It seems like their isn't much benefit to brand loyalty here - I would imagine it is easy to simply do a google search for a short term work place in a new city if you need a change of scenery from the coffee shop!
I think it would be amazing to see a co-working brand have locations absolutely everywhere, like 24 hour gyms. One price gets you into any of them and they're all the same. It would help with customer retention because they've already paid $300/mo to get in, so if they move or travel they're not paying someone else. They're sticking with you.
I'm surprised WeWork locations are so few and far between, while Snap Fitness has a location on every other corner. There can't be that much more overhead to a co-working space versus a 24 hour fitness center.
It's not impossible, but I'm not sure a one-price-fits-all makes the most sense. Let's say I travel mostly in the mid-west. I go to lots of co-working spaces for my three-hundred-per-month. You, mean while, live in new england. You travel to lots of spaces, too. Here's the difference: it is significantly more expensive to operate a space in new england. Food is pricier, land is much pricier, the list goes on. For a unified price, I would 1. have to charge mid-westerners more and coastal customers less, and 2. Lose some money from mid-wester customers which could have been made from them.
Better price discrimination -> better profits; businesses seek to do this every day with tiers, regional pricing, etc. Why would I throw all this away?
> I'm surprised WeWork locations are so few and far between, while Snap Fitness has a location on every other corner. There can't be that much more overhead to a co-working space versus a 24 hour fitness center.
Different business models. The gym gets you to pay your monthly fee based mostly on the aspiration that you'll go to the gym. Most people would ditch their coworking subscription if they don't use it almost every day, since there are plenty of alternative options (unlike the gym, which is the only place to get that kind of equipment).
Are they so different though? There must be more than a few "wantrepreneurs" renting space from WeWork, and at the other end of the spectrum, Equinox and other high end gyms are a couple hundred dollars a month, and I'm sure they're underutilized by some members, same as a regular gym.
Gyms have many more members than capacity. They would have to dramatically raise the price if people actually used their memberships. OTOH co-working spaces likely have much higher utilization since pretty much everyone goes to work.
Not only that, for the people who do show, they are expected to be there less than 1/5th as long as a WeWork member would show up. So now you're well above an order of magnitude difference in occupancy rates.
The 1/5th as long isn't as relevant as the peak - I guess gyms have a peak in the evening after working hours. Duringnthe peaknit doesn't matter if people stay half an hour or four hours ...
I'm surprised WeWork locations are so few and far between
Where are you located? They have 562 locations, In many large cities, (SF, NYC, Phil - in Mexico City too) at least you can't go a more than a few blocks without getting a WeWork. Its pretty ubiquitous for me when I travel, but I've got a limited circle of cities I hit
St Louis and Indianapolis are listed on their website as "coming soon". That still leaves Madison and Milwaukee WI, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Lansing MI, Cincinnati, Akron, Cleveland, and Toledo OH, Louisville KY, Springfield IL, South Bend IN, I could keep going.
All of those cities each have multiple co-working spaces so the market is there.
While not as prevalent as gyms, regus let’s users use all their locations.
Regus is old school from before coworking space was a term. They call themselves an office hotel, if I remember correctly. But they do have an area with coffee and tables where you can plug in a computer and work.
Was in a Regus office years back and you could pretty well book a desk/office for a day anywhere in the world - some of which are in pretty cool locations (if you're into architecture).
If only everything could be homogenous everywhere, so the very few people who have the opportunity to work wherever they like could avoid momentary inconveniences!
Yes, but not everyone does, and not everyone who has a Snap Fitness membership actually uses it. If that statement held true, Snap Fitness would have a US membership of ~330 million people.
Well, of course. But exercising can be marketing to everyone. Everyone is potentially in that target market.
The same can't be said for WeWork.
This is an obvious difference that answers the question to why you don't see WeWork everywhere you see gyms. Even my tiny hometown has a 24-hour fitness. Whether everyone uses their Snap Fitness membership is irrelevant, but notice how just about anyone can be guilted in to a gym membership.
I always liked this idea and wish the https://www.atlantacoworking.club/ or similar clubs, collectives, or co-ops would do something similar (instead of it being run by any individual coworking space).
Deskpass.com lets you drop into any coworking space in their network. It looks like they are up to 11 cities. You pay a subscription and then the coworking spaces get a flat fee for the day when you actually show up to their space.
