When we fitted out the first floor in 2019 we had room for either eleven more dedicated desks or a row of soundproof booths. Desks were £295 a month each. Booths earn nothing.
We built the booths.
The problem they solve
A coworking floor breaks down in a specific way. Someone takes a call at their desk, quietly at first. The person opposite puts headphones on. A second call starts. Within a fortnight the whole bay is on headphones, nobody talks to anyone, and you have paid for a community and got an expensive library.
The fix is not a rule. It is somewhere to go that takes four seconds to get to. If the nearest booth is thirty metres away and might be occupied, people take the call at their desk. If there are ten of them and one is always free, they don’t.
Ten is the number
We worked it out from usage, not a formula. With 120 desks and six booths, peak occupancy hit six about twice a day and people started waiting. At ten, the most we have ever seen in use at once is eight, and that was a Wednesday in October when two teams had back-to-back interviews.
Being able to walk to a booth without checking first is the whole point. A booking system would have let us build six. The booking system is the thing that ruins it.
What they cost to run
Each booth needs ventilation and power, which is most of the expense, and a light that goes off when it is empty. We replace the acoustic felt every three years or so because it gets grubby. Two have had their doors rehung. That is it.
Against that: the first-floor bay is the quietest part of the building and has had no turnover in eighteen months. Eleven desks that never existed would have been let and re-let four times over by now.
