What is an office hotel and who is it for?
In this article, I will take a look at the development of the office hotel industry in Finland, review the most common benefits of office hotels for companies and work communities that use them, and share my experience of who office hotels are on average suitable for as a business premises solution.
What is the definition of a business centre?
In the dictionary of the language bureau, an office hotel is defined as follows:
office space with services vars. a business enterprise renting for short-term use; its office space
Personally, I interpret this definition so that the term can be used when referring to:
companies that rent office space to other companies, corporations or individuals as their core business
Premises managed by these undertakings, usually larger premises from which individual offices are rented to other companies, entities or individuals
Through this definition, Boffice as a company can be interpreted as a centre of business. On the other hand, each individual Boffice office in Helsinki can also be interpreted as an office hotel. Thus, for example, Boffice Kallio or Boffice Kamppi are both office hotels.
Admit. This was already a bit of a semantic spin. However, in my opinion, this is not entirely in vain. If we rewind a few years by looking at the articles published by the Finnish Broadcasting Company in 2017 and 2018, we find ourselves wondering in this 2017 article how workspaces are traded like gym contracts. In this second YLE article from 2018 , we already come across the office hotel term side by side with the terms "coworking" and "communal workspace". In other words, based on the Finnish Broadcasting Company's economic news, the use of the term in Finland seems to have increased significantly five years ago.
Nowadays, you can hear people talking a lot about what kind of working solutions have been implemented in which companies alongside traditional office solutions and the remote work culture pushed forward by the corona waves, or are in the process of being implemented. In this area, one of the hottest topics of discussion seems to be the Spacent service, which allows the extraction of office space for use directly from the application. Boffice's conference rooms can also already be found among Spacen's locations.
The picture shows Boffice Hakaniemi in the list of workspaces in the Spacent service.
Come and visit Boffice's office hotels
Boffice vs. Centre
I myself have been following the development of the business premises and real estate market for years before the launch of Boffice in 2020. So I've also been thinking a lot about the question myself: Is Boffice an office hotel or something else?
Before answering that question, I must briefly review Boffice's original mission statement, the necessity of which has been further reinforced during our first years of operation, with the opening of many of our new destinations:
Boffice's name stands for basic office. We want to offer startups and other small businesses an easy and affordable office without sacrificing location. Our goal is to lower the threshold for moving from one's own home office to one's own office space in the city centre and, at least indirectly, to lower the threshold for hiring the first employees when the office space is in an attractive location and its price does not become an obstacle to other development.
So is Boffice an office hotel or something else?
In my opinion, Boffice is an office hotel, because in our properties a company, community or individual can rent one or more offices, workrooms or workspaces.
We are also an office hotel in the sense that one or more offices or workspaces can be rented from us without a long-term commitment at a relatively low monthly price. This feature is commonly associated with office hotels.
Office hotels are also often associated with the fact that desks and chairs, as well as other office decoration, as well as various additional services from "yoga mats and weekly yoga classes to lobby services", are included in the price. In Boffice's locations, the price includes only office space and the most necessary support services. Boffice can be called an office hotel without unnecessary additional services.
In other words, we position ourselves in a certain way between the property owners who offer business premises for rent and the office hotels. These "traditional" office hotel operators are also often referred to as coworking spaces or communal workspaces.
The centre in a nutshell
Office hotels have offices of different sizes and types rented usually to multiple different comapnies based on the needs of the companies. In an office hotel, you can:
in other words, to be a tenant of very different companies. The services are an integral part of the office hotels. In addition to workspaces, tenants are offered various user services as a ready-made package to support their activities in the centre.
Thus, office hotels are an attractive option for companies of all sizes that need flexibility and agility in their office strategy. For small and start-ups, office hotels offer an affordable way to get to central locations without the costs and risks associated with traditional leases. Larger companies can use office hotels as satellite offices or as part of their national or global office strategy.
Office hotels usually offer a variety of membership and contract options to suit different business needs. For example, some operators offer day passes to those who need workspaces occasionally. Some entities offer monthly or annual memberships that include access to meeting rooms and other amenities. Many branch hotel operators also offer virtual membership plans to companies that only need a mailing address in a specific market, but do not yet need a physical workspace.
In addition to different membership and contract models, many of the office hotels offer a variety of services and amenities designed to make it easier to do business. These can be, for example, lobby services, networking events, mail handling and warehousing services, café services and lounges.
In Boffice's office hotels, you only pay for the necessary services – check out our properties!
At Boffice office hotels, you only pay for these basic services in connection with your office, workspace or office rental agreement.
The benefits of using an office hotel in a nutshell
Here I will list the most common identified benefits of using centres for companies.
Using an office hotel creates cost savings
Given the costs associated with maintaining furniture, IT infrastructure, utilities, janitor services and other office space, office hotels can be significantly cheaper than traditional leases.
In Boffice's office hotels, workrooms and offices can be decorated and equipped according to your own taste, but the common areas are furnished. This makes it possible to equip the workspace you rent exactly as you want without worrying about the décor of the common areas.
The use of an office hotel creates flexibility
Office hotels offer contracts and memberships that you don't have to commit to for long periods of time and are easy to disengage from. In this case, companies can easily increase or decrease the number of facilities or day passes as their needs change.
Using an office hotel increases comfort in many different ways
When you have access to furnished workspaces and traditional office hotel services, you usually pay a fixed monthly fee for them according to your current contract. This is easy and therefore increases comfort.
If you only want to pay for the office without unnecessary additional services, this is easy and comfortable when renting an office from Boffice.
Working in an office hotel creates more networking opportunities
One identified benefit of working in an office hotel is the networking opportunities they offer. When working in office hotels, you have the opportunity to meet and interact with people from different types of companies. This can lead to valuable collaborative relationships and patterns that can be beneficial both professionally and personally.
The locations of the centres are excellent on average
Office hotels are usually located near the main transport links and services of cities. This makes it easy for customers, partners and employees to move to the office if necessary.
This makes it easy to take advantage of the city's numerous services, even when working, from (lunch) restaurants and shopping to parks and gyms. This is also possible from Boffice's helsinki office hotels.
Boffice's office hotels are located in Kamppi, Kallio, Etu-Töölö, Hakaniemi and Pasila. Come check it out!
How are business centres changing the way we work?
In fact, the office hotel can already be said to have changed the way we work. For example, there are numerous office hotels in Helsinki and the Helsinki metropolitan area that regularly employ an ever-growing number of freelancers, professionals, sole proprietors, and small and growing companies and their teams. And this phenomenon is no longer confined to large cities.
The spread of teleworking has also contributed to the popularity of business centres. Remote work increased tremendously during the corona waves of 2020 and 2021. During these years, many of those who had dreamed of working remotely even earlier were able to (and had to) work from home as well.
This made many of us understand the importance of a work environment that works in a new way for smooth work. Over the past year, there has been a clear "migration" from home offices back to corporate premises. Now, the many larger companies that managed to adapt their business premises solutions during the coronavirus pandemic are also looking for a new kind of flexibility. Many business centres now offer this much-needed flexibility for office space solutions.
Office hotels strive to provide a quiet place to work when needed, without distractions from home life. We at Boffice have also noticed a new kind of phenomenon in this context. Many office hotels in Helsinki have filled up with customers at such a rate that it has become difficult to find a peaceful working space, for example, in many of the shared spaces of Helsinki's office hotels.
As the world of work becomes more mobile and flexible, it is likely that business centres will become even more popular. They provide businesses of all sizes with a convenient and cost-effective way to maintain a professional presence in multiple locations.
Who are office hotels for?
In other words, office hotels can be said to have come to stay. They have their own users, ranging from individual professionals to large multinationals. Between these different users, the workspaces, areas and rooms you can rent can vary a lot.
As I mentioned earlier in this post, the solution offered by Boffice represents a slightly new kind of office hotel operating model alongside many other office hotels and coworking spaces. For this reason, I include a separate column for Boffice in this user list. In my opinion, it adds value to the next listing of different potential users.
Different user groups in business centres through examples
|
Example user
|
Traditional office hotel
|
Boffice
|
|---|---|---|
| A practitioner such as a therapist who sees clients on a regular basis | Weak - hotdesk membership is not suitable and a private office room is often expensive for one person | Good - affordable and easy to maintain customer anonymity |
| Freelancer | Good - if hotdesk membership is sufficient | Good - especially if you need your own room |
| Small startup | Good - a couple of hotdesk memberships can be enough, a dedicated office room can still be expensive | Excellent - a dedicated affordable room possible to match the pace of growth |
| Small specialist company | Good - lots of extra services alongside the room | Good - pricing and locations |
| Teleworking benefit offered by a larger company to an individual employee | Excellent - in many cases it is possible to choose multiple locations to work from | Good - a few locations offer a Coworking Pass, which can be used for a workstation in the chosen location |
| A group of friends who want to work together | Good - hotdesk membership not excluded, but shared room better | Excellent - space and peace of mind, plus the cost benefit of sharing a room |
| Satellite office for teams in a larger company to use alongside the main office | Good - hotdesk membership is not suitable, but a private room with facilities is | Good - a private, quiet room just for team members in a good location |
