Making new acquaintances in Paris

When moving to Paris, the to-do list is usually very long:

Finding an apartment

Handling all the paperwork

Activating your Navigo card to travel around Île-de-France

Navigating the crowded metro (and finding the right exit to a nice café!)

Ordering an internet box

Finding nice and affordable furniture

Hanging up your photos on the wall

Discovering cool places to eat, have a drink at a bar, or engage in sports...

If you're coming from abroad and don't speak French very well, you also need to start learning the language, and mastering it doesn't necessarily make the first metro rides any more enjoyable... Additionally, arriving in Paris without knowing anyone can lead to a bit of loneliness.

Fortunately, through sports activities, music, various classes, group outings, or community associations (of which Paris is not lacking), meeting new people becomes a bit easier. But before that, you already have to have connected your internet box, activated your Navigo pass, etc., before going to sign up in a nice place.

Let's not forget another nice way to make connections... dating apps and websites! Whether it's for romantic encounters or making friends, women or men, many apps promise their users a chance to expand their friendship network. These apps are useful for singles, but if you're not single or not looking for love, some platforms also list plenty of activities to meet people outside of the romantic aspect. In short, arriving in Paris without having studied there, without family or friends your age, and when you don't know anyone, can be a bit daunting. That's why at La Casa, we've taken matters into our own hands!

The starting point is quite simple: making connections in Paris when going through a professional or personal transition isn't easy. Adding to that, with a young professional's salary, finding decent accommodation is also quite a challenge. Despite all the housing websites and apps out there, a few extra tips are always helpful in this search.

Whether single or in a relationship, part of a group of friends who want to live close to each other, a fan of sports classes, photography, or fond of bars and cafes... The challenges are diverse! So, at La Casa, our offering includes over twenty coliving homes in the Paris suburbs to allow our future members to focus on what matters most: making connections and forging real friendships. From the design of our homes to the support we provide to roommates, everything is geared towards enabling them to make as many connections (both friendships and more, who knows?) and find their place in our community.

First and foremost, one of the main criteria for accepting an application for a Casa is MOTIVATION. If during the candidate's recruitment discussion, it is established that they are primarily looking for a place to crash, La Casa is not the right fit for them. Our roommates come for accommodation, of course, but also for the experience of making connections that La Casa offers. Moreover, our houses are designed to ensure roommates the best possible balance between individual privacy and group living.

When you have your own bedroom and bathroom, you can enjoy group moments even more in the beautiful common areas of the Casas designed for communal living. Say goodbye to the struggles of student apartment sharing where a shared bathroom among four roommates was more of a hassle than enjoyable moments spent together. Additionally, all our roommates sign a common cohabitation charter on shared rules. Yes, let's make connections, but let's organize ourselves! How many guests can each roommate have at home? How do we manage activities, games, meet-ups, remote work, laundry...

The staff offers roommates comprehensive support to help them manage these issues together. And what happens when a room becomes available? Once again, it's an opportunity to make connections, as the staff introduces pre-selected candidates for the vacant room to the roommates. Meet-ups are usually enjoyable moments where roommates and candidates get to know each other over a drink. And in the end, it's the roommates who have the final say in the choice, to ensure a good atmosphere in their community, all accompanied by the best advice from the staff.

Living in a Casa means making lots of connections. You meet your roommates (duh!), but also your roommates' friends, and their friends' friends, men, women, couples or singles, all seeking friendships or outing advice. And beyond your Casa, you also meet people throughout the InterCasas community.

As of April 2022, 22 houses are open for a total of 360 roommates... that's a lot of potential encounters! On the staff side, one of our main missions is to offer the community opportunities to meet each other, which is why we regularly organize InterCasas events. After-work gatherings, big parties, days out together... Various formats have been devised to suit all tastes.

The staff selects the best bars, venues, and cafes to encourage encounters among La Casa roommates. Men, women, older or within the average age of the roommates, singles looking for love or seeking new friendships.

But we are far from being the only actors in the community's life. Roommates take the lead in proposing ideas on how to enliven their community and facilitate encounters between houses. That's why, for the past 2 years, InterCasas clubs have been gathering roommates based on shared interests. Any roommate can create a club, and it's shared with the community.

Today, La Casa's most active clubs include climbing, art culture for art enthusiasts, padel... On the La Casa team side, we encourage roommates to structure and promote these initiatives without intervening in their content. Because our roommates are such a source of ideas, we regularly involve them in co-creating the La Casa experience with us. These staff/roommate brainstorming sessions are not only opportunities to reflect on our model together but also to make connections and get to know each other.

Indeed, it's essential for us to redefine our role as landlords to offer roommates a different and better housing experience than what they may have experienced before. That's why onboarding sessions are regularly organized to meet new roommates and help them navigate this new environment! Since the beginning of La Casa, we've had several opportunities to ask for their feedback to understand how to improve our model.

The current InterCasas events model was designed after a brainstorming session held last July between the staff and a representative from each open Casa (and we went for drinks afterward, of course ;)!)

To assist us in this task and to address the motivation of some of our roommates, we launched the La Casa Ambassadors program in January 2022. Our Ambassador roommates then become privileged contacts for the staff to advance our offerings and promote them. On the staff side, we strive to stay as close as possible to the roommates, and increasing these opportunities for contact is our number one goal. To meet new people and join our InterCasas community, submit your application!