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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Nia Price & Courtney Pochin

Woman branded 'marketing genius' after sharing ad to find new housemate on Grindr

When looking for a new place to live, you might check sites like SpareRoom and RightMove, but it's not often you'd think to look on a dating app.

But a trio of them have been hailed 'marketing geniuses' after sharing their room for rent advert on Grindr.

Cliodhna Heffernan said a room became available in their female-only house and wanting to 'change things up a bit' they set out to find a male housemate to bring a little 'masculine energy' to the place.

However, posting their ad on the usual platforms didn't help them find that special someone who would be the 'right fit'.

So they decided to take a very different approach.

The girls were inundated with responses to their ad (Kennedy News and Media)

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Cliodhna, told how her gay best friend suggested they advertise the vacancy on Grindr, a dating app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people, which she did on Wednesday, February 2.

And when the buying assistant woke up the next morning, she'd been inundated with hundreds of messages from prospective housemates.

She'd also inadvertently gone viral, as someone using the app had shared screenshots of the advert on Twitter, which garnered more than 22,000 likes and retweets.

The 27-year-old, from Birmingham, West Midlands, said: "We had a house with four girls and one of them was moving out.

The ad went viral (Kennedy News and Media)

"We weren't adamant that we wanted a male to move in, but we thought it would be a nice change to bring a bit of masculine energy into the house and change things up.

"It was never a discussion of 'oh we want a gay man', it was just 'oh we want a man'.

"We had guys come to the house and it just wasn't the right fit and I had a discussion with my gay best friend last night [WEDS] and was just saying we hadn't found anybody yet and he was like 'why don't you just make a profile and advertise on Grindr?'

"I'd never thought about taking that approach before. Obviously, we'd had it up on SpareRoom so I didn't really think anything of it and just made the profile."

Cliodhna said she moved into her current house in Birmingham in August before 28-year-old hairdresser Ellis Henry and 25-year-old sales operation manager Shannon Creen joined her a month later.

Twitter users thought it was 'marketing genius' (Kennedy News and Media)

She explained: "I've seen comments from people saying 'oh, these girls are just looking for a gay best friend' and it wasn't like we'd sat around and been like 'oh my God, how can we become friends with a gay man?' It wasn't like that at all.

"I suppose the whole process behind it was, a lot of my close friends over here are gay and we are very involved in the gay community so every weekend since I've come over [from Ireland], we've gone out in the gay village in Birmingham.

"It just felt like exploring that option would be a good idea and a gay man would probably be a good fit.

"But in saying that, I did have guys message me on Grindr who said that they were straight or bisexual and asked 'are you just looking for a gay man?' and I made that clear 'no, we weren't specifically looking for a gay man, we were looking for anybody'.

"Our main thing is that we are a very social house. There's always somebody there, a lot of us work from home most of the time and we just want somebody who's going to be that fit.

"I feel like I've gotten so lucky in the house that I've moved in at the minute that we all moved in and just clicked, and we're looking for that person that's outgoing, fun and going to fit in."

A screenshot of Cliodhna's Grindr profile, which shared a photo of her alongside Ellis and Shannon, was shared on Twitter where it captured the attention of thousands.

The advert read: "Three girls in their mid to late 20s, young professionals, looking to fill a room in Moseley centre. Modern house, social and good vibes xx"

One Twitter user wrote: "Queens, I'd move in."

Another replied: "That's actually so cool esp considering how hard it can be for men and queer angels to find roommates sometimes. Marketing genius."

While a third commented: "All I see is INTELLIGENCE."

Someone else remarked: "10/10 would move there."

A different user tweeted: "How much is the room p/m and is it en-suite, asking for a friend."

"We have no choice but to stan," added a sixth.

Grindr have been contacted for comment.

Do you have a story to share? We want to hear all about it. Email us at yourmirror@mirror.co.uk

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