I honestly really like these types of shared temp offices. I've used them before, but my work won't reimburse me for their use, and they cost more than a coffee shop.
Some coffee shops in my area also have built in meeting rooms at very reasonable prices.
All true, but my local coffeeshop has a meeting room you can rent out (or, if you buy $20/hour in drinks, it's free, just reserve it). I have no idea how often it's rented out, but it's certainly used at least occasionally. I think a lot of coffeeshops could do that, depending on their layout (this place has one room that's on the other side of the register from the rest of the shop, so it works well). No idea how that compares to WeWork in regards to price. I'm solo, so I just sit at a table.
I wonder if there's a market for a coffee shop that has small, private office spaces available, perhaps available for free or for an hourly rent.
These might be the size of a typical restaurant booth (or a bit larger), but would be enclosed spaces that allow you to block out noise and distractions.
It wouldn't even need to be a coffee shop; maybe something like a capsule hotel for workspaces.
The co-working spaces around Seattle offer a dedicated (professional looking) space for meetings wired up for tele/videoconferencing. Hell, even a coffee shop could offer those, with proper reservations and a small deposit. Sure, the ones here have "quiet rooms", but those aren't reservable, to my knowledge.
Temporary office spaces have been a thing in a lot of places for a long time.
I have no idea about your town in particular, but there's a company called Regus who have a presence in the US, UK, France, Australia, Singapore, Japan ... actually according to their website they're in 120 countries.
They are not cool. They are not new. They have not spun themselves a reputation of being an awesome, new, disruptive, special, fun, aspirational, Silicon Valley tech-adjacent service like WeWork did. But if you want an office or a meeting room for a day or a week or a month, they can do it.
Having used their services in the past, the rise of WeWork was massively surprising to me. It was touted as disruptive, as new, as amazing! It's gonna be huge! But there are already these boring companies doing this exact thing, boringly, making money but hardly earth-shattering. I guess it's testimony to Neumann's charisma as much as anything else.
A lot of places do also have more casual co-working spaces. Worth looking to see if there's one near you. You mention coffee shops - in Southampton UK, where I lived pre-pandemic, one of the coffee shops took the initiative to open a co-working space on an upper floor. Which would have been a great business move if the pandemic hadn't hit and f*cked everything.
(edit - I am rate limited so cannot reply below, but I wanted to add that I have used Regus in Australia as a private individual with a credit card. Obviously I don't know how it works in every country, but here it seems to be very easy)
There are a few around. 21st Street Coffee in Pittsburgh is one example (http://21streetcoffee.com/). Their main area on the 1st floor is for regular customers, but they have a large upstairs loft outfitted with your typical coworking desks, chairs, couches, etc and access to wifi. I think it's something like $10/day for the coworking space and that also gives you a 20%(?) discount on coffee, etc.
Co-working spaces are useful when an extra bedroom would cost you $500/mo (or much more) anyway.
Libraries where I live have limited seating. Cafes can be really hit or miss in terms of power outlets, large enough desk space, and noise. Both don't have 24/7 access, nor do they allow you to set up a workstation with monitors.
They are not worthwhile if you have ample space in your home and only desire to get out a few hours a week to a cafe.
> Maybe there needs to be an office space + cubicle + coffee shop rental thing
This is essentially what co-working spaces like WeWork are. But they are quite expensive which is probably why a lot of people continue to use coffee shops (environment and location of coffee shop may also be preferable)
Definitely, I love to work out of coffee shops. Co-working spaces are another option (as a stingy person, I wish they were cheaper though).
It's great to change one's work environment every now and then. When I used to work in offices, many days I'd be sick of my office and want to work somewhere else, if only to change things up.
A WeWork-like model has appeal to someone like me that would love good coffee and an office/hoteling space! Especially as I travel a lot and sometimes want a reliable private workspace in an arbitrary city. Coffee shops frankly don’t cut it for working/meeting with people all day.
Also there’s often a need for meeting spaces in arbitrary cities. my company would have used an airBNB style conference room scheduling solution half a dozen times last year.
All to say there’s at least a potential customer base here. Whether it’s a profitable business model, well, maybe :)
That makes me wonder what else you could repurpose as an office in places where offices are disproportionally expensive. What about a climate-controlled storage unit? A quick Googling tells me you can get a small (but large enough for a desk) climate controlled storage unit in San Fran for about $100-150/month. That's vastly cheaper than a co-working space. I know you can get storage units with power, they're pretty popular as practice spaces for bands around where I live. You'd need a mobile hotspot for internet, and no windows might be a bit depressing, but for the price...
Cool, been looking for one. thanks!
I've also considered working from internet cafes, but if a coworking space is cheaper, it would make sense to go to one.
Might be a chance for diners or other restaurants to offer meeting rooms. They could charge less than coworking spaces and make up the difference in food and drink sales.
it's kind of interesting that it's not though, isn't it?
intuitively, a shared office space makes sense to me. I find it really useful as a remote employee to get out of the house a couple of days a week, and for my employer it's pretty cheap and is a perk which helps them hire from all over the world, also cheaper than hiring american engineers.
Is it just a pricing issue? Hot desks are about 250 USD/month
I want to be at a coworking space, but WeWork is pricey for my situation. A hot desk (not reserved) at my local WeWork is over $4k a year. If that cost were subsidized by my company I might use it, but it's a significant salary hit otherwise. Additionally, it's still a very loud workspace to work in. Even with daily food/drink costs, I spend well under that at the coffee shop.
things like starbucks or wework or whatever shared office space rentable by the hour are a better solution for this then big office spaces that stay empty most of the time.
This was my experience at Coworking spaces. If you are more of a freelancer and need access to conferences rooms for your clients then they absolutely make sense.
If you're just working from home for another job though, there's not as much of a social aspect since everybody is just...working. I get much of the same benefit by going to work in my local library (out of the house, working around other people who are quiet).
Some coffee shops in my area also have built in meeting rooms at very reasonable prices.
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