At Uprent, we have multiple product interviews per week with actual users. Listening to customer feedback helps us build a better (rental search) experience. (By the way, if you’re interested in sharing your thoughts or even critiquing Uprent directly with our CEO, feel free to schedule a product interview here — it’ll go straight into his calendar!)
One of the most frequent requests we receive —alongside “please automate everything” (we’re working on that!) — is for more filter options, such as furnishing, number of bedrooms, pets, or property types like rooms or apartments.
The short answer is: we can’t add this. At least, not yet.
Let’s dive into why.
Uprent’s unique value lies in its ability to aggregate listings from over 230 rental platforms. These platforms feature only unique housing options, and we bring all of them into a single, easy-to-use feed. This saves you the headache of manually searching through dozens (or hundreds!) of websites.
However, supporting such a large number of platforms is an incredibly complex task. Every platform operates differently, with its own data structure and listing details. Keeping everything running smoothly means:
Our system is beautiful, scalable, and simple yet complex. Still, it has constraints.
The main issue lies in the data — or rather, the lack of consistency across platforms.
The most consistent data fields across platforms are size and price, which is why these are the only filters we currently support. (Though, even these are not always available.)
Being completely honest, the concept of deep filters, such as “furnished” or “pet-friendly,” doesn’t really work on any platform. Sometimes, people posting listings (landlords or rental agents) just select the wrong filter. Or, even more often, they don’t specify some filters at all. What do you do with houses with blank furnishing filter if a user wants to filter houses out by furnishing? There are two equally bad options:
By sticking to basic filters, we ensure you get the most accurate feed with the widest selection possible.
Social housing platforms often list properties that are actually in the free market. Unfortunately, there’s no reliable way to determine whether a property is social housing or free market housing.
If you’re receiving alerts or seeing listings from platforms you dislike, you can use the Exclude Platforms option in your settings to filter them out manually.
While we don’t have a specific filter for property types, here’s a simple workaround:
Many people avoid paid platforms, assuming free ones are better. However, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes, paying €20 for a platform can give you access to cheaper, less competitive housing options compared to free platforms where demand is higher.
We deliberately include listings from all platforms — paid and free — so you see everything available. If you don’t want to receive alerts or see listings from a specific platform, you can exclude it manually in your settings.
If you are looking for a home on Uprent, it means you trust us to display all the homes available on the market. If we fail to show you some homes, or do not display them on time, you might miss out on your home. We understand this responsibility and treat it with respect. Uprent may not offer the widest range of filters, but the ones we do have are incredibly reliable (and cool).
We’re always looking to improve, so if you have suggestions or ideas, let us know! You can schedule a direct meeting with our CEO to share your feedback. We’re working day (and, frankly, night) to make your rental search easier, smarter, and more effective.
