What initially drew me to Impact Hub was their location-- this, honestly, is probably the main motivation I had when looking for a new office space. It was conveniently located at Ward and there were ample options for free or cost effective parking.
I decided to go with the private office space that was 72 sq ft and rented for a little over $640 a month (plus tax). I was okay with this price for a membership because it gave my company a designated small office space, and it had good internet, printing, misc amenities, and the location was great. While those features were nice, there were some things I didn't necessarily enjoy.
I don't know if I would truly classify the space I rented as a "private office." The walls were actually not real walls, but pieced together with plastic type wall material so that way it could be easily rearranged or restructured. I totally understand why the office space is structured this way, but it gets pretty noisy (just with the amount of people walking around, doing work, having conversations... and also music playing, etc). It was really distracting, especially if I was trying to get a ton of work done. I would actually try to come either early in the morning or later at night, just to avoid the distractions/noise.
I know that they have some units with full walls, but those all get booked up really fast. So just something to consider.
(One side note: my office unit was L7. I would highly suggest not taking that unit if hearing other people talk on the phone is distracting to you. Our office neighbor who had the corner unit talks on the phone quite loudly on a pretty consistent basis. He also seems to be in a line of work that is not happy as he is regularly cursing, speaking negative, and getting upset. It was really distracting and uncomfortable)
While the above elements were distracting, I could live with that. The one item that essentially motivated me to find a better office spot was the way their membership fee was set up. I completely get their reasonings for their different level of memberships and whatnot, but I feel really strongly that if someone is renting a "private office" space, that they should have the ability to have an employee of their company work in the office space without additional charges. It wasn't made clear to me before I began my plan with Impact Hub that I would be charged additionally for my employee to come to work. It wasn't as if I was having her work in the common space or anything like that, she was essentially coming into the private office space that I rented to conduct my business. I was really confused when I started seeing daily charges for my staff member coming in and it just caught me off guard. I had to clarify with the host several times on these charges and to get the full understanding of costs associated with having my employee work in the office.
But still, I understand and respect that they can structure memberships however they want and that it also helps them track and measure how many people are in and use their facility. It would be really helpful if that could be better explained in the initial sales process so people can really understand. I think that's the main difference between a coworking environment and a true private office type scenario.
Once I fully understood that in essence, it would be costing me a daily rate of $15 per day (on top of the rent/membership I was already paying) for my staff member to come to work, it was basically no different than paying for parking in Chinatown. When I began looking at it that way, the factors of the noise, angry neighbor, and what was really a very small office space without full privacy, began to become bigger issues and motivated me to look into other options.
While the Impact Hub wasn't the right structure for what I was looking for in an office space, I do see the value it brings to the community, freelancers, and small businesses. I loved the location, and if they had a better structure for including employees in the office membership, i would definitely have been more inclined to stay.
For example, with the office membership, you get $100 monthly credit towards conference room or space rentals for meetings, etc. I think I would have rather had that as an open credit to use towards daily passes for my employee to come to the office! (Just an idea)
I think that Impact Hub does a lot of good for the community and I'd definitely support by attending the different events they host, but it just wasn't worth it for the price of the private office with the distractions and additional fees. I would recommend also evaluating your needs as a business and deciding whether a coworking environment is really what you need as it feels very different than an office type environment :)
I'm appreciative of my time at Impact Hub and wish nothing but the best for them as they continue to grow. read more