Advertise a Room for Rent

If you need to advertise a room to let, we’re here to help. Whether it is a spare room in your own home or a room to rent in an HMO, you can advertise it on our site today for free, in just a few minutes. 

Getting your room to let onto the market can feel like a big chore, but this guide makes it easy. We let thousands of rooms every year, so we know what’s important. 

Room to Let

If you are letting a spare room in your own home, then you will be advertising for a lodger. Lodgers rent a room from a landlord who they live with and have a lodger license agreement. 

If you are advertising an individual room to let in a shared property (an HMO), then you will be advertising for a tenant. This includes where you are soon to be leaving an HMO and need to find a new tenant, so might be wondering “How do I rent my room out?” Tenants in England normally have an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST), giving them more rights and protections than lodgers. 

No matter what you are looking for, you can create an advert for a room to let for free right now. 

Advertising a Room to Let

Let’s start with landlords looking for a new tenant to occupy a room in their home of multiple occupancy (HMO). Your room advert will need to include:

• the rent (usually including bills for HMOs)
• the deposit (usually five weeks’ rent)
• the move in date
• the shared facilities of the property
• how many other occupants are in the property 

You can find the appropriate rent to charge by looking at similar rooms being let in the same area and monitoring which ones have to reduce their price and which let quickly.

It is best to enter the market with a competitive rent, rather than advertising a high rent and then lower it progressively. This is because websites prefer newer adverts and bury older ones. If you don’t have a realistically priced advert within 48 hours of your property being live, you could lose around 50% of your enquiries. 

Advertising a Room to Let on Rightmove and Zoopla

Just like letting an entire property, you can advertise your room on Rightmove and Zoopla. This is the best place to advertise your room, as these sites get the most traffic from tenants, so will get your room the most enquiries. 

You can’t advertise directly on these property portals. Rather, you need to use a letting agent. Luckily, this doesn’t have to cost thousands of pounds or lock you in to using an agent to manage the property. You can advertise your room to let on Rightmove and Zoopla using OpenRent for just £49. 

When you put a room on Rightmove, it will appear as a ‘House Share’ property. This lets tenants know that just one room in the house is being advertised. On Zoopla, your room will appear as ‘Room to Rent’.  

Spare room advertising

Advertising spare rooms in your own home is slightly different, but is still supported by OpenRent. Like above, you will need to set:

• the rent (usually including bills for lodgers)
• the deposit
• the move in date

You will also need to specify any house rules, such as which room the lodger is permitted to occupy (i.e. have as their room) and access (e.g. you may not want them using your en suite). 

Once you have created your advert, finding a lodger proceeds just like finding a regular tenant. You will get enquiries and requests to view the room. You will need to create a lodger license, but many templates exist online, and landlords have strong protections regarding evicting lodgers if you need the room back. 

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