About Speedshare
Think of it kind of like speed dating, but for matching room seekers with hosts; like Idealista or Badi in real life, but with a lot more passion and fun.
Speedshare is a project born out of a passion for all that’s good about flat-sharing.
The rental market in Barcelona is out of control at the moment…
Ever since the pandemic, an accomodation-as-a-service mindset has crept into our lives: illegal short-term rentals, office-like managed apartments, buy-to-let flats, and lifeless co-living spaces are driving up rents, and are turning Barcelona into another London, where spirit is replaced by piggy banks in the sky, locals are driven out of their own city, and scams are everywhere.
In this environment it has become incredibly hard to find a nice and affordable place to live, and Speedshare’s aim is to help, at least a little!
Our website and events are aimed at introducing a personal touch to renting and flat-sharing again. You might notice that our listing forms are a bit longer than usual, but that is meant to provide more valuable information for both hosts/landlords and potential flatmates. And for our events you might have to leave your house, but it will give you the opportunity to meet the people you might end up living with in person.
At Speedshare we believe that sharing a home shouldn’t be based on a game of flat-share Tinder. You can do better than that, and we want to help you!
Frequently asked questions
Speedshare events
How do Speedshare events work?
It’s really quite simple once you get your head around it…
1. You buy your ticket (and maybe another, cheaper, one for a friend or flatmate to come with you).
If you have a room to let you send us a few photos and tell us roughly where the flat is (addresses won’t be published), no more than 24 hours before the event, and we’ll print out a nice sheet with the info and photos for you.
2. When you get to the bar/restaurant you’ll get a sticker to let others know if you’re looking for a room (green) or you have one (yellow). People who have rooms to let will get a spot to display their photos and info.
3. Room seekers can then mingle and talk to the people who have rooms to let. There’s no rigid system, though we’ll help move things along if everyone swarms a single table or so 😉
4. If you match with someone, you can arrange a viewing and hopefully you’ll live together happily ever after ❤️
It’s basically a fun way to meet a lot of people, and not waste time inviting people to your flat one by one.
How do Speedshare events work when I have a room to let?
Make sure you have your ticket and a positive attitude, and that you’ve sent us some photos at least 24 hours before the event (see above). When you get to the venue, we’ll give you a yellow sticker to show that you’ve got a room to let, get you set up at a table with the room description and photos you’ve provided, and make sure you can meet your lovely potential flatmates.
How do Speedshare events work when I’m looking for a room?
Just make sure you’ve got a ticket and show up at the venue. You might want to bring a photo of your pets if you have any, and maybe proof of income (as some hosts might want to make sure you can pay the rent) but that’s up to you.
Everything else will be explained at the event, and it’s super simple, so bring your best smile and don’t worry about the rest!
Why do I need to buy a ticket?
Two reasons:
1. We need to make sure we get the right venue for each event. The venues will only work with us if we can guarantee a certain amount of people, and at the same time won’t overload them.
2. It’s what pays for this website, and the time and effort we put into hosting these events.
Tickets are cheap and really just meant to cover our expenses and efforts. If you can’t afford a ticket, just contact us and we’ll sort you out somehow.
Are tickets available on the door?
Sometimes, but we can’t guarantee it. You can see availability on the event page until the event starts. After that, please contact us. If there are tickets available you can pay on the door in cash, by credit/debit card or Bizum.
Can I bring a friend to your events?
Yes, but they might have to pay a small entry fee at the door.
If you have a room to offer, you can bring one of your current flatmates for free; it makes sense for them to meet potential new flatmates after all.
Any further flatmates, as well as friends of members looking for a room will be charged €2 on the door, which can be paid by card or in exact cash (we can’t guarantee that we’ll have change available).
Do you offer events in other cities or countries?
Not yet, but we’re working on it. Stay tuned for more!
Other questions
What counts as long term vs short term?
There are two answers to this question…
1. In order to rent out your flat or room for less than 32 days you need a tourist license. These licenses are hard (and right now actually impossible) to come by, and the people who have them rent their properties out on Airbnb and get rich. You can find the legal text here (in Catalan only, sorry): https://portaljuridic.gencat.cat/ca/document-del-pjur/?documentId=288384 and some more accessible links at https://meet.barcelona.cat/habitatgesturistics/en and https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2265?locale=en
That’s the legal side, and both the landlord and tenant are responsible for making sure that everything stays above board. We don’t get involved, but we also don’t allow any listings for less than 32 days on this website. If you advertise a room or flat for less than 32 days without proactively providing your license number, we’ll report you to the Ajuntament/Generalitat and let them deal with it.
2. We are trying to promote old-school, long-term flatshares, where you share responsibilities and have a life together, rather than expect hotel-style service and never talk to your flatmates. For this reason we will actively promote any listings that offer a place to stay for 3 months or more over any that offer less time.
It all comes down to being nice and helping to promote a nice way of living. As soon as greed gets involved, you’re probably in the wrong place.
Do your services cost more if I book them through Speedshare?
No, never! In fact, in some cases we’ve asked for a lower commission so that their prices wouldn’t increase.
We also work on a trust basis with almost everyone, so the service providers don’t even have to pay us if they don’t want to… that’s where the “trust” bit comes in 😉
I want to find other people to rent a whole apartment together. Can you help?
Yes! Speedshare Unite! is exactly that… you can create Unite! listings for rooms/flats and as part of your room seeker ad. And we also have a WhatsApp group dedicated to Unite!: https://chat.whatsapp.com/I2hNdfXSO3A7wDhalsqKM8
How does Speedshare avoid scammers?
While there isn’t much we can do about scams from a legal perspective, the whole concept of Speedshare is poison for scammers. Since our events happen in real life and participants have to purchase tickets for most events, scammers won’t show their faces there. And even if they tried we’d very soon notice the patterns… our events aren’t attended by thousands of people after all.
We also actively try to help people who are at risk of being scammed or who have already fallen victim to a scam. We can give guidance, accompany you to the police if you need help, and we collect related material (phone numbers, screenshots, etc) for all cases we come across, and use it to raise awareness.
Can I advertise short term rentals on Speedshare?
No!
If you have a tourist license you can use Airbnb or similar websites for that. If you don’t have one, short term rentals are illegal. We believe that short term rentals are one of the reasons for the rising rents in Barcelona, and we will report any attempt to use Speedshare to promote illegal short term rentals to the Ajuntament de Barcelona or other authorities without prior notice.
If you do have a tourist license, and you have a good reason for wanting to use Speedshare to promote it, please talk to us and we’ll see what we can do.
What can I list in the Speedshare flea market?
We accept listings for anything related to flat sharing: furniture, decoration, appliances, tools, etc. We don’t want to make things difficult for our members, so we don’t police this very strictly, but we do want to keep the focus of our community on flatsharing and rentals as our primary subject.
What we don’t accept are items that are obviously unrelated, like cars, clothes, sports equipment, etc. In those cases the item will be removed from the site.
Why do you ask for money for listings?
Well, we (almost) don’t, but the short answer is that we have bills to pay 😉 The slightly longer answer is that we invest a lot of time and money into running Speedshare. The website, events and related things, aren’t free for us either.
But we don’t ask much, and almost all listings can be posted for free (the only exceptions are listing for flats and houses – if you have one of those, surely you can afford a euro or two). Simply change the amount on the checkout page to whatever you can or want to pay.
Any other questions?
Just contact us and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
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