WeWork plans to file for bankruptcy as early as next week, source says

Probably because he would end up having to spend the same money on a place with better conference rooms. Why pay for two co-working facilities, just so you can use one that has quiet meeting spaces?

WeWork was less about getting work done, and more about LARPing the experience of working for a FAANG and flexing someone else's money.

I like this question. Why would a person stop paying for something that doesn’t fully suit their basic needs? Obviously if a configuration that worked didn’t exist at WeWork, surely it couldn’t exist anywhere at all?

Genuine question: Wouldn't this require a lot of ventilation / HVAC infrastructure?

It seems like in order to get 'really quiet' you need to have solid, noise-insulating walls on all 6 sides, which then makes it harder to ventilate (i.e., each cube gets it's own ductwork)

That said - I also like quiet spaces and if I was looking for a co-working space something that's mostly small, cozy, and quiet cubes would be perfect :)

It looks cute and edgy. I thought that’s why people were paying the insane premium at wework?

That would include low interest rates that made funding WeWork plausible/possible. That's probably not coming back for a while.

You want mandatory return to office? Really?

Wework started spiralling in 2019, it was never going to stay afloat.

Not many people understand what that means. I remember Romney saying that GM needed to go through bankruptcy (meaning chapter 11) back when he was running for president. He got crucified for saying that, but he wasn’t wrong, and iirc, they did end up in chapter 11.

Hopefully, WeWork restructures successfully. I’ve really enjoyed the few I’ve visited, and I think there’s a real business under all the nonsense.

Doesn't the bankruptcy court liquidate pieces of the company on behalf of the creditors if that is part of the agreement that is reached?

Regus is still worth billions.

That's right. A friend of mine sells premium offices and he's been saying WeWork's business plan made no sense at all for as long as I can remember.

Basically, in any premium office, you want to maximize the space for as many high value desks as possible. WeWork often spends a huge part of its space for perks and temp desks. In addition, WeWork attracts the startups/small business/solo crowd and those are far less stable customers than your money making enterprises. He routinely tells me very large customers often forgets that they're even paying for the office. That's the customer you want.

He was sure that WeWork had no future. He was right.

Single day is likely unenforceable.

Regus has been around for a long time, I worked out of one of their offices in the mid-90s.

The great thing was that shared office space was new to most people, so when clients would visit they'd be impressed with the fancy building, the marble reception, and the huge conference room, and not know we were a 2-person shop renting a 6'x8' office.

Good context to share. I'm on the younger side, so when I entered the work force I think basically WeWork popularized this concept beyond what it had been. At least, it was the first place to expose me to that kind of work environment, which previously I was unaware had existed.

WeWork doesn’t own the buildings, they lease space in them. The companies that own the buildings still have the problem of finding tenants, and WeWork let them access smaller tenants and thus a more diverse client portfolio than commercial real estate owners can normally be bothered to service.

Leasing to WeWork is a ‘gig economy’ side-hustle for a big office building owner to monetize more of their space, same as driving for Uber works as a side hustle for humans who want to monetize more of their time, or Airbnb lets homeowners side hustle to monetize their spare room.

Question is if without WeWork those buildings would continue to offer those services directly, sign on with a competitor platform, or do something else.

Maybe now WeWork has shown the opportunity, building owners would be prepared to leverage the platform to access the short term tenant base without requiring that WeWork lease the space first.

After all, you don’t have Uber pay to lease your vehicle or AirBnb sign a lease on your spare room before you join up to their platforms.

All of which suggests that WeWork actually has a pretty strong case for renegotiating their leases - they have their subletting revenue they can split with the property owner as leverage.

I had the pleasure of dealing with Regus / Spaces trying to enforce their contract and collect payment for office rent even though I couldn't go to their offices due to COVID and lockdowns (this was during the peak of it in April of 2020). I have to disagree that this company is perfectly fine to do business with, after so many calls and emails with them over this absurd matter and their egregious business practices during a time of crisis, which they threatened collections on but luckily never pursued (at least that I'm aware).

Keep in mind this is their standard business practices, no matter what hardship or act of God that's preventing you from paying them.[0]

Their stock is down nearly 50% over the past 5 years, even 17% below where it was during the crash in 2020, so they aren't a gleaming example of success either.

0. https://www.google.com/search?q=regus+collections+reddit

I use Regus, they're awesome.

Their real innovation was a way of finding the stupidest VC money.

Any money going in now would subsidize landlords. They basically have to renegotiate leases, otherwise investors will just go down and take landlords down with them.

Or a locally run and operated coworking space.

I go to WeWork because I intentionally rent as small an apartment as possible. I don’t like being in the same space all the time and I don’t like working from coffeeshops (most of my work is meetings and requires a bit of privacy).

I’d be more likely to find an in office job than work out of my apartment again.