When a new rent-a-room network has a "How to avoid creeps --

and other wacked situations" page instead of FAQs, it's probably sensible to tread with caution. Nevertheless, four days into its beta launch and LoveRoom has more than 1,100 interested parties registered who all want to rent their spare room to attractive people for no fee, or need a room.


It looks like LoveRoom's minor popularity is largely down to its shock value business model, in the same ilk as Brandon Wade's "bribes"-for dates Carrot dating model. When the website went live a few weeks ago there was the expected furore from tech sites in the US where founder Josh Bocanegra is based. As a Forbes article pointed out at the time, LoveRoom was not actually even a business at that point -- the website was just a holding page where interested parties could register their interest.

Bocanegra, who only learnt how to programme in the past year, actually began the site as a joke, to test the waters for the idea in a half-hearted kind of a way. At least that's what Bocanegra told Forbes: "It's a thought experiment that I would work on if there was interest. But it was really more of a joke because I didn't think people would really be interested." He and his girlfriend Jeanine Marie apparently came up with the idea after they received substantially more offers for their spare room on Airbnb when a photo of Marie featured.

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Bocanegra had no qualms about admitting the model for the site would be totally based on Airbnb, tellings Forbes he planned to hire a developer to "do a script to scrape info from the site". But while Airbnb might ask you questions about how much you'd expect to pay for a room, LoveRoom asks "Clinton or Bush", "Puppies or Kittens", "Steak or Lobster", "Meat or Veggie". It's leaning towards presenting itself as a dating site with these questions, matching up perfect pairs.

Then it asks "Personal Space or Cuddles", and you wonder if it's more Tinder than Match.com.

It's also not really made clear whether users are looking for a room for one night and a one-night stand, as the concept suggests, or whether there are really people out there that believe an individual will want a free room to live in for an extended period of time because their generous landlord thinks they're attractive...

From the looks of things, the majority of those 1,100 registered users are male, all considered attractive people with a room to spare or a need for one. In the tips section, users are advised to check out the person on Google, Facebook and Twitter -- presumably to verify their attractiveness (there's probably no Facebook status that proves a potential host is potentially creepy). It also suggests people bring a friend when renting out a room: "This makes potential losers resist any misbehaviour." What that "misbehaviour" might be when a person is obviously expecting something of an amorous encounter, is troubling to say the least. "Be sure to be clear about boundaries and the level of privacy a host can offer you," the tips continue, and don't give out your number or email till you've gotten to know each other. It also warns, "Make sure you have a working phone or communication device when traveling. Be in touch with friends and family on your trip in case you need a back up accommodation." Or, you know, in case your host turns out to be a serial killer.


Unlike Airbnb, which lets guests and hosts verify their IDs and check up on each other via the review section, LoveRoom appears to place the impetus squarely on the user to do some digging around.

And with rooms being charged via Airbnb, there is a further degree of traceability of individuals and accountability -- if there's no money involved, there's no reason to keep an agreement on a service like LoveRoom, so that door might be slammed in your face if your cheekbones aren't up to scratch in real life.

Wired.co.uk can't imagine a scenario where it's a good idea to use LoveRoom, but has reached out to founder Bocanegra to see if he can convince us otherwise.