Two Options To Find An Open Desk For Rent

Back in November I wrote about coworking and wondered if the economic downturn would help to push coworking further or if the trend would slow. Let's take a look at two services that help match renters with available space.The interesting thing about the two services listed below is that they provide open desks and office space for rent within established companies. This can be a bit different than a traditional coworking setup because typically with coworking locations everyone shares one open area. Unfortunately as companies eliminate more headcount, less office space becomes necessary for the remaining employees. At the same time, the unoccupied but rented space remains. I've heard of more and more companies renting out a portion of their office space to small startups for very reasonable prices to try to offset some of the overall office rent.

Here are a couple of new services that have created marketplaces for desk and office rentals.

SuiteMatch SuiteMatch is like Match.com for office space. You can post open space at your office and you can search for space for you and/or your team. Currently they are listing open space in about a dozen cities including Austin, Boston, Los Angeles, Detroit, New York, San Francisco and Chicago. While they are in beta postings are free and they note that after that there will be a fee to post.

Each listing has photos, pricing, details, requirements, and notes about access (e.g. 24/7, 7am-7pm, etc.). SuiteMatch provides a search which includes a Google Map that not only shows you the location of the office space but nearby establishments (coffee, food, etc.). For most of us, the nearby establishments and transportation can make or break a rental space.

During my browsing I found a variety of listings from single desks through full offices available for immediate rental.

Desk Space Genie Desk Space Genie is a marketplace for companies with extra desk space and people looking to rent a desk. Desk Space Genie currently operates only in the UK and they note that there are currently over 2,300 desks for rent on their service.

Like SuiteMatch, Desk Space Genie provides photos and full details about each rental space. Desk Space Genie also offers a self-service advertising platform for companies to promote their listings past the basic free service.

Summary As companies try to fill their open space with new renters, more services like SuiteMatch and Desk Space Genie will be popping up. From my perspective as a new startup founder, I think this middle-ground option between working at home and renting a full office space offers some great advantages--especially to test the waters of full office rental.