Finding it hard to find a roommate in this tech world? Why not try speedroommating?

At 7:15 p.m. on a Thursday, the Sassafras Salon in Hollywood is starting to fill up. People line up in front of a woman who checks them off a list and hands them stickers to put on their clothes.

A white sticker means they’re looking to rent a room. A blue one means they have a room to rent out. There are other stickers for personality traits, like “homebody” and “early bird.” An overwhelming majority seemed to read “film buff."

Once appropriately labeled, they begin to check each other out.

Roommaters were given stickers to indicate their room location and preference, and also to express personality traits.

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Haila Alkhamis

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Courtesy Spareroom

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If it wasn’t for the name of the company on staff T shirts: SPAREROOM — a U.K.-based online platform that connects rooms and roommates — you’d be forgiven for thinking you may have stumbled into a speed dating mixer.

That’s intentional, explains founder Rupert Hunt. He says these “Speedroommating” events enables something that can’t be found online.

“They’re just so much more immediate because it cuts to the heart of what sharing’s about," Hunt said. "It’s about the human connection. Cities like L.A. are surprisingly lonely in some respects."

Rupert Hunt, Founder of Spareroom.

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Aiko Offner

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LAist

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Speedroommmating has already landed in San Francisco, London and San Diego.

People attending this event were promised three things: two free drink vouchers, four weeks of access to Spareroom Premium (which is $25.98 for one month) and the potential to meet the person with whom they could be sharing close quarters for the foreseeable future.

Alton is looking to rent a room in North Hollywood or Studio City

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Haila Alkhamis

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Courtesy Spareroom

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Alton McPheron was looking to pay $1,200 a month for a room in North Hollywood or Studio City. He was dressed in a black T-shirt with a black button down, a black choker and black jeans. The only non-black items he was wearing were stickers indicating that he is a “coffee addict,” “gamer” and “artsy type.” In the center was a teal sticker that read “neat freak.”

McPheron recently moved to L.A. from Ohio and is getting his certification for Hazmat work. He was looking for a roommate who is more introspective, and “isn't crazy, bringing, like, drug addicts and parties and stuff like that to the house.” Although he admitted they “don’t necessarily have to be a hermit, so long as they pay their bills.”

Speedroommating takes place at the Sassafras Saloon in Hollywood

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Haila Alkhamis

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Courtesy Spareroom

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Kori Butterworth, a 23-year-old with clear glasses and a septum piercing, met Olivia Buckhorn, a 22-year-old medical student who seemed a good fit.

“We both want to live in Eagle Rock,” Buckhorn said.

They also aligned in that they wanted someone open to overnight guests — as Buckhorn said, “I’m not trying to stay single forever!”

She did express what she is not looking for in roommates.

In college, her roommates used to steal toilet paper from the coffee shop downstairs to avoid having to pay for it.

“That personally doesn’t align with my lifestyle,” she said. “Or my bathroom flow.”

She had more. “I’ve also had roommates who didn’t really believe in cleaning the restroom on a weekly basis,” she said. They would clean it when it started to look dirty, about once a month.

“I was not OK with that,” she added.

The budget question

Room locations spanned across L.A. from Pomona to Lake Balboa, with rents ranging from $800 to $2,000 a room.

A woman who gave her name only as Mary, in a white tank top and perfectly straightened blond hair, was renting out a room at the top end — $2,000 in Mar Vista. It wasn’t going well. She said many at the event had much lower budgets than she’d hoped.

Hopeful roommaters communicate location, price range, and lifestyle habits in hopes of finding a place to live.

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Haila Alkhamis

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Courtesy Spareroom

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Ethan Green, a student working part time, was one of those people.

“I've seen a lot of people with name tags that say $1,800. I'm like, that's double what I'm asking for,” Green said.

He also noted another mis-match: it was “ a little older crowd than I thought it was gonna be, to be honest.”

Indeed, the crowd generally ranged from 20s to 50s, donning attire from hiking shoes (very practical for weeding through dud roommates) to cocktail-adjacent dress. But amidst them stood out some even older faces.

One of them was Tommy Ewasko from Mission Hills. He was displaced by the fires earlier this year and was “looking for my own room in Hollywood with a bathroom, if possible, and some storage area.” He was looking to pay $900 a month.

But the location proved a problem. He’d only met one other person that night who had a place to offer in Hollywood. But again, the money question had come up.

“It’s too expensive,” he said. “It’s too high.”

Hunt confirmed that there were more older people than would have been expected.

“ The over fifties are the fastest growing,” he said. “Not the biggest, but by far the fastest growing.”

He said it could be happening because many on the platform in Los Angeles are freelancers, affected by turbulence in the entertainment industry and rising apartment rents.

Ewasko, from Mission Hills, is looking to pay $900 a month for a room in Hollywood.

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Aiko Offner

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LAist

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Others also had bad roommate stories. A woman who gave her name as Precious was looking for a fourth roommate in Mid City. She just moved into her house last week with two other women she met on Facebook. But the last roommate she met on Facebook did not end well, particularly with paying rent.

“Some things happened that I will not be repeating right now,” Precious said.

Butterworth and Precious had met, and were getting on well. It seemed a good pairing, but they ultimately realized that mid-City and Eagle Rock were too far away from each other. Being roommates was off the table — but they had a solution.

“We should be best friends,” Butterworth said. “I’m down,” Precious said, so they exchanged Instagrams.

A few good leads

Hunt was sitting at the bar, beaming. The event had been packed, and was a "huge success," he said. But he also felt the event had achieved its second goal, which was to build community — scratching the persisting post-COVID itch to meet friends in person.

" A lot of people there are new to the city, so it's about getting a friend network," Hunt said.

If it wasn’t for the name of the company on staff T shirts: Spareroom— you might have thought you stumbled into a speed dating mixer.

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Haila Alkhamis

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Courtesy Spareroom

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A few days after the event, Hunt said the positivity of the event had only amplified. He received numerous messages from people making connections, friends and potential roommate leads. So much so, that after hitting San Diego and San Francisco, Speedroommating is coming back to Los Angeles.

" We're planning another event, it was such a success," he said.

Indeed, the event is happening again on July 24 at the Sassafras Saloon. And with the same promises: four weeks of Spareroom premium, free drinks and the person whose socks might appear in your laundry.