PRESS & MEDIA

July 2, 2026 — Charli Sharp, Founder and CEO of Roamate™, has been named to the inaugural V-List Entrepreneur Awards. The prestigious list—known as the V-200—recognizes 200 visionary women entrepreneurs across the United States who are building businesses that put people before profit.

Selected from a highly competitive pool of nearly 1,000 applicants, the V-200 honors founders whose companies demonstrate mission-driven leadership, meaningful community impact, and a commitment to genuinely serving the people behind their brands.

For Sharp and Roamate, a global travel technology company on a mission to End the Solo Tax™, this recognition caps off a year of significant momentum. In addition to securing a 2026 Bronze Stevie® Award for Startup of the Year, Roamate recently launched a suite of industry-first features—Helping Hand, Open Arms, and Roaming to Remember—specifically designed to make solo travel more accessible and inclusive.

“People-first means designing for the people who have historically been overlooked. Whether it's someone paying the Solo Tax, navigating a disability, carrying grief, or simply not having someone to travel with, our mission has always been to build technology that gives people more freedom, not more barriers,” said Sharp. “I'm honored to be recognized alongside founders using business as a force for meaningful change."

"The idea behind the V-List really came down to wanting to create a platform to recognize business owners who are operating with human-first business practices," said Adriane Galea, founder of Visionaries. "I love seeing women make incredible, life-changing money, and absolutely want to see more money in the hands of people who are genuinely impact-driven, but I also believe in being mindful of not putting the importance of profit and growth over the importance of serving the people—team members and customers—who make our businesses possible."

The full V-200 is published at visionaries.co/entrepreneur-awards.

Public voting for the People's Choice Award opens July 6 and runs through July 20. Additional Spotlight Award winners will be announced during the Visionaries Conference on September 29 in Los Angeles.

June 16, 2026 — Roamate™, the 2026 Stevie® Award-winning global travel technology company on a mission to End the Solo Tax™, today announced three new features—Helping Hand, Roaming to Remember, and Open Arms—making Roamate the first platform to offer peer-to-peer matching for accessible and grief-focused solo travel. Powered by Roamate's patent-pending matching algorithm, these three platform features are designed to help solo travelers find companionship and connection around accessibility needs, grief, and inclusion.

The rollout reflects Roamate’s view that the Solo Tax is not only financial, but emotional, social, and structural. It manifests as the extra cost, effort, and uncertainty placed on people who travel outside the industry’s long-standing default—a systemic penalty Roamate refers to as the Exception Tax.

“The current standards of travel were built for a specific type of default,” said Charli Sharp, Founder and CEO of Roamate. “We are challenging that standard by recognizing that the barriers to traveling solo go far beyond higher pricing. For those outside the industry mold, the Solo Tax can become an Accessibility Gap for disabled travelers, a Disclosure Tax for LGBTQIA+ individuals, and an Emotional Burden for those who are grieving. We are building the infrastructure so that solo travelers are no longer considered the exception, but rather the default.”

The urgency of this mission is underscored by shifting global demographics. According to the 2026 AARP Travel Trends, 15% of travelers aged 50+ now require specific accessibility accommodations. Despite this, a recent StatCan study reveals that nearly half (up to 46%) of travelers with disabilities are discouraged from booking trips due to a lack of support.

Roamate is closing this gap by integrating these new features directly into its Solo but Shared™ ecosystem:

• Helping Hand (Accessible Solo Travel): Addresses a fundamental limitation in the global accessible tourism market. Blind, deaf, and disabled solo travelers can now use Roamate's compatibility engine to connect with peer-to-peer companions who can provide visual, hearing, mobility, or other practical travel support—eliminating the need to hire expensive professional assistance or cover the full cost of a second traveler.
• Open Arms (LGBTQIA+ Inclusion): Addresses the “Disclosure Tax.” Instead of placing the burden on marginalized individuals to signal their identity, Open Arms allows allies to proactively signal they are inclusive companions. This integration enables LGBTQIA+ solo travelers to see inclusive and welcoming matches.
• Roaming to Remember (Grief Travel): Born from Sharp’s personal experience following the loss of her sisters, Destiny and Shannon. Outside of expensive, structured grief retreats, the industry offers little support for travel shaped by loss. This feature creates a network for travelers to connect with others who understand that a trip is not always celebratory, allowing them to travel on their own terms.

“When you lose a partner, navigate a disability, or carry grief into the world with you, the industry often leaves you on an island,” Sharp added. “Roamate has always stood for being solo but shared. Now, with our added product features, we are making sure travelers are also solo but seen.”

Roamate plans to establish Roamate for All, a future nonprofit initiative created in honor of Shannon. Reflecting Shannon’s connection to volunteering, the initiative will help fund travel for disabled, grieving, and underserved travelers who need financial assistance beyond peer-to-peer support.

April 24, 2026 — Roamate™ has been named a winner in the 24th Annual American Business Awards®, earning a Bronze Stevie® Award for its “Solo but Shared” travel platform. Recognized as a Startup of the Year in the Consumer Services Industry Category, Roamate is being celebrated for its innovative approach to dismantling the “Solo Tax”—the financial penalty solo travelers pay for roaming alone—and for challenging the $1.2 trillion travel industry.

The American Business Awards are the premier business awards program in the United States. While more than 3,600 nominations were submitted across all categories this year, Roamate emerged as a standout for its impact on the travel sector. The awards are nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word meaning crowned. Winners will be celebrated at a gala ceremony at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York on Tuesday, June 9.

Roamate’s nomination was praised by judges as an “excellent solution addressing a real problem with real impact,” with the committee noting that the platform represents “necessary infrastructure” for the modern travel market. Judges specifically highlighted Roamate’s intersection of human behavior and systems design, calling it a “brilliant consumer travel concept” that provides a solid foundation for long-term industry disruption.

“To have Roamate recognized by an organization that honors the world’s largest and most established corporations is a true honor and a significant milestone for us. The American Business Awards represent the gold standard of professional excellence, and being named a Startup of the Year validates the importance of our mission to End the Solo Tax. This award recognizes that our Solo but Shared model is the necessary innovation to ensure the right to explore isn't restricted by a tax on human difference.”

— Charli Sharp, Founder and CEO of Roamate

More than 250 professionals worldwide participated in the judging process to select this year’s Stevie Award winners.

“Organizations across the United States continue to set a high standard for innovation and performance,” said Stevie Awards President Maggie Miller. “The breadth and quality of nominations submitted to the 2026 American Business Awards reflect a dynamic and competitive business environment. We congratulate all of this year’s Stevie Award winners and look forward to celebrating their accomplishments at our June 9 awards ceremony in New York.”

Details about The American Business Awards and the list of 2026 Stevie winners are available at www.ABA.StevieAwards.com.

March 30, 2026 — Roamate™, the platform behind the global End the Solo Tax™ movement, today officially launched its “Refund Campaign,” a marketing initiative designed to spotlight the hidden costs solo travelers face due to industry-wide pricing structures built for pairs.

As millions of consumers prepare their annual tax filings, Roamate is drawing attention to a different kind of financial burden: the cumulative impact of single supplements—additional costs imposed on travelers who choose to explore the world alone.

The campaign invites solo travelers to participate by calculating their estimated lifetime “Solo Tax” using Roamate’s proprietary calculator and submitting an entry through the campaign page. To support the movement, Roamate will award selected eligible participants digital gift cards with values of up to $500 as a symbolic acknowledgment of the additional costs solo travelers have historically paid.

“I have personally paid more than $20,000 in Solo Tax in just the last four years. This campaign isn’t about reimbursement — it’s about visibility. When pricing is built around two people, solo travelers are effectively charged for a ‘Ghost Passenger.’ We’re making that math impossible to ignore.”

— Charli Sharp, Founder and CEO of Roamate

How the Refund Campaign Works

From now until April 15, 2026, participants can take part in the campaign by:

• Using the Roamate Solo Tax Calculator to estimate historical solo travel costs.
• Completing and submitting the campaign entry form at roamateapp.com/refund.
• Creating a Roamate profile (bio + photo).

A free Alternative Method of Entry (AMOE) is also available via email or mail. See Official Rules for full details.

The data gathered during this period will inform Roamate’s upcoming “State of the Solo Tax” white paper, designed to provide radical visibility into “Couple Mode” pricing—the industry default that frequently doubles the cost for those traveling alone.

This initiative follows the successful global launch of Roamate’s compatibility-based matching platform. By allowing travelers to share costs intentionally through a “solo but shared” model, Roamate ensures users only pay for the space they actually occupy.

Submissions are now open at roamateapp.com/refund through April 15, 2026. Selected participants may be notified on a rolling basis, subject to eligibility and verification.

March 20, 2026 — Roamate™, the compatibility-based travel platform redefining how the world travels solo, has been named a Platinum winner for Best Mobile App by BestMobileAppAwards.com for February 2026.

The recognition marks a major milestone for Roamate as it continues building a new category in travel centered on one of the industry’s most overlooked problems: the higher costs routinely faced by solo travelers. Across hotels, cruises, tours, and other travel experiences, pricing is often built around double occupancy, leaving those who travel alone to pay disproportionately more. Roamate was created to challenge that model.

Built around a “solo but shared” approach, Roamate gives travelers a smarter way to connect with compatible people, split costs, and coordinate trips without giving up independence. Rather than forcing travelers into traditional group tours or depending on friends’ schedules, the platform offers a more flexible, user-driven way to travel.

Roamate’s features, including RoamList, RoamBoard, RoamPlanner, and optional Cleared to Roam™ verification, help users find compatible travel companions, plan shared trips, and connect with greater confidence. Cleared to Roam™ adds an optional layer of trust through third-party background verification, reinforcing the platform’s focus on safety and intentional connection.

The award comes at a time when solo travel continues to expand globally, even as industry pricing structures remain largely unchanged. Roamate is designed to give solo travelers more control over how they plan, pay for, and experience travel, while directly addressing the structural pricing gap that inspired the company’s End the Solo Tax™ mission.

February 23, 2026 — Roamate™, the platform behind the global End the Solo Tax movement, announced today significant enhancements to its safety and moderation infrastructure. The upgrades reinforce the company’s commitment to creating a trusted environment for solo travelers coordinating real-world trips and shared accommodations.

The new systems expand Roamate’s prevention-first approach, combining artificial intelligence, human oversight, and platform design features to limit harmful interactions before they reach users. Unlike traditional social platforms that rely primarily on reactive reporting, Roamate focuses on intercepting problematic content at the point of transmission.

“Solo travel coordination involves real-world plans, shared accommodations, and shared costs. That requires a specialized level of infrastructure. Safety cannot be an afterthought. It must be built into the foundation of how people connect.”

— Charli Sharp, Founder and CEO of Roamate

While most online platforms follow a reactive model—where content is reported only after it has been seen—Roamate’s real-time analysis evaluates messages and images instantly. This allows the platform to block content that violates community guidelines before it reaches another user’s inbox.

This infrastructure is specifically designed to address the risks of coordinating travel with strangers, a task for which traditional social media groups and forums were not originally built.

Roamate’s Moderation Framework

• AI-Powered Scanning: Real-time evaluation of text and images for harassment, solicitation, and inappropriate material.
• Image Moderation: Automated review of profile photos and media to prevent misuse.
• Human Oversight: Trained reviewers evaluate flagged content to identify complex behavioral patterns that automated systems may miss.
• Gated Messaging: Direct messaging is accessible via a premium subscription, a friction-point designed to discourage bots and low-intent users.
• Verification Tools: The optional "Cleared to Roam" feature provides identity verification through criminal background checks.

As solo travel continues to grow globally, Roamate remains committed to investing in safety as a core pillar of its product development.

January 12, 2026 — More than 200 million people travel solo each year, making solo travelers one of the fastest-growing segments in global tourism, with the market projected to exceed $1 trillion by 2030. Yet the travel industry remains built around a two-person minimum, leaving solo travelers overpaying and navigating systems never designed for how they actually travel. Today, Roamate™, a global travel brand redefining solo travel, launches to correct that imbalance.

Built to End the Solo Tax™, Roamate connects compatible solo travelers through a purpose-built travel platform and network now available worldwide on the Apple App Store and Google Play. The platform introduces a new way to roam called Solo but Shared—a travel category that allows solo travelers to keep their independence while selectively sharing costs, experiences, or companionship on their own terms.

Solo travel has long carried five structural penalties: higher costs, safety risk, planning friction, compatibility guesswork, and a constant tradeoff between independence and connection. Roamate addresses all five through a single system built specifically for solo travelers, combining compatibility-led matching, integrated trip coordination, and Cleared to Roam™, an optional criminal background-check status that unlocks access to a verified traveler network. The result is infrastructure that makes Solo but Shared viable at scale, without requiring travelers to give up autonomy.

“Solo travelers aren’t a niche. We’re a global force, and it’s time the industry caught up. We don’t need more workarounds or group trips labeled ‘solo-friendly.’ We need infrastructure designed for how people actually travel today. End the Solo Tax names the problem. Solo but Shared is how we fix it.”

— Charli Sharp, Founder and CEO of Roamate

Roamate was founded after Sharp lost both of her sisters just three weeks apart and began traveling alone as a way to survive grief. In the four years that followed, she paid more than $20,000 in solo surcharges—an experience that exposed the financial and structural penalties embedded in modern travel and helped shape Roamate’s mission.

The Global Movement to End the Solo Tax

End the Solo Tax™ is Roamate’s global movement to expose and correct one of travel’s most persistent structural failures: an industry designed for pairs and groups in a world where hundreds of millions of people travel alone.

Cruise Critic and other industry reporting show that single supplement fees can raise cruise fares by as much as 200% for solo travelers, while limited solo-friendly inventory across hotels and tours continues to restrict access. In 2025, the Solo Tax surfaced publicly in airfare pricing when investigative reporting revealed that select routes priced solo tickets significantly higher than the per-person cost for two travelers booking the same itinerary. Following public criticism, Delta and United rolled back the specific fare structures highlighted in the reporting, underscoring the impact of naming the problem.

Democratizing Double Occupancy

Roamate expands access to double occupancy in a travel industry built around two people. Hotels, rentals, and cruise cabins cost the same whether occupied by one person or two, yet solo travelers are routinely required to absorb the full price. By enabling compatible solo travelers to safely share accommodations, Roamate turns unused capacity into a shared asset—allowing travelers to reduce costs while maintaining independence. Rather than waiting for suppliers to change pricing models, Roamate enables a consumer-led correction to a system that has long excluded solo travelers.

A New Safety Standard for Solo Travel

Safety remains the top barrier to solo travel, particularly for women. Cleared to Roam™ is Roamate’s industry-first safety status earned through an optional criminal background check, designed for shared travel contexts. It goes beyond basic identity checks common across consumer platforms by shifting safety from a personal burden to a shared standard, giving travelers greater confidence when deciding who to travel with.

Why Solo Travelers Are the Industry’s Most Undervalued Customers

Solo travelers have long been treated as “half-customers,” yet spending data shows they consistently outspend couples on a per-person basis across dining, experiences, wellness, and ancillary services. By enabling solo travelers to self-organize—sharing accommodations or plans without sacrificing independence—Roamate unlocks discretionary spend that has historically been absorbed by inflated base costs. For travel brands, the implication is clear: two solo travelers sharing a room do not behave like one couple, and often generate higher total on-property revenue than the industry has recognized.