Alright, we are not talking about identity theft per say because we don’t need your social security number or your mama’s maiden name for you to rate your rental.  But, we have taken our users right to anonymity one step further.  As a student you can be sure you can keep a low profile but still accomplish what RateMyStudentRental.com has to offer.

When you create your account you can choose whatever username you desire.  This username will appear on your rental reviews and will be how other users view your activity on the site.

TIP: If you want to keep a low profile pick a username that does not incorporate your first or last name, your school email address, or other terms descriptive of your real identity.

Situation 1:

When you contact a landlord your real name will appear as the contact. We’ve chosen to do this because chances are when you contact a landlord, whether to inquire about an available room or to submit a maintenance request, eventually you are going to disclose your  real name - and when that time comes, we don’t want your reviews (linked to your username) to be revealed to the landlord.

Situation 2:

When Landlords make the first contact to you they will only know/see your username, allowing you to reveal your identity at your discretion (or as we recommend, not at all).  Even when you reply to a thread that was started by a landlord your real name will NOT be displayed unless you type it in the body of the message.

We’re taking every measure we can to keep the identity of your review completely separate from the business you can conduct through RateMyStudentRental.com, while managing both identities under one account.

So, you may still be asking why it is important to keep your username and real identity separate?  It’s simple, at least we think so!  We don’t want students to feel any pressure to hold back the truth about a shoddy rental for fear of being bullied by a landlord or singled out.

If you have comments or suggestions on how we can do an even better job with this issue, please contact us and we’ll be happy to hear your thoughts.