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Comment by jontaydev | Hacker News Reader

Has anybody tried to create something like AirBnB for co-working/office spaces? There must be people willing to rent out a spare bedroom they never use, etc. All you really need to provide is a desk and internet.

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This is an excellent idea! Letting out the entire apartment or most of it could make for a better experience, since part of the appeal (for many) is the community and a break from solo working environments. One could make an app where users could see coworker profiles etc - might appeal to people looking for inspiration or motivation.

This company does that with extra office space: https://liquidspace.com/share-office-meeting-space

They have a Slack integration that can ping you when somebody places a request that matches your availability.

A lot of states have laws against office and living spaces being in the same building, if I recall. Maybe someone else has more expertise and correct me.

This would obviously make it difficult for someone to rent out their living room to $Startup, for example.

Did Uber let local laws strangle its business? NO!

Did Airbnb let local laws strangle its business? NO!

Did PayPal let money transmitter licenses and rampant fraud strangle its business? NO!

Did YouTube let rampant piracy strangle its business? NO!

Now go start your residential hot-desking business!!’

I guess the moral is that if you make enough money fast enough, you can hire lawyers to keep you out of jail.

There is such a startup in London (and elsewhere maybe) but the problem is the costs are greater than the cost of a true co-working space. WeWork in London has hot desks from about £10/day (monthly) and £20/day (pay as you go). A homeowner isn’t going to let someone use their home all day to make a few £.

https://www.vrumi.com/

> A homeowner isn’t going to let someone use their home all day to make a few £.

Are you sure? I mean if I had the space and situation (that is, an office room separate from the rest of the house, e.g. a garage) it's something I'd consider. It probably doesn't fall under hotel / lodging laws either.

You’re looking at 1/10th of the earnings you’d generate from AirBnB with the same amount of work. You have to manage bookings, grant access (working around your own availability), handle insurance and clean up. Would you deal with all of that for less than £10/day once or twice a week? The pitch makes sense for larger spaces that can accommodate teams — like the examples on the site — but for individuals there’s no value.

I always wondered that. I worked at a few places where we ended up with too much space.... seemed wasteful.

You'll want to maybe be a bit careful about who you rent to, but still seems like that would be useful.

Personally I'd be more interested in renting out a small space from a larger company or even campus than one space out of numerous rental spaces where I've got no idea what is going on each day.

Airbnb does this already. I used to work remote and they have digital nomad housing... Specially WiFi and private workspace as part of the amenities you can require.

Workfrom seems to be pivoting to something like this https://workfrom.co/homebase

exactly what I was thinking, e.g. "need a working space anywhere? just use the app and rent a one of our free spaces or share one"

I could definitely see VC money going into this, maybe even an existing company doing it.

the parking spots could have temporary structures to make it more like an office, have plugs, internet, etc.

then it could expand globally and it's no issue if it's outlawed in one city/country, just go to the next city/country.

I’ll start my YC application :) But in reality, the legal issues that s3r3nity mentioned would be a big problem for residential. Maybe this could be marketed to existing commercial spaces that have an extra room they don’t use.

As somebody who works remotely, having an app that finds a place to work wold be a dream.

> All you really need to provide is a desk and internet.

Depending on your city, there may be zoning restrictions about such use.

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