GREECE, October, 2025; Rents have climbed and listings remain fragmented, pushing more people toward shared apartments in Greece. For anyone trying to rent apartment in Athens, the hard part is not finding four walls; it is finding a person whose routine will not turn month three into another search. StayDuo, a Greek startup, targets that gap with a simple workflow: AI roommate matching, an optional verification step, and a one-page digital rental agreement in plain language.
Founder Kevin Varkelos says the company started with a modest claim. “Most conflicts are foreseeable. If you surface differences early and write down what people intend to do in shared spaces, shared housing becomes easier to manage.”
The product asks for practical, observable inputs that tend to decide whether a household works. Users set budget and move-in dates, then add quiet-hours windows, cleanliness expectations, guest frequency, smoking rules, kitchen use, languages, and communication style. A constraint filter removes non-starters such as budget, dates, or no-smoking. A lightweight learning-to-rank layer orders the remaining options by day-to-day compatibility. Each suggestion shows a short reason to matches your quiet-hours window, low guest frequency, rather than an opaque score. The AI is assistive, not predictive.
Between a match and move-in, households can add a consent-based verification when situations call for extra assurance, such as long-distance moves or short sublets. The platform records that a check occurred and when it expires but avoids a mandatory identity wall. The final step is a one-page agreement that captures duration, shared costs and cadence, visitor policy, quiet hours, and cleaning rhythm. It is signed electronically and editable later by mutual consent. It does not replace a lease; it records intent.
StayDuo positions itself where individuals coordinate directly rather than through agencies. That includes student housing and early-career relocations, as well as newcomers testing a neighborhood before a long lease. Initial coverage is Greece-wide with discovery pages rolling out for Athens, Thessaloniki, Patra, Volos, and Crete. For readers searching co-living in Greece, rooms for rent in Greece, or a roommate app Greece, the emphasis is on reducing mismatches rather than maximizing listings.
The team tracks outcomes tied to real households: match-acceptance rate, agreement completion, early edits to house rules as a risk signal, and post-move-in dispute reports. “We do not optimize for clicks or chat time,” Varkelos says. “We track whether households hold together.”
On the technical posture, StayDuo favors interpretable features over model complexity and falls back to transparent rules where data is thin. For higher-trust scenarios, the company is piloting third-party, consent-based background checks with limited scope and retention to align with GDPR and anti-discrimination rules. The goal is proportional safety that does not exclude people unfairly.
Distribution mirrors the product’s restraint. Rather than broad national advertising, the team works through student associations, newcomer networks, and local housing forums. Core discovery remains accessible; revenue comes from optional tools already familiar in other marketplaces—advanced filters, profile boosts, and verification on demand. That model means someone trying to rent apartment in Athens can search, match, and agree without a paywall, while households wanting more speed or assurance can add paid features.
A typical journey is straightforward. A user sets constraints and routines, receives a short list with reasons, confirms expectations in chat, and signs a one-page agreement. If circumstances change, participants update terms by consent. The outcome is not perfection; it is operational clarity.
About StayDuo
StayDuo is a co-living matchmaking and home management platform that helps individuals find roommates compatible in habits, values, and lifestyles. With identity verification, smart matching, digital contracts, and built-in shared home tools, StayDuo makes shared living safer, clearer, and more human.
More information and product updates are available at https://www.stayduo.gr/
Press contact StayDuo Global I K E Syngrou Avenue 106 Athens 11741 Greece Website https://www.stayduo.gr
Email [email protected]
Phone +30 210 0140 323
