The way coworking spaces have changed since 2019 is wild to me

I remember back in 2018 I was renting a desk in a coworking spot in Chiang Mai for like $150 a month. It was just a big room with long tables and terrible wifi that went down every afternoon. Now I'm sitting in a place in Medellin that has soundproof phone booths, a podcast studio, and someone bringing around free kombucha at 3pm. The price jumped to $280 a month but honestly the internet hasn't dropped once in the three weeks I've been here. I think the pandemic forced these places to actually compete for remote workers instead of just collecting rent. Has anyone else noticed their favorite spots getting way fancier but also way more expensive?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_claire1d ago

My buddy Mark found his old coworking spot in Lisbon went from a chaotic room with one sad coffee machine to having a whole app to book meeting rooms and a kombucha tap. He said the price doubled but he couldn't even be mad because the internet actually worked and someone mopped the floors daily. That place even had a yoga room in the basement which felt extra but hey, remote workers have standards now I guess.

maxl931d ago

All these upgrades sound nice, but maybe your buddy Mark is paying twice as much for stuff he didn't even need in the first place. Idk, a kombucha tap and a yoga room aren't going to make you write better code or finish that project any faster. A clean floor and working internet should be the baseline, not some premium upsell that's now double the price.

the_viola1d ago

My buddy Sarah was telling me about this coworking spot she used in Barcelona back in 2019, it was basically a converted garage with sticky tables and one power strip for the whole room. She went back last month and it's got a nap pod, a little garden terrace, and they do free Spanish classes on Wednesdays. Price went from 100 euros to 220. She said the lockers now have USB ports inside, which felt like overkill but she appreciated it after her laptop died mid-call. Take that with a grain of salt though, she's the type who gets excited about free stickers.