Would you rent out working space in your home? | Hacker News Reader

Would you rent out working space in your home?

8 pointswillbenito12340 comments

Airbnb for workspace - $ by the hour during the week?

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Not a chance.

But I would never AirBnB a space in my home either. I bought it so I don't have to share space with other people.

My sentiment also.

Interesting to hear.

What are the blockers?

Feel like this would be very much for people who are happy with both / either.

I'm a private person, I don't like other people in my space much. They are noisy, disruptive, messy and overal generally very annoying.

I also don't really trust people to be in my space when I'm not there so that's a non-starter.

The sharing economy is incomprehensible to me. I have no interest in participating in it.

Fair enough!

Suppose this wouldn’t be for you ... would you trust people more with a peer review system like Uber / Airbnb?

Speaking only for myself, no that would make no difference whatsoever. I don't want people in my house. It's my house, that's the point of it being my space.

I understand that sometimes people are in an economic situation where they need to make certain choices, but I would be much more likely to move to a different region and have a smaller place to myself.

I don't want people here, unless I explicitly invite them and allow them

Nope because those systems can't be trusted either.

I don't need the money nor the company, me and my family enjoy the space we have. If I was young urban and single perhaps, but probably I'd just have a smaller space.

No, because cleaning and fielding questions would be too much for the price that hourly co-working could command.

Wonder if annoying housemates would be evaded by peer rating systems.

i.e. people who left a mess / required lots of cleaning would get a low rating and thereafter struggle to use the platform.

If I have extra space in my home, why wouldn't I just Airbnb it out? The guest can work there if they want, sure. But I doubt they want to pay as much as someone on holiday.

1) Potential to do both if you live there but work in an office, you can rent out your own desk with an Airbnb guest in a spare room.

2) I think the price point is much lower and definitely depends on a different set of criteria like WiFi speed, quietness, privacy etc.

3) People might not want the hassle of an overnight guest, but would prefer an extra person just during working hours.

This is a good question, but I don’t think this is analogous to AirBnB. A workspace is more of a long term thing rather than a day or two, and probably not in line with zoning or hoa restrictions. I wish that there were temperature controlled warehouses divided up into project spaces. I would rent one of those in a heartbeat.

I think that depends on what you do as a job. For some people a one day break in a new location could be stimulating and healthy.

Appreciate that for others its a different story. One way this could go is a week/two week room swap that includes accommodation AND a work space. That gets difficult for logistics though...

Different types of work require specialised equipment and need different kinds of work space.

For a kind of work that's clearly not a great fit for renting out your house: a restaurant. Why exactly might it be a poor fit? Restaurant needs a good location, ideally with enough passing foot traffic of punters who are looking to dine out. The building needs specialised equipment, e.g. commercial kitchen, a place for the customers to dine, a toilet they can use. Interior likely needs to be decorated a bit. There will be various health and safety regulations that the space would need to comply with. In order to attract the custom of bunch of regulars, the restaurant needs to remain in the same place.

Trying to summarise & generalise -- what might be the downsides of renting a working space from someone's home?

* some specific kinds of workplaces are subject to additional regulation. getting the regulation may require making improvements/changes to the house and wrangling with bureaucracy

* probably not a good fit for businesses that need to attract lots of passing walk-in customers, or need a workplace that presents a veneer of a professionalism to build credibility when meeting customers

* probably not a good fit for businesses that need longer-term lease arrangements, or the _option_ of longer term lease arrangements

* probably not a good fit for businesses that need specialised equipment that needs to be lugged about

* probably not good fit for businesses that need to make physical changes to their workspace

What would the advantages be to the potential renter, compared to alternatives of longer-term commercial leases with more ability to customise workplace, or shorter-term more flexible leases in shared spaces dedicated to working? (e.g. co-working spaces that also rent access to photocopiers/reception/fancy address/meeting rooms; co-working hacker/maker spaces that also rent time-share access to expensive tools & machinery like cnc machines; ...)

So I think this would be for knowledge intensive workers, who can currently work from home if they want.

For businesses with big property and equipment costs I agree - you can't operate from a different location.

Luckily, the biggest and newest businesses are not machinery heavy (haven't seen anyone touch the photocopier in a while). Footfall etc are less of an issue - this only applies to the retail sector and frankly a smaller and smaller part of it!

I would worry it wouldn’t be steady enough to make money, so I would lose out compared to renting a room out. I would have to require them to clean up after themselves too, and vet them like renters so I would feel safe with them in my home

Thanks for the reply. I think there is strong potential to do both accommodation and workstation renting.

Especially if you are out working during the day, you could actually rent out your own desk space, rather than additional space.

Essentially you are right - unless offices close down big time, there is going to be less supply for workplaces than for holiday accommodation.

My biggest question about this is: What is the value proposition for the renter?

Just renting out home space for working sounds like it would be likely have only the same amenities as the space the renter lives in. I just don't see much of a benefit.

True. I think the value is twofold.

1) The community. Like similar platforms, this could spawn a like minded community of digital nomadic workers.

2) health and productivity. In lots of knowledge intensive industries, office space is being shut down very fast. If you need to work somewhere quiet and private, millions of people would only have their own bedroom and this could be a great alternative!

But if you're travelling, wouldn't you just AirBnB?

Would a stranger's extra room be better than one's own room?

I guess I'm just not seeing the benefit.

Really good points and we are thinking hard about those.

It would inevitably be different to Airbnb in price, location and opportunity. People are increasingly looking to explore non-conventional holiday/working destinations.

In some circumstances another room might be better. If yours is small/loud/unproductive/depressing etc.

Unless I start owning a mansion, unlikely. I don’t see myself having extra rooms for people to just work in. And if I did, office space would be extremely cheap to the point of why bother working in someone’s home?

This is interesting feedback.

Even a kitchen table could be interesting for people without plausible alternatives.

Alternatively, if you go to work in the day, you could rent out any spare desk space that you would otherwise use if you were at home.

To me, I think there’d have to be a bigger sell... as a buyer, why would I rent office space in someone’s house instead of an actual office? Ok, maybe cheaper. Ok but what about benefits? Is it just a desk in a room? What about food, the environment, etc? And why would I rent space in someone’s house instead of just paying for a bigger place on my own? I get the idea maybe you’re visiting somewhere and need somewhere to work but then I’d have a hotel or an office space wherever I’m visiting because I’m visiting their office.

To me, I’m not seeing it as a customer or as a seller. Selling just an office desk space is like selling 40sqft of rental space but on an hourly basis but without all the benefits of a large office environment. I don’t see it. I’d probably just rather setup a desk in my own bedroom than commute to someone else’s house and rent a desk in their spare room.

I think this is really helpful and I guess this question is about the USP. This is what I think it could be:

- privacy - solo work space - change of environment = productivity + mental health benefits - community value (per WeWork, Airbnb etc) - Networking. People could share with like minded / same industry professionals to increase their personal exposure

Would love some feedback on previous players in this space pre the world of remote work who ran into problems.

Breather, Spacehop, Vrumi

No, I don't want to have other people here when I'm here. I pay more just to avoid having roommates etc.

Would you be happy for people to work in your place if you were out at work all day? Lots of Airbnb hosts never meet their guests!

Nope, I value my space. Besides, I already use my house for my own workspace.

- Extra bedroom = office

- Basement = gym

- Everything else = room to pace around.

Thanks for the reply - if you worked in an office / somewhere else would you ever let someone use your office space if you could make income from it?

Definitely not. I don't feel comfortable with the idea. It also really cramps my style if I decide I want to stay home one day.

No way. At least there people willing to pay me 1000$/hour.

If I was renting, that'd help me save some money

When I was studying oversea (near a high cost of living city), I rented a 3 bedrooms house. Then rented out other bedrooms spaces and didn't have to worry about the rent.

At that time, I think I would rent out working space

This was initially the idea!

For students / young professionals to rent out spare rooms in their house. Especially if they are going into work or campus, they can earn a bit of extra income.

This is essentially very similar and you could even rent out accommodation and working space.

I was in the situation and definitely agree with it.

I also had a few AirBnB to fill up the places when there was spare bedrooms. It was great

and ofcourse, there are the dark side to watch out when you want to implement it.

Yeah, definitely still privacy / safety / legal concerns.

Ever have any problems yourself?

No way.

definitely not during COVID

Fair enough...think this is definitely a post-COVID idea for legal and commercial reasons!

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