Coworking space operators are achieving REAL results with Flex Workspace Solutions (FWS), a flex space management company with 20+ years of experience.
By partnering with FWS, you can achieve:
84% average conversion rates
44% average increase in sales
23% average increase in monthly revenue
95% on-time monthly revenue collected
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✊ Coworking impact.
👩💻 Operator launches business network for women, by women #
Rebekah Murphy shares that Hub Australia are introducing their Women’s Business Connection program – a business network for women, by women. With launch events in Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Adelaide this is just the start of a curated series to support women in business.
👉 Read this.
📰 Coworking news & views.
👋 Local spaces: your moment to be community linchpins #
Bernie Mitchell shares a quick note that for many a coworking space is not just a place they go to for work, especially outside of city centers, and shares that "now is the time to go for it" by connecting with the neighbourhood community to play and expand your role locally.
👉 Read this.
🦆 Is this the cutest reason to close a coworking terrace? #
Linzi Coulston shares that Clockwise Offices in Glasgow chose to close their terrace to allow a mamma duck and her 8 babies to hang out till they’re ready to fly off.
How many complaints in the commend from members couldn’t use the terrace? None. How many duckling related comments? 10. How many duckling-inspiring free day passes? We’ll have to wait and hear back… Linzi?
👉 Read this.
🧮 8 (+1) ways capital markets could value the NOI of flex spaces #
Charlie Morris shares 8 ways that the capital markets (ie building valuation experts) could start evaluating the Net Operating Income (NOI) of flexible workspaces. They are: Segmented Valuations, Weighted Average Cap Rate, Risk-adjusted Cap Rate, Income Multiplier, Discounted Cash Flow w/ Variable Cap Rates, Operational Value Add, Market Comparison and Hybrid Valuations.
Sam Gamble from ReturnSuite adds another option (the "Top Slice" method ). This is a big topic… I’d look out for an Undercurrents deep-dive on this.
👉 Read this.
🚀 Insights from scaling two coworking brands #
OfficeRnD share a recap, and the main insights, from their recent webinar on coworking scaling success stories. The webinar featured Chris Smith, CRO at Thrive Coworking and Sarah Travers, CEO at Workbar who dug into the value of defining brand identity, effectively using tech, leadership development, streamlining ops, AI, and empowering community teams.
👉 Read this.
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💻 Coworking technology.
📱 Do you need an app for that? #
I’ve had many (many, maaaaany) discussions with workspace operators about whether they need a member-facing mobile app. In this piece by Spacebring, they make the case for not only launching an app, but also dig into some pro-tips for how to get members excited about using it.
Do you have a member’s app? Why? Why not?
👉 Read this.
✅ Platform makes upgrades to improve member experience #
Nexudus share key updates added to v4 of their Members Portal. They include making popular features easier to find, enhanced team management (with attendance tracking), building overviews (including overviews of IoT devices, sensors and space availability) and a fresh user interface.
👉 Read this.
📲 New PAYG booking platform launches in the UK #
The folks at Flex and the City introduce a newcomer to the space booking scene, Workabout. The pay-as-you-go platform launched with 500 UK locations from brands like Landmark, Runway East, Bruntwood, Fora, Clockwise, Spacemade and others – making workspaces searchable by specific amenities for on-demand use.
👉 Read this.
🦾 Who is tapping AI to make office leasing a “true marketplace”? #
Rafi Sands shares the tech bet Tandem is making to succeed where other online real-estate marketplace have failed. Spoiler: It’s building the fundamentals for an AI engine that allows office brokers to increasing the number of clients they can successfully place by 10-20x, but still leveraging their unique skillset and relationships.
👉 Read this.
🤖 Flex spaces get a new AI tool for qualifying office leads #
Francesco De Camilli and Emre Altınok introduce Uniti AI, an automated system for qualifying inbound office requests before a human has to deal with them. Excited to watch how this system, and others like it, will wipe out more and more of the repetitive steps that go into closing flex space deals.
You may recognize Francesco’s name from previous industry roles at Bisnow, Knotel, Colliers and Valve.
👉 Read this.
🔐 Platform touts new visitor, wifi and access management system #
Josh Freed shared that the Proximity team are on the verge of launching their new Visitor Management Platform. The system is set to include security & access control integrations, a booking & scheduling system, WiFi management, occupancy verification tech and offer support external monetization opportunities.
👉 Read this.
📈 Coworking data.
🇺🇸 US coworking supply grows 7% to 7,041 spaces #
In the second quarter of 2024, the national coworking supply surpassed the 7,000 mark, more precisely, standing at 7,041 spaces. CoworkingCafe’s recently released quarterly report breaks down the coworking space stock availability in the 25 largest markets across the US, the spaces’ size and distribution, their prices and the distribution of the largest coworking operators.
Snapshot of the numbers, compared to last quarter: 7% growth in inventory in Q2 2024 (444 more spaces nationwide). LA kept top spot with 279 spaces, but Dallas-Forth Worth surpassed Manhattan for second place (with 271 and 264 spaces). Biggest growth: Indianapolis (up 9%). Biggest dip: Brooklyn (down 2%). Total sqft-age up 2% to 127.67M sqft. Median dedicated desk rates down $9 to $300, with open desk rates also down by a dollar to $149. Virtual office rates steady at $119 p/month.
👉 Read this.
🪧 Do aggregator listings actually drive more direct bookings? #
Mike Sullivan from Alliance Virtual Offices makes the case that coworking spaces can leverage the "billboard effect" to drive up desk, office and virtual office revenue.
The term was coined by Chris Anderson, Associate Professor at Cornell University, in 2009. A study found that hotels listed on online travel agents (such as Expedia) experience a boost in direct hotel bookings due to their presence on these aggregator websites. Two other studies found interesting results, with one in 2011 showing that 75% of consumers booked directly with hotels after visiting an online travel agent. The other showed that in 2017, only 31% of those who started by comparing hotel websites directly, then ended up booking via an aggregator.
So if customers only use aggregators for early-stage research and comparison, then it could be argued that being listed with aggregators, while having a strong brand and website, can lead to more direct sales.
👉 Read this.
🥙 What new product is eating serviced offices lunch in Australia? #
John Preece from Hub Australia is successfully "stealing" my job by superbly summarizing another industry report, this time from Colliers.
In the report we get a new term "Hybrid-Flex", how this category grew by 17% by eating into what was traditionally "service offices". Also, 70% of tenants considering a new lease demand some form of flex options in the buildings. Landlord flex has (almost reluctantly) grown by 23% since last year. And the number of management agreements in Australia is up 2.2x since 2019.
👉 Read this.
🇦🇺 What flex product makes up 76% of available space in Australia? #
Rubberdesk Australia share their Q2 space price guide, digging into the costs of renting serviced offices vs coworking desks across the country-continent.
Comparatively, the medium office rate per person is AU$664 (~US$448) and hot desk rate is AU$500 (~US$336). But, what caught my eye is that 76% of all available space in their dataset was for smaller private offices for fewer than 10 desks. Does that mean that’s the least popular product type in the country?
👉 Read this.
🇬🇧 UK flex supply and prices are down, with 5M+ sqft still available #
Rubberdesk UK share their Q2 2024 market summary. In it we see that UK has seen a 14% dip in flex office supply since the start of the year, down from a peak of 6.5M sqft in 2023. Even with that they share that there’s still 5.65M sqft of available flex space on the market. Following the drop in median prices (within offices) from £700 to £500 per desk through June 2022, prices have dropped further to £475 per person this quarter thanks to inflation and economic uncertainty. According to their data the median hot desk rate sits at £250 per desk.
The report does also dig into the price per person for different size offices across the major UK markets. A table worth checking out regardless of whether you’re competing in this region or not.
👉 Read this.
🤝 Coworking market moves.
🇬🇧 Operator opens 3rd location in Maidenhead. #
7-year old MyWorkSpot have added a 3rd location in Maidenhead, signing a 10-year lease for nearly 20k sqft of additional space.
👉 Read this.
🇦🇺 Australian network doubling in size #
Jamie Vine shares that Liberty Flexible Workspaces are doubling in size with an expansion across the East Coast of Australia. They announced that they’re adding 75.3k sqft into their portfolio by November 2024 with new locations in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.
👉 Read this.
🇦🇺 11 Australian locations change hands, and a new group forms #
Tobi Skovron shares that CreativeCubes.co have acquired Workspace365 Victoria, bringing 11 locations and 236.8k sqft into their network. The announcement also notes that the collective group will now operate under a parent company called AccelerateX, running each location under the appropriate brand.
👉 Read this.
🎙 Coworking conversations.
Citi Medina shares how he pioneered the inaugural EqualSpace location, his innovative member feedback strategies, and the importance of ensuring everyone feels seen on the GCUC podcast.
Tashi Dorjee, head of Flex Space – Australasia at JLL shares a way for flex spaces to reduce their build out costs. Spoiler: glass is expensive, but this tip helps reduce the CAPEX required while still letting through a lot of natural light.
Beth DeGraffenreid, founder of Essential Offices dives into her journey from suburban coworking to the bustling heart of Oklahoma city (and more) on the Flex Uncensored podcast.
Manuel Conti from PONT joins Caleb Parker on what was called the #WorkBold podcast to chat about the evolving expectations of coworking space customers, the necessity of standardization to expand the flex market, and the importance of operator collaboration to support customer needs beyond their own buildings
Keke Patissier from Koho.ai and Brave Corp Founder, Caleb Parker, discuss how coworking and flex space is moving office real estate from a bond like investment to a predictable recurring revenue stream – not to dissimilar from the software as a service model.