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One Man's Quest to Make Business Travel a Lot Less Awful

theatlanticcities.com

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Re: One Man's Quest to Make Business Travel a Lot Less Awful

#41

Post by inthewoods »

sunir wrote: post #37
inthewoods wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, yes, it was showing me Montreal - so $25 x 10 hrs x 20 days = $2500/month - better. In fact, my suggestion was going to be to double their rates! If I was them, I would be encouraging/exploring more hours per guest - so charge $30 for one hour and then drop it in blocks of 2 or 4 hours. I still don't like taking on the inventory risk. I think they limit it to 10-12 hours per day in their schedule (as they limit t…

You are off by a factor due to an error in your math $25/h x 10h/d x 20d/mo = $5000/mo

Oops - you're right - shouldn't do math before coffee!

Re: One Man's Quest to Make Business Travel a Lot Less Awful

#42

Post by inthewoods »

chockablock wrote: post #36
inthewoods wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, yes, it was showing me Montreal - so $25 x 10 hrs x 20 days = $2500/month - better. In fact, my suggestion was going to be to double their rates! If I was them, I would be encouraging/exploring more hours per guest - so charge $30 for one hour and then drop it in blocks of 2 or 4 hours. I still don't like taking on the inventory risk. I think they limit it to 10-12 hours per day in their schedule (as they limit t…

> I still don't like taking on the inventory risk. In the article they mention that the spaces are often small underused spaces in commercial buildings, and that they try to make revenue-sharing deals with landlords, rather than paying fixed rents.

Thanks for pointing that out - that makes it a lot more interesting. Basically they then become a marketing arm for temp space for the landlords - a much better business imho.

Re: One Man's Quest to Make Business Travel a Lot Less Awful

#43

Post by breatherjulien »

columbo wrote: post #38

I believe they are on to something but I'd suggest looking at an existing model that has been around for decades, specifically the Moose, Lions, Masons, Rotary, American Legion and many others. These clubs put you into a community. When my father-in-law comes to visit he usually goes to the American Legion down the street, that's his Breather spot. My dad would visit other Lions clubs when he was travelling out of to…

Thanks for the tips columbo. I'm the guy from the article - I'll look up this stuff you're talking about. Cheers.

Re: One Man's Quest to Make Business Travel a Lot Less Awful

#44

Post by breatherjulien »

sunir wrote: post #37
inthewoods wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, yes, it was showing me Montreal - so $25 x 10 hrs x 20 days = $2500/month - better. In fact, my suggestion was going to be to double their rates! If I was them, I would be encouraging/exploring more hours per guest - so charge $30 for one hour and then drop it in blocks of 2 or 4 hours. I still don't like taking on the inventory risk. I think they limit it to 10-12 hours per day in their schedule (as they limit t…

You are off by a factor due to an error in your math $25/h x 10h/d x 20d/mo = $5000/mo

This.

Re: One Man's Quest to Make Business Travel a Lot Less Awful

#45

Post by breatherjulien »

adrianhoward wrote: post #33
rm445 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are such places already in London, though you might not like the prices. The more business-focused private members' clubs typically have offices, meeting rooms and bedrooms available (for rent) as well as the kind of bar, restaurant, reading room facilities you might expect.

Yeah ;-) There are solutions. Members clubs. Plain old hotel rooms. But mostly the price-point is way to high for an hour or two. The overhead and friction in booking and checking in is also substantial. I've got a Regus gold card. The number of times I've actually used it in the last 18months - zero. Because the friction in actually making a booking and getting something sane out the other end is so high. I find esp…

Hi adrianhoward. I'm glad you appreciate the difference (I'm the founder of this company), and I wanted a seamless experience, which is why we made it that way.

Breather is designed to allow you to pop in and out of private space while around a city, and it works really well. I hate talking to people when I check into things (hotels, airports, etc.) so we designed this as self-serve.

Come try it out sometime. Here's a coupon for you: HACKERNEWS.

Re: One Man's Quest to Make Business Travel a Lot Less Awful

#46

Post by breatherjulien »

jpalomaki wrote: post #25

I imagine there could be an opportunity for AirBNB/Über style service here. Maybe not for individuals, but for companies that are anyways offering office space for rent and who already have reception facilities (for giving access) etc. Or maybe even hotels? Re-decorate few rooms to serve specifically this purpose (remove beds etc). The main challenge I can think of is related to getting access to the space. With this…

Yup, this is kind of how we think about it. Thanks for the comment jpalomaki. :)
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