Show HN: A Global Co-Living Subscription for Nomads | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: A Global Co-Living Subscription for Nomads

thecaravanserai.co

265 pointsbrunooo165 comments

This is a really interesting idea, though maybe a bit too expensive and, ah, "hip" for my tastes. (Currently hopping from Airbnb to Airbnb flatshare, paying $1000 or less a month for housing with internet and utilities included. Would be even cheaper if I wasn't in Western Europe.)

I've been thinking lately of where I would like to live for most of my late twenties and early thirties. I'm definitely a bit of a loner, but at the same time, I like living as part of a close-knit community. I wish I could find a little "tribe" of self-directed folks roughly my age in an old, creaky house somewhere in the mountains... or on a remote island... or in a forest, or something. Just people working on their projects, tending to their garden, raising some chickens (or maybe some kids), enjoying the fresh air, and mostly living away from the rest of society. An art commune for the 21st century, I guess.

Unfortunately, if such a place exists, I doubt it has a website, and I especially doubt they'd take in strays. Guess I'd have to organize it myself. It's too bad I don't know anyone else who'd want to live like this. (And even if I did, who knows if we'd get along?)

Maybe I'll just go and become a hermit.

Hey, thanks for the well thought out comment, the price point is for a certain group who wants total peace of mind not only in terms of internet speed etc.

http://nomadforum.io/ has some pretty diverse people, i'd ask people there, maybe someone knows someone who knows the perfect website-less place.

Thanks for the link! I'll definitely look into that. $1600 is actually pretty good for the "whole package", especially if it's in a cheaper country. I'd definitely consider it as a place to rest my weary feet for a few months (or... a year, or whatever the minimum lease is), especially if the house is really nice and has a good gender balance.

Personally still not finding the price justifiable. I'm in the same boat as archagon. To make this worthwhile, at least to a wider audience - you may have luck at your current point, I'd suggest amentities such as: Laundry, buffet or chef (Either on a cheap meal plan, pay as you go, or included), transportation services to local hubs, and group activities as a few ideas.

I think this might appeal to first time nomads.

I haven't found living life as a digital nomad too challenging. The biggest hurdle is just meeting cool people you want to spend time with, but that works out as long as you go out enough, or are in a city that has an active developer community (like Tokyo, my current haunt).

But I realize people doing it for the first time might seem intimidated, so they might be willing to pay extra for that 'peace of mind.'

I think that forum is also owned by someone on your team. Not that I mind, and it looks like it has value, but might want to gives the heads up for a product plug.

Hi, sorry for the non-disclosure: Pieter is part of the external advisory team, so mentioning him feels like mentioning other nomad* startups and it's definitely a good go to source.

Hey archagon - you should check out our group: hackerparadise.org

We've already run a co-living, co-working trip in Costa Rica and are about to begin another one in SE Asia.

This is cool. Any write ups from the last retreat?

Hey Caser,

Very interested in applying - are you still accepting applications? I saw the first trip starts this month.

Hey Jay - yes we're still accepting applications. You can join us part-way through.

Have you ever had anyone with a physical disability apply?

We haven't yet, but if you shoot us an email we're happy to talk more about your situation.

This seems interesting! Especially as I'm planning to be in Thailand at the same time as you guys. Hmmm!

Bard House in Iowa City might be to your taste.

Love all the suggestions, please keep them coming!

Great concept!

I guess the selection that will occur based on the price can be either positive or negative depending on your taste.

One of the reason to join one of these communities, I would think, is to socialize and network with interesting individual... and you might want to pay extra for that. Then again, if the prize de facto excludes the people you find interesting than not so much :)

I think I'd try to do a little prize segmentation with tiered costs, that way you could perhaps get more interesting people and maximize profit. Then again maybe it will book fully using these prizes

This is something I may create w/in the next decade. If I ever get enough $$ (don't need much, actually) to build several/a dozen tiny houses in a village somewhere, I'd do it in order to create what you describe.

On a side note, something I've been looking for for many years is a simple, no frills, cheap room rental service across the world's largest cities. Of course, now there's Airbnb, but I'd prefer one company that administers the living locations + design/look of the rooms, if that makes sense, rather than a network of regular people using a site to rent out their places. Basically, I want to know exactly what I'm getting (ie, same price, size, amenities, ease) no matter which city I go to. Like a hotel chain but for short, middle, and/or long term rentals.

Caravanserai looks like a promising start, though I'm also aware of the effort + price points from living abroad (I'm currently in Lisbon), and it's about 50-60% less than the lofty $1,600 mentioned (however, a co-working space here is around $220/mo, and I didn't include this factor in my estimate).

All that said, I am quite the stickler but surely most people won't mind paying the currently-set price.

As one who lives in Silicon Valley, almost everything seems reasonably affordable by comparison (currently paying $1300 for tiny one bedroom apartment built in the 70s).

EDIT: I should add that rate is the absolute lowest I was able to find and not be in East Side San Jose (for those in the neighborhood who were likely about to say, "damn, only $1300?").

1300 for your own place?!?!? ;-)

lol you're paying at least 50% below market for a 1 br.

I am reasonably certain now I do not want to live in Silicon Valley.

Well, you're not alone, I dream about this all the time. I want to be surrounded by forest but not a total hermit.

20s/30s: I'm 32. Of the last 15 years I've spent ~12 in Asia, one in London, one in LA, one Australia/NZ. I can highly recommend traveling around Asia on the slow, looking around for somewhere that suits you, and settling awhile. My choice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yunnan

Why Yunnan?

I am actually writing a book to answer this question. It has become a life's work scale project in LyX. ;)

* Ethnically diverse

* beautiful and varied scenery, from jungles to snow mountains

* really good weather

* not as polluted as the rest of China

I had a friend who lived in Kunming once, which was the best he could do and still get a job. Some foreigners open cafes in Dali/Lijiang/Zhongdian.

I should really do another weekend trip to Lijiang or Zhongdian.

I should really do another weekend trip to Lijiang or Zhongdian.

Come to Fuxian Lake and I'll take you sailing. 40 min from Kunming airport.

Kunming used to be much nicer, but is getting a lot of pollution these days. Dianxi lake used to be so nice...and now its just algae.

Agree. That's why I don't live there, just visit.

It is a shame really. Kunming could have been the SF of China.

You could try the housing co-op options here in Boulder. I have had friends who enjoyed these, but never tried them myself:

http://boulderhousingcoalition.org/

Edit: Oops, didn't see the income limitations before I posted.

I've wanted this for a while.

Some challenges: initial capital (does one person buy and rent to rest, or is it equal ownership?) How to settle internal disputes (which would vary based on which of the above set ups you choose) Ensuring everyone has enough remote work to pay for any (albeit probably small) expenses. Legal challenges. Wanting to be remote yet requiring Internet, electricity, groceries (unless you plan on growing nearly all of your food, which brings other challenges).

Note that these challenges aren't necessarily unique and have been faced by basically every commune/intentional community, so researching some of the strategies employed by others would be key.

It's still a lovely dream, though.

Yeah. In terms of the politics, I lived in a student cooperative in college, which I think was a pretty good model. Money went into a central pool to pay for various things, and all decisions (including membership) were made democratically, in house meetings. Everybody was responsible for part of the chores (determined at the beginning of the year) and people could also run to be elected for managerial positions (workshift, social, kitchen, etc.) Of course, as with any organization, there were occasional conflicts, poor meeting attendance, etc. But our house didn't fall apart and it was a life-changing experience for many of us.

I can see how having to (eventually) evict those who can't afford to stay, or who do bad things (theft, sexual harassment), would be difficult. In the co-ops, we could always defer to our central office to resolve the really difficult conflicts (which were very very rare, but still happened on occasion). Not sure how it would work in a small community, especially if the local law enforcement isn't very good (or absent altogether).

Internet is a bit easier these days since you can get a cell signal pretty much anywhere. (Though something a bit faster would be nice, of course.)

I assume that houses/resorts/communities in remote places use generators for their electricity?

Great, now I'm thinking of all the best ways to redo civilization from scratch. How just like a programmer. :)

I saw a documentary and just this sort of place in the scandinavian countries. I can't find the specific links, but some quick googling turned up the term co-housing and this interesting overview:

http://www.cohousing.org/node/1537

I think you're looking for Ruigoord, NL [0]

[0] http://ruigoord.nl/

You've probably already thought about this, but you might want to make sure clients understand the legal side of things. We've certainly had some cases at Mozilla where remote workers had to be "reminded" that we could only pay them if they maintained residency in their official company of employment, that they would be in violation of the tourist visa they had traveled to these other locations under if they worked there for 3 months, etc.

It's a bit of a minefield, and I only know the warnings that legal/HR tell managers :-)

Right to the point, that's one of the reasons we choose the countries we did, as they make it OKish to work for a non-local (!!!) company. The Chiang Mai raid a few weeks ago was good example and scared a lot of people, but overall the risk is manageable.

The Chiang Mai raid a few weeks ago

I was confused by your seemingly conflicting comments (the other was about the six month visa allowing remote work), so I Googled it:

http://asiancorrespondent.com/127125/thailand-immigration-of...

Foreigners working for a Thai firm must hold a valid non-immigrant (Type B) visa, but so-called ‘digital nomads’ – who are often self-employed – can sidestep that requirement.

So, the 'raid' was because officials thought the foreigners were working for the co-working space.

Exactly, thanks for posting the details.

Note that digital nomads have no legal status, and you would be wise to pay taxes in the US if American if you aren't paying Thai taxes.

> You've probably already thought about this, but you might want to make sure clients understand the legal side of things.

I doubt that for $1600 a month this includes all the legal paperwork in order to work in Portugal, Mexico and Indonesia.

It's another abuse of the visa-free status many Westerners are given by countries that wish to attract tourists.

This is the second one I've seen today. First is here - http://drrn.net/why-did-i-move-to-thailand-to-bootstrap-my-s...

Edit: I'm not aware of any new Thai visas being announced. It definitely would have been mentioned on ThaiVisa.com. Please post a link.

Things are changing very fast atm, as most countries realize that it's a good group of people to have.

Eg Thailands new 6 months Visa explicitly includes remote work.

Portugal, as of a few years back, allows one to (theoretically) continually renew their 90-day tourist visa. In a few other EU countries (like Denmark), it's possible to stay an extra 90 days per their own non-Shengen laws.

http://www.reddit.com/r/travel/comments/1e83wv/extra_90_days...

Exactly which visa is this you're talking about?

Can you explain how its visa abuse? I'm not working for a business in that country, I'm working for a business in my home country.

As an accepting country, you're getting all of the benefits of me being there, spending money on services and goods, without having to provide me with employment or unpaid government services.

In the same way a drivers license does not grant you the right to pilot a ship or aircraft, a tourist visa doesn't allow you to work. A government is allowing you in because you stated your intentions to be a tourist, spend money, and then leave. They are under no obligation to allow you in, so it is a privilege being extended to you. Working without the correct type of visa could subject you to imprisonment or deportation.

In general, many nations' laws still remain blissfully unaware of the existence of remote work. But ask politicians of nearly any stripe the following question.

"I'm already working a remote project that took away no jobs from any of your citizens, and can do this from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. Can I come into your country for a few months and spend some money there as a tourist while continuing my remote work?"

And the vast majority will throw their arms open. While not realizing their nation's laws are written such that work, any work whatsoever, is disallowed by their visas, as these laws were written back when even the notion of remote work as we know it didn't exist. And even then, there were grey, murky areas; a trader could conduct his offshore business over telex and saunter around the hotel otherwise, and not run afoul of visa rules enforcement despite not meeting compliance, because it wasn't very obvious.

Today there is much more transparency and outward manifestations of "work" like co-working spaces so many traveling coders can more easily run afoul of letter-of-the-law applications of the visa laws. If you are a traveling doctor/lawyer taking phone consultations and charging for them though, then technically you are also running afoul, even though it is extremely unlikely you would run into visa enforcement.

You are technically correct, but more progressive nations like Thailand with their visa laws that reflect an acknowledgement of the existence of nomadic workers with remote work will continue to attract that small demographic until the comparative advantage is erased by adoption of similar legislation nearly everywhere else. In the meantime, it is such a small demographic, and generally relatively frugal, it is arguable that positions like yours are really worth the effort to act out into actual enforcement, or to get worked up over.

That demographic's largest economic impact is likely the advertising and marketing benefits their glowing blog posts deliver to their host nations, and in aggregate they are not really adding all that much to the overall tourist industry nor taking jobs away from the local populace. And unless a significant fraction of the global population makes the highly unlikely shift to nomadic working, that demographic's immediate cash-value economic impact won't change all that much for the foreseeable future.

Yes, exactly. These laws were put in place well before remote work became possible. My mom still has a tough time understanding how I can do work without being in an office. I'm sure many politicians who make the laws still don't understand this concept.

Where does the line get drawn? If a CEO goes on holiday and is on a tourist visa but has a few phone calls back to his company, is that breaking the law? Should he be kicked out of the country?

If a programmer goes to San Francisco to visit but happens to go to a few meetups, is that now "work"?

> a tourist visa doesn't allow you to work.

We'll split hairs then. My work takes place where I'm paid, and I'm paid as a resident of Florida, no matter where in the world I travel.

Actually your work takes place where your employer is registered. The rules for most countries are basically very simple -- If you are on a tourist visa, you cannot get hired by a local employer.

No. That is not correct. Its work if you get hired by a local business. And then you have to pay income tax locally.

Self-employment == employment in all of these countries. Whether doing business with locals or not.

Take Thailand as an example. The "Alien Working Act" defines work as "Work is defined broadly to include any work involving physical strength or knowledge whether or not done for money or other remuneration."

It's not a different visa, but according to this (http://chiangmaicitynews.com/news.php?id=4366) you are allowed to do remote work on a tourist visa.

Unfortunately that police colonel does not have the authority to change the law. He's simply stating that he won't enforce the law.

That being said these individuals were deported:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/459553/online-busine...

The situation is different no doubt but there are similarities.

Have you considered having some storage in the house that automatically follows you around the world as you move from place to place ? i.e. your belongings just turn up at the house you are currently staying in without you having to deal with shipping?

Edit: to clarify/simplify

That would be a great idea!

That's very high up the list, bulk shipping of standardized boxes is the favorite solution atm, but didn't do in-depth cost comparisons etc.

Just was stuck for a few days in the Alps with the overhead bin luggage for Bali on the way back to SF, so i feel your pain.

How would you prefer to have it handled?

You guys negotiate a discount with a carrier like Fedex/UPS (or even just use EasyPost.com), and I can ship my gear ahead of me to one of the other locations. I think having a printer on site for shipping labels would be more than sufficient.

I would love to be able to travel between one of your houses in London to Bali with only a carry on luggage (e.g. a few days clothes and my laptop) - then have a box of clothes follow me within the week.

Clothes are probably a good place to start. Having a simple cupboard draw that is automatically sent would be good (cost permitting).

- Most people shouldn't have a problem with you searching through this sort of thing for illicit goods

- I think it is mainly clothes that take up the bulk of space in peoples suitcases

- Clothes can be compressed for space/cost efficiency

Edit: added an extra thing!

Love the modular idea of literally using the drawer (we plan something similar for the kitchen cold storage).

Thanks!

maybe something like luggagefree? (https://www.luggagefree.com/)

Thanks!

>How would you prefer to have it handled?

Something as automatic as possible would be dang neat.

If (as is likely) something 'magic' isn't feasible, the second best way would probably be to adopt the method used by some managed partial-ownership properties - everything goes into a luggage trunk that smoothly vanishes into storage upon leaving and is there and available on arriving, possibly along with some basic packing/unpacking of clothes and so on.

A mostly-painless way of dealing with insurance and the related listing of contents would best a must, as would some kind of interfacing with customs.

Wait...you've named your startup "Caravanserai" and you don't have any destinations on the actual historical Silk Road? For shame!

Turkey is an amazing place to work and live, there's an incredibly vibrant hacker community, and the people are some of the most welcoming in the world (especially if you're a visitor). Istanbul rents on the European side can run pretty high, but on the Asian side (and with the way the exchange rate is going these days), I think you'd be remiss to leave it out.

If not Istanbul, Ankara has a bunch of universities and rents are considerably cheaper. Bodrum, too, has relatively low rents and absolutely amazing natural beauty. Ok, enough ranting...

Seriously cool concept, though. I look forward to seeing where you take it!

Haha, true dat.

We looked at Istanbul, but it was prohibitively expensive, at least for our Beta batch where we reserve certain safety buffer for things that could go wrong and in the neighborhoods we looked at.

Coastal towns like Bodrum could be a nice choice, any areas in Istanbul we should reconsider?

Other places to check: Üskudar, Kadiköy, Maltepe, and Kartal...pretty much anywhere along Bağdat street will still have a lively atmosphere, good access to transportation, and lower rents. The Asian side is actually growing faster than the European side, so while Beyoğlu is still the focus of social life in Istanbul, Bağdat Cadessi is pretty active. Also, Sabiha Gökçen Airport (on the Asian side) has a growing number of very cheap connections to destinations in the area.

Thanks! Very much so.

Alanya is a beautiful coastal city in Turkey with reasonable prices. http://www.hello-alanya.com/ Sarajevo in Bosnia is inexpensive and programmer friendly. http://www.sarajevotimes.com/hub387-launches-first-regional-...

Consider Çeşme. It is near Izmir and cheap, especially in the winter it would be a heaven for a nomad. High temperatures than normal winter conditions. Un crowded and peaceful.

I'm going to be visiting Istanbul in a few months. Are you living there now? Do any of the hacker communities you mentioned have websites?

I'm currently in Ankara, but you can reach out to the guys at http://webbox.io and they can point you in the right direction. If you work with JS, check out the http://www.meetup.com/jstanbul/ community as well.

Not to rain on your parade, but isn't it a bit disingenuous to compare your cost with living in NY or SF? I mean, of course it's much cheaper to live in Lisbon or Mexico City, regardless of the particular accommodation.

Agreed - frankly, I'm not sure if the convenience of having the location set up with reliable internet access and furnished on arrival is worth the price, compared to other properties in the same locations.

There's a lot of other stuff in there as well, and we really try to make it perfect for a particular group that wouldn't just move to Bali themselves.

The assumption is that there's a reason why WeWork wasn't the first Coworking space, but won the market with a great product.

Yeah, I didn't understand why they would compare cost of living between different cities. You could compare San Francisco with some random Midwest city and get even higher savings. I would like to see how the price of this setup compares to other options in those cities like typical apartments, private hostel rooms, etc.

Yeah, anyone considering a digital nomad lifestyle isn't typically looking at NYC or London; the most popular destination of Chiang Mai is rated at $638/month all-in[1], and most have rent $300-$500 /month, not $1500.

I really love the concept but as presented it isn't appealing. The idea of not having to deal with all the hassle of finding and organising accommodation is great.. but they only have (and not even that yet) 3 locations. "hey you can travel the world (3 locations)" doesn't have so much appeal. Obviously they plan on expanding but the price is for now, not the future.

I suspect that if someone decides to stay for more than a couple of months they will often splinter off into cheaper accommodation. Having the fixed fee also makes it difficult to set up in the most sensible (cheapest) areas.. because the attraction of going it alone in those areas will be higher the better value the area is.

It strikes me they would have been better off setting up a handful of these locations first as individual nomad/co-habitation accommodation, ironing out all the issues, and then introducing the go-anywhere subscription idea. They've left themselves an awful lot to deal with in one go.

1. nomadlist.com

Hi! We tried doing as you described, but the way we wanted it to be can only be done if you own the whole stack, thus building it ourselves.

It's a completely different target group, what you describe is being done nicely by people like nomadhouse.io and a lot of single location providers.

Living in Lisbon is cheap? Ok...

Sounds like someone just renamed "timeshare."

This.

To me, this sounds like a very high end version of a hostel.

A hostel composed of single rooms with office space is... like... just living. In a house.

It's not easy working in a hostel. No desks, often a party atmosphere, and 20 backpackers sharing a single wifi connection.

There are a lot of differences in the way the whole things work, from the practical architecture to the funding model (investors and 'subscribers' are not necessarily the same people etc).

Happy to make answer more specific questions about the differences.

I was hoping that AirBnB would do something like that. Great initiative! I'll add this to my list https://github.com/lukasz-madon/awesome-remote-job

Hey, great list! I want to start working remotely soon and will make sure to go through most of the links you curated there. Thanks!

Hey - may want to add us as well :)

hackerparadise.org

Thanks Lukasz, appreciated!

Excuse my language, but this is fucking awesome. As an aspiring technomad and serial minimalist, I want to thank you for such great idea and execution. My only fear is that the current service might be quite steep for the average nomad.

Thanks, appreciated, including the language. The good thing is: We only need 120 good people to make it work.

And we hope there are many more in cities like NY, SF or London.

The concept is really nice!

BUT WHY OH WHY THE SCROLL HIJACKING?

Guilty.

I actually really liked the scrolling effect on this website.

It's utterly broken on mobiles, will fix that hopefully soon, feel free to fork at https://github.com/brunohaid/houseofcards

Agreed. I spent too long staring dumbly at the page, finding nothing to click on, wondering how to get more information.

I hate this trend towards elimination of affordances.

But you scroll this page the exact same way you do any other page. The visual treatment is different, but the scrollbar is exactly the same. This certainly isn't scrolljacking in the normally accepted sense.

Yeah,this site is barely functional on my Nexus 5.

This isn't scroll hijacking. This -> http://www.milwaukeepolicenews.com/#menu=source-page is scroll hijacking. Just because it's animating when you scroll doesn't mean it's hijacking.

Hijacking is specifically altering the speed and or movement of the scroll.

Oh my god. Why

That's going to look so retro in 2020 when they get the budget to replace it!

This is a very nice idea already.

What should they do to make me really happy? Be able to invest some sum of money (or an existing property?) and enjoy a lifetime of co-living (they need much more destinations, of course). This can be a nice mode of rapid growth, property in exchange to co-living promise.

I wish there was a "really, really upvote this comment" button on HN.

I had been hoping that this would eventually emerge from the nomad community - it's a great idea.

The inclusion of a moped or shared vehicle in each location would seal the deal for me.

I can see why they didn't include this. I don't know about Portugal, but I've driven in Mexico and I know people who have attempted to drive in Bali. If you're not from there, I don't recommend it. You might be fine on most of your trips, but eventually the assumptions you have about driving from your home will be violated, and there will be an incident that will cost you money. If the car belonged to this company it would also cost them money.

One of the perks of cheap locations is that hiring a cab is cheap. Also you can ride a bike. Also driving is the least relaxing way to experience any of these places.

While not sure about this particular business model, it is the first good use case for container hotel rooms I've ever seen.

Standardized rooms all over the world, run as a network of independent providers adhering to the international code of practice, advertised and paid for on AirBNB (because we already have hassle free hotel check in experience, why build another one).

... and stuffed with IKEA furniture we all know and love :)

Containers are indeed a great idea for less permanent locations, otherwise solid constructions beats containers after a few years.

This is a neat idea, but seems quite expensive, also the price comparisons are a bit unfair.

I can't speak for NY, but in London, you could get a nice room in a shared flat for 890 GBP (=1356 USD) on the edge of first zone, so the commute (monthly Underground ticket for zones 1&2) would be a much more reasonable 130 GBP (=200 USD), far from 698 USD as listed on the site.

Yes, that London cost of living is way off.

Yeah, the effect of the price comparison for me was ... "hang on a minute, I could add a desk in a shared workspace to my central London room rental costs and it would still be less than the rate for the hackerspace in Bali"

Interesting Project Question: How can you make sure, that every Nomad has a place to stay in each destination? If you limit the time one can spend at a destination, the living costs would be exponentially higher as the flight costs technically affect the flat rate.

Honest answer is we have to optimize this as we go. You can switch in monthly increments, first come first serve, if this leads to problems there'd be additional rules like that you have to switch every n month or can only spend as many in one location per year etc.

Internet in Indonesia is ridiculously cheap. For $500 a month you'll have a very nice place in Bali. No need for a year lease.

3g Internet in Portugal is a little bit expensive. Not too bad -- about 2 euro a Gig. 500 euros a month will get you a nice place. Not sure about how long a lease you'd need to sign.

Mexico City. Why on earth would you want to go to Mexico City?

Why on earth would you want to go to Mexico City?

Why wouldn't you want to go to Mexico City? It's said to feel very European, and there's a lot of interesting history and architecture. I'd go there just as soon as I'd go to Bangkok.

"Mexico City. Why on earth would you want to go to Mexico City?"

Because the most beautiful and exciting city on Earth is full of artists, programmers, scholars, great street food, great fancy restaurants, museums, history, good looking and outgoing young locals, sports clubs, perfect weather, rugged mountain wilderness, organic ripe produce year round, religious pilgrimage sites, great universities, live music and theatre, pretty architecture, peaceful parks, lively squares and plazas, fast easy transit and bikeshare programs, and a constant parade of special events.

Plus, if you're earning in euros or dollars, it's cheap.

Sign a simple lease, travel the world? This is incredibly tempting. ;)

I can't wait to do it. Definitely in. It's awesome that you're taking the leap to make your spaces connected across countries. And a +1 for the idea of moving boxes around from country to country.

As an aside I can't understand why, as a first step, co-working spaces in different locations haven't partnered up to offer this to people looking to move around and sort out their own accommodation. Having the availability of, say, Regus offices, with the entrepreneurship and tech focus found in current co-working spaces would be a huge plus.

Hi Tony, thanks! WeWork is working on this, in Europe you have things like https://copass.org/ launched by Betahaus and others.

Co-working is extremely interesting for us, as there are many lessons why some worked and scaled, and why most of it didn't. A lot to learn.

Hey Tony! We're starting to work on this too - check us out: hackerparadise.org

http://www.thesurfoffice.com

This is an awesome idea and I'm very interested.

- Are there more locations that are considered?

- Is this meant to grow with demand, or be limited to a few first-come/first-served offering?

- It's not clear to me (maybe I misread) what happens when I move to another country. Am I holding a lock on the rooms everywhere, or am I allocated a room on request?

I work remote, and currently in school but once done, I totally want to start moving around the world for periods of times. Q1 2016 is about when that should start happening.

A lot of, from Greek fishing villages to Oakland, growing by demand.

The rooms are allocated on request, month-wise, we hopefully figure out a good & fair system for everyone and you're more than welcome to switch informally with others.

Isn't this just a new twist on time sharing, but in places that people who haven't lived abroad think are "cool"?

$1,600 is more than a little pricey....

It took me a while to realize that I was supposed to scroll. I spent like 15 seconds trying to click something. Might want to make that more obvious.

If they can provide decent internet I'm in.

cool concept, but not sure Mexico City is a good location. I've heard it can be very dangerous, especially in the evenings.

Spent some time there in the past 6 months and i found it very OK. We looked at more southern destinations, like Medellin / Bogota, but then the flight times to SF and NY start making 1-2 day trips less feasible.

What about Guadalajara?

- Further north (albeit slightly) than Mexico City, and thus even closer to New York and San Francisco (if those proximities are in indeed your criteria)

- Major (relative to Mexico, at least) tech hub, making the perfect setting for programmers, remote sysadmins, and other folks who would appreciate living in a place populated by like-minded folks

- Birthplace of mariachi music (!)

Mexico City has extremely affordable and good quality fibre internet in central areas (where you would want to live anyway), and the food options are amazing. It's as safe as long as you stay aware of your surroundings and use a taxi service. Many parts of Mexico are safe to travel, especially in high tourism areas. I assume the property would be in the Condesa or Roma area. You'll see americans and europeans walking around everywhere and feel quite at home.

"assume the property would be in the Condesa or Roma area."

I hope so. Polanco is too snooty. The Historic Center has gotten viable for living with residential redevelopment and revolutionary traffic calming but still has a touristy vibe. I like family-oriented Del Valle but it's probably better for a 40 year old than a 20 year old.

Coyoacán's ayuntamiento discourages short term residents and has driven almost all hotels out of the area, but would make a good location close to the National University and lively streets and parks.

I think Startup Weekend was in the Condesa.

Indeed. Guadalajara (at least from what I've gathered chatting with folks local to that area) is much more tech-savvy (quite a few tech firms - big and small - have setups there), is home to an indie film festival (among other things), and is the supposed birthplace of mariachi music. If I were to give up my stationary life and become a nomad, I'd much rather have my transient basecamp in Guadalajara than Mexico City, to be honest.

Cool concept if I understand correctly but of course would have to see how it plays out in practice. (Wonder how easy it will be to switch locations in practice.) The price sounds a bit high for those interested in nomadism. Beautiful website but I'd suggest taking "Hahaha" off the utility price and just put a 0 or included.

You might want to look into localizing your numbers. Having amounts in USD/mo and then showing it using a decimal as the thousands separator feels silly, even though it makes sense in MX. Something like http://formatjs.io/ can help.

Thanks, fixed!

MX does not use . as thousands separator or , as decimal separator. It uses the symbols rationally and correctly just as the other North American nations do.

This looks awesome, I'm definitely interested.

I also found Coconat [1] on HN, and got in touch with them over email. Hopefully my wife and I will be visiting them when they open in July.

[1]: http://coconat-space.com/

There's so much incredible stuff around Berlin, favorite so far is https://www.google.com/search?q=Beelitz-Heilstätten

It's an interesting idea, but it's also pretty obvious this is a for-profit venture by OP. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I'd like to see something similar in more of a cooperative legal structure.

Agree (also waiting for someone to recreate Uber as a protocol).

Not sure where Artur is heading with nomadhouse.io , but that might be an option.

Bug Report: on Firefox on Linux, after pressing "I'm interested" does not appear any message. Maybe email is not even sent, a quick look show a ping sent to intercom that could be enough. Chrome on Linux is ok.

Nice idea... But I definitely would not live for more than a week or 2 in 2 of the 3 places listed (Mexico City, Ubud). Lisbon is fine thought.

Why did you choose Ubud instead of other places in Bali?

It's most central, so no matter if you want to surf in Uluwatu, have drinks in Canggu or go spearfishing in Amed, you can reach all of Bali quite easily.

I do get the slightly bad esoteric rep Ubud has, but it also got a very vibrant "getiing shit done" community.

Are your doubt more about location or other issues?

Minor discrepancy:

On the global map, Mexico City is linked to SF, NY, and Bogotá, while the text description says: "SF, NY or Caribbean for a day".

You're right, will update later today once the HN onslaught is quieting down a bit.

Pretty cool idea, and beautifully designed website. Any idea on what this type of design would be called and/or how its done?

Hi, if you refer to the site you can fork it anytime at https://github.com/brunohaid/houseofcards but it's still utterly broken on mobiles, will release a better version hopefully soon.

Why did you decide for subscription model? It makes sense for me if you have a network of 10+ locations.

Thats the goal, 3 locations on 3 continents is the MVP so to speak.

Can my girlfriend come?

Sure, we even think about providing daycare on site, so if you want to spend some quality time as couple / young parents that should be a good experience.

Any age restriction?

For the girlfriend?

In general, young or old, male or female, participant or companion?

No age restrictions, actively gender balanced, we don't really make the latter distinction.

The biggest question becomes: income taxes.

Any ideas how that will play out?

That's a giant topic, as always, especially if you choose to spend a critical time threshold at a certain location (> ~6 months a year normally). We do plan to offer informal advice on topics like this as a service, but there are so many options (keep residing in your home country, choose a location like Estonia etc) that it's hard to do this as a legally binding service.

But again: It's manageable, literally millions of people do it.

Something, something globalized gentrification.

One could argue that global gentrification is inherently impossible...

Can I split the cost with my partner?

Sure. Pricing is per room.

You do understand that is where hotels make money, right? And that you're doing the opposite, right?

Now, joking aside, that is awesome!

This is great.

I just don't dig the locations. I'm not going anywhere close to large groups of Muslim Extremists, or Narcoterrorists.

I guess I'm just spoiled by the relative safety of the US.

You're missing out on a beautiful world out there.

Many people in Ubon, Mexico City and Lisbon probably think the US is unsafe after watching TV & movies set in inner-city LA and Detroit, Baltimore & Albuquerque, et cetera.

So? Ubon and Lisbon are too close to HOT wars being waged by violent islamists. I have no intention of being within 100 miles of Detroit either...

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