Questions You Should Ask Before Signing Up For A Coworking Space

by Ryan Vagabundo

Coworking spaces primarily pitch themselves on convenience and amenities, but if you just go by the marketing materials you might end up finding what you signed up for isn't as convenient or useful as you thought it was going to be. This becomes more true the more you want to be there outside business hours, or visit more than one location.

You definitely want to do due diligence on these places before putting money down, and here are some of the key questions to ask.

Can You Drop In, Or Do You Have To Sign Up For A "Slot"?

You might naturally assume that if you sign up for a plan that offers "anytime" access, that means that you get a key and can simply drop in whenever you like.

Not exactly the case with all of these services. One of the big examples of this is WeWork's "All Access" pass. Ostensibly this lets you visit pretty much any of their locations anytime you want, but when you read the fine print it isn't as simple as just showing up. You have to go to their website and book a "slot" (midnight to midnight) for each location you want to visit on the day you want to visit.

While it's probably rare at most locations for a slot to not be available, it's an extra hoop to regularly jump through. And there is the possibility that very busy locations might be booked for the day when you want to visit.

Can You Switch Locations in a 24 Hour Period?

When you're required to "book" locations (as described above), it is possible you'll get hit with an extra fee if you want to go to a different location during that particular day.

Often plans of this nature will give you a handful of monthly "credits" for extras like this, and you'll have to use those to do it (and pay extra to get more credits if you run out of your monthly allotment).

Are They Truly Open 24/7?

Some of the locations that advertise "24/7" access aren't QUITE being 100% accurate with that claim. Check to see if they have mandatory cleaning periods where they turn everyone out, or if the hours are the same on the weekends.

Do You Get Access to Private Offices / Meeting Rooms?

As mentioned earlier, some plans give you an allotment of "credits" for extras every month. Let's use WeWork as an example again. The "All Access" plan provides five of these credits, which can be redeemed for a block of time to use private offices or meeting rooms.

You generally have to pay significantly more for regular private office access, but some might have meeting rooms available on an on-demand basis if they aren't too busy.

What Are The Amenities, And Will They Defray Your Membership Cost?

It's probably worth taking a few minutes to look up the range of amenities and run the numbers on what they might potentially save you as compared to the membership asking price.

For example, kitchen access, and what the quality is (just a microwave or other options? how likely to be crowded when you want to use it? etc). And is there a way to safely keep some of your own food on site? This could be a real money and time saver, also provides the option of prepping affordable healthy meals if the area is nothing but chain restaurants.

What kind of free food (if any) do they provide? Coffee, tea, beer, wine? Is the coffee actually good? Can you brew your own on site somehow if it isn't?

Other features to consider: free WiFi, free VPN subscriptions (if it's with a reputable one), mail and package receiving, some sort of assigned locker or other forms of safe storage (like possibly bike storage), fitness center access, and showers. Let your imagination run wild.

Can You Do A Free / Inexpensive Tour Beforehand?

You can garner a lot of information from the web, but the best way to really check on all of this stuff is to see if they offer a free guided tour to prospective customers or some sort of day pass. Maybe they offer a temporary pass at a reasonable rate, or at least a price worth getting answers to your questions.

What other stuff should you be looking for? As a starter, I'd suggest: traffic levels during the hours you plan to use it, general noise levels when under load, if it looks like homeless are sneaking in / camping out (or have openings to like a bad door system), places to quietly/privately make calls or have video meetings if you need to, how much staff appears to be around to address issues that come up.

What's Nearby for Transportation / Basic Needs?

This one is particularly important to consider in advance if you plan to be working late or overnight hours when most things nearby will be shut down. If you need public transit, are there lines within walking distance, when do they start/end, and are they generally safe enough in off hours? How are the food and caffeine options around during the hours you plan to be there? Is there an emergency restroom option nearby during those hours if there's a problem at the office for some reason (cleaning, plumbing, etc)?

Options

Multi-location coworking spaces with a "pass" system are generally limited to bigger cities and metro areas (around 500k population and up). Over 50k and there may be a couple of local places that have one location only, under 50k there might be nothing at all.

There are only a limited amount of national chains that have plans that give you access in multiple cities, as the office space market has been in a big downturn since the Covid pandemic. WeWork All Access is the big one, and we've already discussed some of the limitations, though it might be the only option available in your area. The other one is Regus, which has the most offices nationwide but is kind of an odd system - they don't own and operate their own locations, they come to arrangements with other offices, and those arrangements are limited to what each building wants to give you (which could literally just be sitting in their lobby, and being in any after business hours is apparently hard to pull off).

WeWork and Regus are the two that are pretty much everywhere in the US, other coworking chains are much more region-specific and you'll have to poke around locally to see what's available. Given how hard up companies are to rent office space in a lot of locations, you might also look for available fixed private office options that are just a couple hundred bucks upwards in monthly rent.