A day pass at Loft Nine costs £24. People ask what is on top of that, and the honest answer is: a meeting room, and nothing else.
What the £24 covers
Any free desk on the ground floor between 8am and 8pm, on a weekday. Gigabit wifi. A locker for the day if you want one. The kitchen, which means an espresso machine, three kinds of milk and a fridge you can put lunch in. The phone booths, all ten of them, with no booking system. The roof terrace, if it is between April and October and not raining, which in Manchester narrows it a bit.
You can also have two guests signed in at the front desk without paying anything more. Past two, or if they want a desk of their own for the day, it is another day rate.
What it does not cover
Meeting rooms. The Nine, our four-person room, is £22 an hour for non-members. If you have booked a day pass and want an hour in there, it is the same £22 — the member rate of £16 starts when you go monthly.
That is the entire list. There is no printing credit to buy, no wifi tier, no charge for the coffee.
Why we sell them at all
Most coworking spaces treat day passes as a trial and price them to push you into a contract. We sell about sixty a month and a fair number go to the same eight or nine people, who come in two days a week and have no interest in paying for five. That is a perfectly good way to use the building.
If you do come in more than seven days a month, the £185 hot desk works out cheaper. We tell people that on the tour, and we tell day-pass regulars when their usage crosses over. It is not a trap.
Buying one
Book the night before if you can, so the front desk knows to expect you. Walk-ins are fine when there is space, and there almost always is on a Monday or a Friday. Five-day books cost £105, which is a pound short of £21 a day, and they do not expire.
