Press

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,” said Charli Sharp, founder and CEO of Roamate. “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.”

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 http://www.roamateapp.com/refund through April 15, 2026. Selected participants may be notified on a rolling basis, subject to eligibility and verification.

Roamate’s “Refund Campaign” is a private promotional campaign and not a tax refund, reimbursement program, or government claim process. Roamate is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or any government agency. Terms such as “refund,” “claim,” and “Solo Tax” are promotional language only. Rewards, if any, are discretionary, not guaranteed, and subject to Official Rules.

Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Open only to eligible adults in eligible, non-excluded jurisdictions. Free alternative method of entry available.

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,” said Charli Sharp, founder and CEO of Roamate. “That requires a specialized level of infrastructure. Safety cannot be an afterthought. It must be built into the foundation of how people connect.”

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 utilizes multiple layers of protection to maintain a travel-focused environment:

• 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,” said Charli Sharp, founder and CEO of Roamate. “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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.