How we order the cards

1. The deck

Strehana shows one deck, one card at a time, on the website and in the app. It holds two kinds of cards: cards of people looking for a room or a flatmate, and room listings.

Which cards go into the deck and in what order is decided automatically by our server, by the rules below. There is no randomness in the order. You cannot choose a different kind of ordering.

When you view «All», rooms and people alternate: three listings, then one person. If one kind runs out, the deck continues with the other. With «Rooms» or «People» you see only one kind.

If you have a published room listing, your deck shows only people.

2. What you do not see at all

These are filters. A card that does not pass them is not shown, whatever its place in the order. People who have already liked you pass some of them (section 3, step 1).

• Only active cards and listings. A new card or listing is shown as soon as it is published.
• Your own card and your own listings are not shown.
• If you are signed in, you do not see people with whom there is a block in either direction, nor their listings.
• You do not see cards and listings you have already decided on: a pass or a like (section 5).
• Listings with no free room are not shown.
• Places. If your search has places selected, listings must be inside them: in the rectangular area covering the selected neighbourhood or city, or in a circle around a selected point. A person's card is shown if at least one of the places on it overlaps such an area, so you may also see people looking in neighbouring places. With no place selected, the deck covers the whole country.
• Room price. Listings whose lowest price is above the upper limit in your search are not shown. If you have a card, the deck starts with a limit equal to the budget on your card.
• People's budget. If you have no published listing, the price in your search does not hide people. If you have a listing, the upper price limit is read as the smallest budget you are looking for. If, in addition, you have no card, you also do not see people whose budget is below half the rent of your cheapest free room; the higher of the two limits applies. The lower price limit, which can be set in the app, hides people whose budget is below it and does not affect listings.
• Searching together. If you have no published listing, you see only people who are open to looking for a home together with someone. If you have a listing, you see everyone who is looking, and with «Open to teaming up» only those who are open.
• Conditions for people. «Roommates» (Women or Men) shows only people of that gender, «Non-smokers only» hides people who smoke, and the move-in month hides people whose date is outside it. A card on which any of this is not stated stays and is marked. «Non-smokers only» applies to people only if you are signed in.
• Conditions for listings. «Pets welcome», «Non-smokers only», «No children at home» and «Roommates» hide listings that contradict them. A listing on which any of this is not stated stays and is marked.
• «Verified only» shows only people, and listings of hosts, with the verified identity badge.
• The move-in month and «Furnished room» do not currently hide or order room listings.

3. In what order

Among the cards that pass the filters, the order is decided step by step. Each next step decides only between cards that are equal on the previous ones, so the higher steps weigh more.

People's cards

• 1. They liked you. If someone has liked your card and is waiting for an answer, that person's card comes first, because your answer is a match. It is shown even when it does not fit the places, budget, date, gender or smoking in your search. This applies when you are signed in and have a card.
• 2. Filter fit. If your search has a move-in month, «Roommates» or «Non-smokers only», cards that confirm all of this come first, then those on which something is not stated.
• 3. Budget closeness. How close the person's budget is to the budget on your card, or, if you have no card but have a listing, to the rent of your cheapest free room. We measure in tenths: with equal budgets it is 10 out of 10, and when one budget is twice the other, 5 out of 10.
• 4. Move-in date closeness. We compare with the date on your card or, if you have no card, with the date your listing is free from. We measure how close the person's date is, within a 60-day window, again in tenths. A card without a date gets 5 out of 10. If you have no date, this step does not apply.
• 5. Distance. We measure from the first place in your search; if there is none, from the first place on your card; if you have no card, from your listing. We count to the nearest of the places on the person's card, in steps of 2 km. A card with no places comes last.
• 6. How often the card has been seen. Cards seen fewer times in the deck come earlier. We count in groups of five sightings, and from 50 sightings up there is no difference. This gives less-seen cards a chance, but only among cards that are equal on steps 1 to 5.
• 7. Profile completeness. How complete the person's profile is, from 0 to 100 points: name 10, photo 15, text about themselves 10 (5 if under 50 characters), date of birth 5, gender 5, languages 5, verified identity 15, habits up to 20, personality traits 8, interests 7.
• 8. Newness. Newer cards come before older ones.

Room listings

• 1. They invited you. If a host has liked your card and is waiting for an answer, that host's listings come first, because your application is a match. Unlike people, they go through all the filters.
• 2. Filter fit. If your search has «Pets welcome», «Non-smokers only», «No children at home» or «Roommates», listings that confirm all of this come first.
• 3. Rent closeness. If you have a card, how close the rent is to the budget on it, again in tenths. As a listing's rent we take the lowest rent among its rooms.
• 4. Distance, from the same point as for people, in steps of 2 km. A listing without a location comes last.
• 5. Newness. Newer listings come before older ones.

For listings there is no step for how often they have been seen, nor for profile completeness.

For the order we do not use what a person's age is, or what their habits, languages or interests are. These count only by whether they are filled in (step 7 for people). Gender and smoking come in only as filters. We also do not use how long you look at a card.

4. Paid positions

A host can feature their listing, and a person with a card can feature their card, for a fee, for 7 or 30 days. A listing can also be featured with a promo code, and a listing or a card free of charge by our team; such a listing or card is ordered and marked like any paid one.

Featured listings and cards are not in the ordinary order. They take separate paid positions: the second card in the deck, then every fourth (6th, 10th and so on), counted from the start of the load. When there are few ordinary cards, a paid card may also come first.

There is a paid position only if there is a featured listing or card that passes your filters. Payment buys the position, not a way around the filters. If there is none, an ordinary card takes the position.

When there are several paid items, listings come first in the order from section 3, then people's cards in the order from section 3. The start of this list moves every hour, so that the first paid position goes to each payer in turn. Within one load, each paid card is shown at most once.

A paid card is not hidden because it has already been seen: it may appear again on the next load. A paid person's card does not come back after a pass or a like. A paid listing may appear again in a paid position even after a pass or an application, when your search has a place selected.

Featured listings and featured person cards are marked with the label «Promoted» and a thicker amber border.

Nobody can pay to change the order of the ordinary cards. Featuring gives only a paid position.

5. What passing and liking change

• Pass. The card leaves your deck. If you are signed in, the pass is kept on the server until you undo it. On your device it is kept for 30 days.
• «Undo» undoes the last pass, only one, and the card comes back at once.
• When the deck runs out, «See the ones you skipped» brings back every passed card. Likes stay.
• Like (an invite, a buddy-up or an application to a listing). The card does not come back to the deck, even if you later withdraw the invite, the buddy-up or the application. A like cannot be undone from the deck.
• A card with no decision. While you browse, the deck does not hand you again cards already handed to you in the last hour. On a new load, cards with no decision come back at their place in the order. So a person who has liked you stays first until you answer, pass the card, or the like is withdrawn.
• When you are signed in and see a person's card, this counts towards its sightings (section 3, step 6).

Daily contact limit

Passes are unlimited. Likes are contacts and have a limit over the last 24 hours, which grows in steps: without an account 3; with an account 6; with a published card or listing 12; with a published card or listing and a complete profile (at least 50 of 100 points) 20; with that and a published listing or a verified identity 40; with a complete profile, a published listing and a verified identity 60.

A like that answers someone else's like (a match) does not count, and neither do accepting and declining. Without an account, likes are kept on your device and sent when you sign in; they then count towards the account's limit.

6. Without an account

Without an account, the server does not keep your likes and passes. So steps 1, 3 and 4 do not apply to people, steps 1 and 3 do not apply to listings, and distance is measured only from a place selected in your search. The deck starts for the whole country, with no places selected.

You see only people open to searching together, and «Non-smokers only» does not apply to people.

Passes are kept only on your device, for 30 days; after that a passed card may come back. Up to 3 likes are kept on the device and sent when you sign in.

Everyone without an account who uses the same filters sees the first page of the deck in the same order, except the paid positions, whose order moves every hour.

7. Other lists

• Applications to your listing. On the applications page, boosted applications (a paid service for 7 days, which can also come from a promo code or from our team) come first and are marked «Boosted». After them, applications are ordered by how complete the applicant's profile is. The compatibility score you see there does not affect the order.
• On the website, in «Inbox», received boosted applications come first, then applications by last change, newest first. Received invites come before sent ones, newest first.
• On the website, the strip of people waiting for your answer runs from newest to oldest. There a boosted application has no advantage.
• Conversations are ordered by latest activity.
• Favourite listings run from the most recently added.
• Outside the deck, on the pages that present Strehana, we show a few people's cards chosen at random, with those with more details filled in first. Featuring gives no advantage there.
• On the website, if the selected place has no room listing at all, we show the nearest listing outside it.

8. What is up to you

• The filters: places, price, move-in month, «Roommates», the household conditions, «Verified only», and the choice between «All», «Rooms» and «People». If you have a card, the deck starts with the places and budget from it; on the website, if you have a listing, it starts with the people around your listing. You can remove these filters.
• Your card: its budget, places and date are the basis for closeness in section 3.
• Your profile: the more complete it is, the further forward your card is among cards equal on steps 1 to 6, and the higher your daily limit can be.
• Your decisions: like, pass, «Undo» and «See the ones you skipped». Whom to like is your decision; the ordering decides only what you see first.