RENT LESS

Inspiration

As a student moving to new places, finding a good room with a compatible roommate is often a daunting challenge, yet it’s a crucial part of building a positive and productive college experience. The right living environment can provide comfort, security, and the support needed to focus on studies and personal growth, while the wrong situation can lead to stress and distraction. This struggle is not just a personal inconvenience, but a universal issue faced by students everywhere, and it serves as powerful inspiration to seek out or create better solutions that help students find welcoming homes and supportive communities wherever they go..

What it does

This platform makes it easy for people to list their rooms with flexible availability and for others to find and book a place to stay along with a compatible roommate. To keep things safe and genuine, everyone verifies their government ID and shares a short video intro. You can browse rooms on a map, check out different neighborhoods, and use filters to find the right fit for your lifestyle and personality.

How we built it

I built this platform using Bolt.ai by giving natural language prompts to generate the app’s core features, then connected it to Supabase for the database. I fixed errors, adjusted the CSS, and made changes as needed, combining Bolt’s fast AI-powered app building with hands-on tweaks for a smooth,

Challenges We Ran Into

During the development process, we faced several challenges. Integrating Supabase with Bolt.ai required extra troubleshooting, especially when handling user authentication and real-time data updates. Customizing the CSS to achieve a clean, user-friendly interface was sometimes tricky, as Bolt’s AI-generated layouts didn’t always match our vision and needed manual adjustments. Debugging errors that arose from AI-generated code also took time, since the logic wasn’t always transparent. Additionally, ensuring smooth video uploads for user introductions and verifying government IDs involved overcoming technical hurdles around file handling and security. Despite these obstacles, each challenge pushed us to learn more and refine the platform for a better user experience.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud to have built a fully functional platform in a short amount of time using Bolt.ai and Supabase, transforming simple prompts into a real, usable product. We successfully integrated secure user verification with government ID and video introductions, making the platform safer and more trustworthy. Our team overcame technical challenges to create a smooth booking experience and an intuitive interface, customizing the AI-generated code and CSS to fit our vision. Most importantly, we delivered a solution that genuinely addresses the struggles person face when searching for rooms and roommates, helping to make their transition to new places easier and more welcoming.

What We Learned

Throughout this project, we learned how powerful and efficient AI-driven development can be—using Bolt.ai allowed us to rapidly prototype and build features just by describing them in natural language. We gained hands-on experience integrating third-party services like Supabase for authentication and data management, which taught us the importance of choosing the right tools for scalability and security. Customizing AI-generated code and troubleshooting unexpected errors improved our problem-solving skills and deepened our understanding of both frontend and backend development. Most importantly, we learned that clear communication, adaptability, and a willingness to iterate are key to turning ambitious ideas into a working product, especially when leveraging new technologies.

What's next for RENT LESS

Looking ahead, we plan to make RENT LESS even more helpful and user-friendly. Our next steps include adding smarter roommate-matching algorithms based on interests and habits, expanding the verification process for even greater safety, and introducing in-app chat so users can connect before booking. We also aim to launch a mobile app for easier access on the go and partner with local businesses to offer exclusive student deals. As we gather feedback from early users, we’ll keep refining the platform to ensure it truly solves the challenges students face when finding rooms and roommates in new places.

Built With

• html5
• react
• tailwind
• typescript