Housing platform live in 30 days, 2 years of rent on Stripe

Camarage matches seniors who have a spare room with young adults who need a place to live. The young adult pays a matching fee, then rent every month. Camarage keeps a follow-up fee and pays the rest to the senior.

In February 2023, Camarage was moving from its old coded site to a new platform on Bubble. The migration had started and the mockups were ready. I joined as the developer.

The platform had to be finished and the data migrated from the old site. Then the payments had to run on their own every month: the fees, the rent, the failed payments and the transfers to the seniors.

The launch. I designed the data model with the client, then built sign-up, accounts, room search and requests.

The migration. I moved over the users, matchings and cohabitations from the old site. The 46 young adults already living with a senior moved to monthly rent on Stripe.

The payments. The matching fees, then a monthly subscription for the rent. Stripe does not prorate the first month, so I calculated it myself. When the team changes a date or a rent in the back office, the Stripe subscription follows.

Failed payments. The young adult gets an email every two days and updates their card on their own.

The back office. One tab per type of data, and a payments tab that exports the transfers to the seniors as a bulk transfer file for Qonto.

The rest. A rent cap simulator, the publishing of listings on property portals (through Ubiflow), and 13 of the first 15 automatic emails and SMS.

A table of Facebook prospects used 35% of the app's resources. I moved it out.

Search took up to 15 seconds, sometimes 45, because of a heavy filter. I replaced it with a precomputed indicator.

Camarage chose Bubble before I joined, and it was the right choice. The team edits the app itself and deploys on its own, and calls a developer for big projects. When a product outgrows that setup, I do the opposite: see the exit from Bubble in this portfolio.

Platform live on 24 March 2023, 30 days after my first day.

499 seniors in April 2023, and more than 3,000 young adults in the database.

77 active rent subscriptions on Stripe in January 2024.

8,152 matchings in the database in June 2025.