Important Factors to Consider
Essential factors to check before you commit
Two spaces at the same per-seat price can differ by thousands a month once you account for what is included, when you can get in, and how long you are tied in.
These are the factors that separate a space that still works after three months from one your team quietly stops using.
Seats and space per person
Ask for the seat count and the carpet area. A comfortable shared floor gives roughly 50-70 sq ft per person; below that, desks get shallow, aisles get tight, and calls bleed into each other.
For a private cabin, check the seat count the operator will actually license, not the number of chairs they can fit into the room.
Furnished, managed or bare shell
- Furnished — Move in this week. Desks, chairs, internet, power backup, housekeeping and support are already running. Highest monthly rate, near-zero setup cost.
- Managed — Built to your layout and branding by the operator, billed as one monthly figure. Sensible from roughly 25 seats upward, with a longer commitment.
- Bare shell — You fund the fit-out. Only worth it for a long horizon and a team that has done it before, because setup runs into months.
All-in rate versus add-ons
Get every recurring charge onto one page before comparing. The quoted seat rate is often only part of the monthly outflow.
- Maintenance or CAM charges
- Electricity and power backup - included, capped, or metered
- Meeting room credits, and the hourly rate once credits run out
- Printing, storage, parking and extra access cards
- GST on the invoice, and the annual escalation percentage
Amenities that actually matter
Ignore the amenity list and test three things on a visit: how loud the floor is at peak hours, how many meeting rooms are free at 4pm, and whether there is anywhere to take a private call.
Everything else - pantry, events, gaming corner - is real, but rarely decides whether people come in.
Internet, power and infrastructure
Ask for the bandwidth per floor, whether there is a second internet line from another provider, and how long the backup carries the floor during an outage. Run a speed test yourself while you are on site, in the afternoon.
Access hours and security
Confirm the real access window. Twenty-four hour access sometimes means the floor is open but the pantry, reception and air conditioning are not. Check weekend access, the visitor policy, CCTV coverage, and how access cards are issued and revoked.
Lock-in and notice period
Lock-in is the period you pay for whether you stay or not. Notice is the warning you owe before leaving after lock-in ends. They stack: a six-month lock-in with a two-month notice means the earliest clean exit is month eight.
Yanisa lets you cap this before you shortlist: