Spacious (Website) is a service that partners with restaurants to rent them out to coworkers during their off-hours.
The innovative start-up connects freelancers and remote workers with otherwise empty venues to hold meetings, presentations, or just to take advantage of the coffee bar and WiFi connection for a starting fee of $95 a month.
In exchange for the space, restaurants get an added bonus check each month during the times they’re traditionally idle. Some restaurants in New York take advantage of having a restaurant full of bodies to kick-off their daily happy hours before easing into dinner service.
Although currently only located in New York, the company is slowly inching into new municipalities, including San Francisco and Boston.
Today’s workforce is increasingly mobile and most people would welcome a change of scenery for at least a few afternoons a week, and plenty of start-ups aren’t ready to commit to a permanent desk at a more formal coworking space.
What beautiful restaurant would you like to work out of during the day?
The idea on it’s surface has some merit, but balanced against the additional utility costs, security concerns and most important the liability concerns, it’s hard to imagine this catching on. Once insurance companies become aware of the situation the increased premium cost to allow this type of activity would likely wipe out and potential income offset.
That’s notable, but the insurance cost could be passed on to the company that’s facilitating the “rentals.”