To every coworking and managed space services operator trying to make the numbers work — this one's for you
After nine years of building workspace technology, here's the thing I keep coming back to: the revenue you're looking for is probably already inside your building.


Dinesh Malkani

CEO & Co-founder, Smarten Spaces
I want to be honest about something.

When we started Smarten Spaces nine years ago, we were focused almost entirely on large enterprises. How do you manage a 500,000 sq ft campus?
How do you give a 500-person team visibility into how they're using their space? Those were the problems we were solving — and they were hard, interesting problems.


But over the past couple of years, we've spent more and more time with coworking and managed space services operators. And what I've seen has stayed with
me.


These are people who have poured everything into building something real. The spaces are beautiful. The communities are genuine. The operators genuinely
care — about their members, about the experience, about making it work. And yet, so many of them are grinding just to break even. Watching the occupancy numbers. Worrying about every membership that churns. Wondering if the model is just harder than it looks.


I don't think the model is broken. I think there's a chapter most operators haven't written yet.


The part of your building nobody's talking about

Here's what strikes me every time I walk into a coworking or managed space environment. The desks get all the attention. Occupancy rates, membership tiers,
churn — it all revolves around the desk.

But then there's the other 15–20% of the building. The meeting rooms. The event space. The podcast studio someone installed last year. The wellness room that
sits empty most afternoons. Beautiful spaces, thoughtfully designed — and quietly underworked.


In most cases, these spaces generate revenue only when a member books them. A few hours a day, if that. And outside of member hours? They sit dark.

The operators who've started opening these spaces to external bookings — anyone, not just members — are seeing something remarkable.


  • 25–45%

    Revenue from ancillary services for the most agile operators today

  • 21.3%

    Jump in meeting room bookings year-over-year in 2024

  • 15–25%

    Amenity revenue share in well-run coworking spaces

The demand is already there. People want professional spaces to meet, record, workshop, and collaborate — without committing to a membership. They just can't
find the spaces easily, or can't book them without jumping through hoops.

Here's the part that really got me

When I dug into this more, the acquisition story hit harder than the revenue story.

Someone discovers your space through an external booking. They book a meeting room for a Wednesday afternoon. The experience is smooth — they found it easily, booked in seconds, walked in without standing at a front desk, left feeling good about it. They come back the following week. They bring two colleagues. A month later,
one of them is asking about a membership.


Your amenities are quietly doing member acquisition work — but only if the experience is good enough to make them want to come back.


That's the thing nobody's saying out loud: your studios and event spaces and meeting rooms are your lowest-cost trial for membership. And for most coworking and managed space services operators, that trial is running on hard mode — because the booking experience makes it too difficult to bother.


The real barrier isn't demand. It's friction.

I've seen this firsthand. The demand exists. What kills it is the experience of actually trying to book.

WHAT MOST PEOPLE EXPERIENCE


  • Find the space — if it shows up at all
  • DM or call to check availability
  • Wait hours for a response
  • Arrive and figure out access
  • Hope the room is actually ready

WHAT IT SHOULD FEEL LIKE


  • Search, see live availability
  • Book in under 60 seconds
  • Instant confirmation
  • Walk in, access granted
  • Space ready, no surprises

The gap between those two columns isn't a design problem — it's an infrastructure problem. And once you close it, the revenue and the conversions follow
almost naturally.

And then there's the enterprise opportunity

For operators who do get this right, there's a third thing that opens up — and it's the one with the biggest upside.

Corporate teams now make up nearly 28% of the coworking market. They're the most valuable segment you can have in your building, and they're actively looking
for spaces in cities like Bangalore. But they have a different set of questions before they commit.


  • Can our team book any amenity across the building — easily?
  • Can you show us how we're using our space each month?
  • How does access management work for a team of 40?
  • Can we get utilisation reports without chasing someone for them?

If you can answer those questions with a live demo instead of an Excel file, the conversation changes completely. I've seen it happen. The operator who can pull a
utilisation report in 30 seconds is the one who closes the enterprise deal — not the one with the nicer lobby.

Why we're writing about this now

We built Smarten Spaces for enterprises. That's still who we work with every day. But everything we built for them — live occupancy tracking, seamless
amenity booking, access control, automated reporting — is exactly what coworking and managed space services operators need to unlock this next chapter.

And honestly, I want to see more operators make it. The ones I've met are building something worth building. They deserve tools that help them get there.


If you're running a coworking or managed space services operation and this resonates — whether you're frustrated by the same things I've described, or just curious
about what's possible — I'd genuinely love to hear from you. Not to pitch you. Just to understand what you're dealing with and share what we've seen work.


Sometimes the most useful conversation is just an honest one.

Schedule a demo now