Mumbai, October 20, 2013: Mumbai based internet services Flat Dot To Technologies has launched a useful site for college students to find accommodation: Flat.to .
Version 2.0 of its website, has 14 new features, based on detailed feedback from students and brokers since v1 went public in June. The highlight is a platform to find people to share flats with, which has 2 components: 1) list a flat you already rent and need a flatmate for 2) find someone who you can rent a flat with.
It is common practice for students to share flats or even rooms; in fact given the high cost of real estate in cities like Mumbai, it's pretty much a norm. "You cannot have a student rental website without shared flats", says Gaurav Munjal, Founder & CEO. "We took some time to build it as we wanted to incorporate student feedback and make sure the experience is first class. We are really happy with the outcome, given the overwhelming response of the initial users." The interface is indeed pretty simple: people who have space in their flat can now "list" their flat similar to how brokers or owners currently list full flats. These listings then start showing up in search results along with all other listings. The 'lister' is authenticated using Facebook, and that is the only way an interested party can get in touch with him or her.
An industry first effort, 'Flatmate finder' solves a similar use case, but without having to list a flat. It provides a list of all potential renters looking for flats in the same area, and users can directly connect with each other. Says Munjal, "We have already been informally doing this through our Facebook group Flat.to Roommates, which now has over 1,300 members in less than 2 months. There is a clear need for it." The company is launching this feature through a special event, which will bring together renters to instantly connect in a speed dating type format.
Flat.to is currently operating only in Mumbai, and will expand to Pune later this month. Details can be found here: http://flat.to/find-flatmates