something that would help with their day to day, the response we got was mainly "we can spend 6-7 hours a day ringing round to find a room, and when could we go live”!

Early May 2021 RoomMatch’s temporary office was set up within our kitchen. Our website was being designed by a lovely guy in Columbia and we had ordered all our merchandise, computers, printers, and stationery. The rest of May consisted of longer working hours in preparation for our launch, we are still going back and forth with the website but we’re excitedly waiting for our first preview which is due early June.

1st June 2021 7:30am, Website preview has been received, computers on, we fell in love... With some minor changes to make and some layouts to play with we are waiting patiently for the final result. After many long phone calls with providers explaining what we are going to be launching they all want on board, and said they have multiple rooms empty, yet there are tenants out there but finding them a room is the issue. We explained the tenants are also out there looking for a room with no idea where to look. SOLD! Not one person we have spoken to has had any ifs or buts they simply need this in their life. Once we had explained the tenant will be also in control, they were even more impressed, as a happy tenant is a happy provider.

15th June 2021 LAUNCH DAY..............