Hacker News Reader

Comment by sharadov | Hacker News Reader

I have the next billion-dollar business idea, an " Airbnb for coworking spaces". Convert your existing house to a co-working space. Looked at Wework, already pay too much for rent in the Bay area. I work from home, and would not mind the company. Got good coffee and great beer as well!

View on HN

This suggestion is made every time there's a thread about WeWork and it's just not viable. There are startups in this space already and the reality is always borne out: it's simply not worthwhile to rent out space in your home to an individual. You can get a monthly membership to WeWork for <$400 in most locations, and there's lots of no-brand co-working spaces that charge less than half of that. If you can pay $200/month to have 24/7 access to a space with amenities and flexibility... why would you pay someone $10 to sit in their apartment for 7 hours until they come home and you awkwardly shuffle out so they can make their dinner? And who is going to rent their apartment out for $10/day with all the liability that comes along with it? All the pain of Airbnb, <10% of the earnings.

Every one of the startups in this space either disappears, or pivots their focus to larger spaces designed for meetings, events or shoots. For example there's https://breather.com in the US and https://www.vrumi.com in the UK. The cheapest space on vrumi is far more expensive than WeWork.

I think one of the components that drives the success of AirBNB, the ability to "live" for a couple weeks in, say, a former hermitage just outside Naples or a beachfront condo in the Seychelles, would also be viable for small teams or full time remote workers. Essentially it's just AirBnB but with some additional minimum guaranteed service levels for infrastructure (security, internet, privacy, pricing structured around a minimum 10 day work week block for fixed contract lengths, similar to short term commercial lease terms) for remote workers.

Another consideration is that private homes-as-workspaces can offer some incidental cost savings in the form of things you get with residential zoning like (usually) free parking and a car-based commute that does not follow urban congestion patterns. Say you need to work within 40 minutes of Paris or downtown LA in order to make the odd off-hours mixer or client meeting, but your daily workflow can be conducted entirely within a single dedicated space out in the burbs, priced comparably to the shared desks at a WW location and more comfortable or in a more walkable area than a typical industrial park.

To be fair the number of people who are able and willing to pay even $200/mo for co-working space is MUCH smaller than the number of people who are able and willing to pay $10/mo. Plenty of people would prefer to pay $10 to sit in someone's apartment for 7 hours, just like every day millions of people pay $5 to sit in a cafe for a couple hours.

This becomes more obvious when you leave the rich tech bubble of SF.

I’m not clear on the numbers you’re thinking about: is that $10 per month or $10 per day? The former is impossible (that’s... 1/300th of what Airbnb-ing would earn) and the latter is equivalent to the cost of a formal co-working space.

As the existing startups have proven, there’s no market for individuals renting houses to work from, the economics don’t work. A day pass at WeWork is cheaper than every listing on Vrumi.

I looked at Vrumi and the cost is ridiculous! $20/day/person tops, I go to Hacker Dojo in the Bay area and it's a decent place with good wifi, nothing fancy and its about that much.

Btw, when I was in LA looked at the closest Wework in Hollywood, and the parking was about $10/day. Now you are paying about $600/month.

Name it AirB2B and go get your initial founding round!

Good one!

I was thinking AaaS -- Aviato as a Service.

Terrific name!

While there are a few companies that are actually trying to build this idea with renting out homes by the hour, at Out Of Office[0] we're working on a similar concept of a more general marketplace for coworking spaces. We've scouted hundreds of locations in San Francisco, both free and bookable, that you can search for in our app. You can find coffee shops, hotel lobbies, public spaces, or book private desks, and conference rooms throughout the city.

[0] https://outofoffice.app

Nice Concept. Good Luck. :)

That coffee cup about to fall is giving me serious anxiety.

Interesting. Can you drop me an email at $myHNusername @ gmail? I would need to discuss a couple of things with you.

Thanks!

Sure, just sent you an email.

Yeah, come work at home with me! Then my children can bother you too. :)

Yeah I had this idea too. I stayed with some people in a fancy apartment in Zurich for a week a while back. They all left to work and I worked from their home. It was the best office I'd ever had, and was empty during work hours all week. I reckon 60% or more of city apartments are similar - seems very inefficient.

That works great for apartments zoned as commercial or mixed-use. I don't think that is common.

As Uber and AirBnB have demonstrated, caring about laws is so last millennium. As long as you get big enough, fast enough, the cities will probably bend and change things to accommodate you.

But this company would disrupt! Things like zoning laws aren’t cool, so we’ll move fast and break them!

Raise enough money to hire lobbyists!

keep up with the times.. pay them in equity

This is actually a pretty good idea, I'd expect AirBnB doesn't attempt something along these lines in the next couple years.

To take it a step further, if the house owner works outside home during the day it could be mutually beneficial if you throw in taking a few breaks to walk the dog to make it an even trade. It's always better for pets to have people around all day.

mind blown. although i think you should focus on car garages and backyard sheds for that authentic start-up experience. for extra, clients can have their garage pre stocked with technical-looking equipment and stray wires hanging everywhere.

I thought at some point why not convert the garage, that way they're not bothering me. Would have cost me 10K tops to put an AC, nice flooring in the garage.

How much would you be willing to rent "a desk" each month?

I think $100 is a sweet spot.

I'd gladly take that. Across 24-25 business days in a month, it's like a cup of coffee per day.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com