The useful moment often comes before the move-out date.

Maybe not today. We are starting in Zürich and the number of listings is still small, so be honest with yourself: this is a second channel, not a replacement for the portals. The useful move is to save a search. You get a message when a flat that matches appears, instead of checking an empty page.

You can browse without one. To join a waitlist or publish a flat you need an account, a display name and a mobile number. Exact addresses and full listing details are only shown to signed-in people, which keeps homes off the open web.

Two at the same time. If you also have your own listing that is published and confirmed each week, the limit rises to eight. That is deliberate: people who open up their flat get more reach while they search for the next one.

No, and this is the part most people expect wrongly. A waitlist holds up to 20 interested people in no order. There is no position 1, no number to climb, nothing to buy and no ranking by profile, salary or how early you joined. Joining early does not beat joining late.

The lister adds the move date and real viewing slots, and every active member of the waitlist is notified at the same moment. From then you have 24 hours to book one of the open slots or decline. Slots are limited, so booking is first-come — but the starting gun goes off for everyone at once.

Decline. It costs you nothing, it is never held against you, and it frees your place for someone else. Declining is a normal, expected answer.

That is the one thing that has a consequence. Ignoring an invitation until the 24 hours run out records a strike, because a silent yes-maybe blocks a slot someone else wanted. Two strikes pause your waitlist access for 14 days. Declining, leaving a waitlist or saying you found a place never count as strikes — only silence does.

Choose Found a place. All your waitlists are cleared at once, with no strike, so nobody is holding a slot open for an answer that is not coming. Please use it — it is the single most useful thing you can do for everyone else on the site.

No. flatdibs gets you to the viewing early and on equal terms with everyone else on the list. The application and the final decision still happen the normal way, with the Verwaltung or the landlord. We have no influence over who they pick, and we would not claim otherwise.

Each listing has one shared chat for the lister and everyone on the waitlist. It is a broadcast room, not a private DM — write as if the whole waitlist is reading, because it is. That is intentional: an answer about the boiler or the Nebenkosten is useful to all 20 people, and nobody can get ahead by messaging privately. Once a listing is finished the chat becomes read-only for 30 days, then it is archived.

Save the search and keep an eye on it. Waitlists shrink again when people find places elsewhere, and you get a message when a spot opens on a flat you saved. You can keep up to five saved searches.

Yes — that is the whole point. Publish the flat while you are still looking for your own next home, so interest is already there on the day the move becomes real. Nothing is promised to anyone until you open viewings.

Publishing interest in a flat you rent is not the same as signing anyone up, and flatdibs is not a subletting tool. Only list a flat you are genuinely entitled to hand over or advertise, and check your own contract if you are unsure. The tenancy decision stays with the Verwaltung or landlord in every case.

Once a week we ask one short question: is this still accurate? It takes a moment and it is what keeps the listing worth trusting. You have 48 hours of grace after it is due. If a week goes by with no answer, the listing pauses automatically; after two weeks it is withdrawn. Nothing is lost — you can republish — but people are not left waiting on a listing nobody is tending.

You add the confirmed move date and the viewing slots you can actually host, each with the number of people it fits. Everyone still on your waitlist is invited at the same moment and books from the slots you set. You are not negotiating times with 20 people in 20 chats.

No, and that protects you as much as anyone. You host the viewings; the Verwaltung or landlord decides the tenancy. It means you do not have to referee competing offers, and nobody has a reason to pressure you.

Yes. While your listing is published and confirmed each week, you can hold eight waitlist places instead of two. Opening up your flat is what makes the next move possible for someone else, so it should not put you at a disadvantage while you search.

Nothing today — every part of the product is free to use, and there are no paid accounts or paid boosts. We may charge for something later; it would be dishonest to promise otherwise. But some things will never be for sale: a place on a waitlist, a better position, priority at a viewing, or being shown to a lister ahead of someone else. Those are free and equal by design, and paid access would break the only thing that makes flatdibs worth using.

Zürich, for now. The tools are built around how flats are actually handed over here, and we would rather be genuinely useful in one city than thin everywhere.

No, and if someone asks, report the listing. Furniture deals used as a price of entry are exactly the practice this product exists to work against. A flat handover and a furniture sale are two separate things. Reports are reviewed and listings that break this rule are taken down.

Every listing has a Report listing button. Use it for anything that feels off: a flat that does not exist, misleading details, furniture demanded as a condition, or discriminatory wording. Tell us what happened in the details field — it makes the review much faster.

Short version: we collect what the product needs to work, your phone number and salary range are never shown to other users, waitlists are never ordered by anything in your profile, and we do not sell data or run advertising cookies. The privacy policy has the full picture, including every provider we use.