Thanks to the rise of the gig economy and the flux of freelancers and digital nomads entering the workforce, new and exciting coworking spaces in major cities are popping up all the time. Typical coworking offices already allow for tremendous variation in the terms and options that they provide over traditional office leases. This flexibility can be particularly attractive for startups looking to keep initial costs low, as well as seasoned businesses seeking to avoid the ball-and-chain of costly formal office rentals. Many of these coworking spaces take the notion of choice a step further by offering day passes. From hot desks by the hour, to meeting rooms by the day, there are plenty of possibilities out there if you’re looking to upgrade from your local coffee shop and secure a short-term workspace.
What Is A Coworking Day Pass?
Whether you want to change your scenery at home, adapt to frequent travel, or benefit from the open and inspirational spaces that most coworking operations try to foster, day passes are a great way to test out the many different coworking environments available in your chosen city. Pay-by-the-day passes allow you to rent a coworking space, usually an unassigned or “hot” desk for an hour or two up to a full day. They are usually offered alongside the more traditional coworking options of longer monthly or annual contracts and normally include standard coworking benefits besides the desk; such as coffee and tea service, along with access to high-speed wi-fi. Some locations also throw in access to print services and other office supplies.
Depending on which service you choose, day pass options can be either paid or free. Several coworking spaces including WeWork offer you a free day pass, allowing you to rent a desk for the day and assess whether the space or subscription plan will work for your business on a more permanent basis. Other coworking networks, however, provide paid day passes either as a subscription package or with access to spots that you pay for before or as you use. The subscription services that allow for a different office each day tout day passes for their convenience, like proximity to a client meeting or a child’s baseball game.
In this digital age, daily coworking passes are the final puzzle piece in a transient work life. For a price, they grant all of the stability of a real desk in a work environment without much real or intensive commitment. Daily passes still account for only a sliver of the coworking pie, but as demand grows so does supply.
Several well-developed coworking networks that list locations within given cities or even globally, depending on your unique needs. Most offer individual desk space and meeting rooms that can be booked instantly or on short notice. Although new pay-by-the-day platforms are springing up all the time.
Need A Place To Rent A Desk For The Day?
The following list of platforms allows you to rent a desk for the day. You can try out one of these coworking platforms to begin your hunt for the perfect workspace for the day.
LiquidSpace
LiquidSpace lets you search for nearby locations and offers many different, even non-traditional options, like the monthly rental of a conference room in a clinical space alongside simpler hot desk options. A quick search of rentals in Los Angeles, for instance, turns up almost 1300 spaces available to rent by the day, hour, or month, depending on what each listing dictates.
WeWork
WeWork is one of the most well know coworking space companies that now offer workspace for the day. With over 120+ location worldwide finding a day pass or space to rent is never an issue. Due to the convenience of WeWork locations, their daily work rates are definitely on the premium side. To purchase a WeWork day pass, you can visit their on-demand workspace site here. WeWork offers a few different day pass options.
- Pay-Per-Minute Seat: 30-minute minimum, which costs $6 then .20 cents per minute.
- WeWork Daily Pass Pricing: Includes a dedicated seat from 8am-6pm for $65/day.
- Conference Rooms For The Day: Start at $50/hr.
Coworker
This platform boasts access to information and reviews on 12,000+ different coworking spaces in over 165 countries. A quick search of downtown Los Angeles yields a bunch of independent hot desk spaces with prices starting around $20 for a seat at a wi-fi-equipped counter near trendy La Brea.
Coworker allows you to search for daily, weekly, or monthly options. If available, Coworker lists options for free trials or day passes to locations that satisfy your search—whether it’s for a dog-friendly space that provides snacks and pool access (yes, these are real search options!) or one that accepts cryptocurrency or PayPal as payment.
Sharedesk
Sharedesk provides booking access to thousands of locations around the world. You can look for either meeting spaces or workspaces through their site. Depending on what’s offered by each listing, you can book a meeting room in Shanghai by the hour or a desk in Sydney by the day. Once you find a selection that works, pay on their website or app and show up to your space with your confirmation.
Deskpass
Deskpass offers coworking options in several major US cities, including New York City, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Austin, San Francisco, Miami, Denver, and DC. All told, its network includes more than 300 worksites in these cities, which you can access through their subscription service. You can book spots by the day or rent meeting rooms by the hour. If you need coworking spaces in these major cities, Deskpass has plenty of classy and convenient options.
This platform is set up on a subscription basis with three membership options ranging from $49-$199 per month. The “Mini” subscription plan covers four visits to any Deskpass site in any city for $49, and your first month is free for trying them out. For eight visits per month to a space, you’ll need $99, while $199 gets you 20 days of workspace (no more than five visits to the same site) each month.
Croissant
Croissant is a subscription service that provides hourly access to coworking facilities in 30 major cities worldwide including Amsterdam, Atlanta, Austin, Barcelona, Berlin, Boston, Bucharest, Buenos Aires, Canary Islands, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Mexico City, Miami, Minneapolis, New York City, Paris, Philadelphia, Rotterdam, Salt Lake City, San Diego, Seattle, Stockholm, Tel Aviv, Toronto and Washington, DC.
Your first seven days of Croissant are free. After that, a subscription plan—which takes three forms for each city—kicks in. In Los Angeles, for example, the Explorer plan costs $35 each month. This entitles you to 10 hours of an available seat in any LA workspace each month. A friend can join you for an additional cost of $6.00 an hour. For $115 per month, you can access 40 hours in an available Croissant workspace along with five free guest hours. The most expensive option includes 120 hours a month along with 20 guest hours for $225.
Each Croissant plan lets you roll over unused hours to the next month. To book a space, check the app to find available seating and check-in upon arrival to begin using your time.
The Yard
The Yard offers 14 well-appointed coworking offices in primarily in and around New York City, along with spaces in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Boston. A day pass at any of The Yard facilities will set you back $35. In exchange, you’ll have access to the facility from 9:30am-5:30pm on a Monday-Friday (as long as it’s not a holiday) all the coffee, tea, or water you can drink and a free seven-day membership to Croissant – in case you venture outside of the Yard’s territory. The day pass also includes admission to the day’s events at the Yard.
Alley
Alley has coworking facilities available in Cambridge, Chelsea, Los Angeles, Palo Alto and Washington, DC, and will grant you 9-5 access for $25, which includes all the standard coworking amenities. In hopes that you’ll like the space enough to upgrade to a monthly plan, this platform lets you pay as you go without any other commitments.
Desks Near Me
Desks Near Me offers many different day pass options in major and even minor cities around the world. In a kind of Airbnb model, Desks Near Me encourages traditional office spaces to list empty/available desks on the site and Desks Near Me offers to match those with professionals looking for a coworking space. You can even search for salon booths, event venues, and lecture rooms. These sites charge by the hour, day, or week, although the platform even gives you the option to search for free spaces (which are, predictably, few and far between).
Spacious
Spacious offers drop-in desks at a handful of their facilities in New York City. The day pass costs $20 for a 24-hour period that starts when you check-in and unlocks access to all of Spacious’ regular features. You can bring a guest for $5.00 per hour up to $20 if you hold a day pass. The Spacious app lets you see how busy each space is at a given time and many have extended hours until 8 or 8:30 p.m. Spacious spaces are in a variety of locations—even in restaurants, according to the website—though you’ll be treated to the standard amenities.
Like other coworking brands, Spacious offers subscription plans that provide continuous access to Spacious sites when billed on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis ($199, $149, or $129 per month, respectively). When using these plans, you can invite a guest for five, 15, or 40 hours free based on your subscription term.
Day Pass Prices & Options
Since the price of a coworking day pass will vary tremendously depending on your needs, it’s hard to provide a definitive answer to this question. However, here are some general guidelines. Bare-bones access to a hot desk in a major city for the day will start around $20. In-demand locations with trendier features will go as high as $60/day with the majority, setting you back by around $35/day. Most of the services listed also provide meeting rooms alongside their coworking spaces that go for around $30 per hour in a major US city.
For the person just looking for a desk or meeting room for the day, these options are pretty affordable. Many day passes may even be free on a trial basis, as stated above. However, paying by the day generally costs more than a monthly subscription, like DeskPass or dedicated coworking monthly agreements. If you’re willing and able to settle down, even for just one month at a time, your bottom line will be better served going on a month-to-month basis.
Day Pass Amenities
All of the branded coworking spaces feature the same set of amenities: shared space, gourmet coffee and tea, and access to high-speed wi-fi. Some offer guest access or entitle the day pass holder to use the on-site pint services, like at Alley. Private spaces listed by individuals, like on Desks Near Me, may not all have these standard amenities.
Takeaways
If you’re in a major city, there are many coworking options available to you offering the cost savings and ease of use of communal facilities. If you can’t put down roots for any reason, day passes are a great option for getting the temporary use of a desk in a creative, conducive environment. The handful of available options discussed offer many different types of offices that are accessible in a variety of formats. Look at what you want in a given location, check availability, book it and go. If you’re smart and willing to shop around, you can get initial passes to several of these coworking spots for free.
Monthly subscriptions like DeskPass and Croissant drive the cost of a day pass down significantly while still giving you the freedom to roam—as long as you’re in a major city within their current network. Options like the Alley and the Yard are reasonably priced and well-appointed regional choices, if you’re in the area. If you decide that you can settle on a desk in one spot, and are willing to commit to a space, you’ll save quite a bit over the day pass rate as well. It just depends on your needs and how much you value your freedom.
Regardless of what coworking situation you may find yourself in, daily coworking day passes are a great way to see what’s out there and identify the traits that you need in your space. With all of the terms, locations and unique features in the myriad of coworking spaces, there’s something for everyone, and a day pass will let you try them all.
