Ok so this is going to sound like a paid endorsement but honestly I just like it when a service feels worth paying for (refreshing in a time when it feels like very corporate service offering in the world is in a constant race to the bottom).
So, let's talk about Spaces (HQ/Regus/etc).
I pay a monthly fee for a private membership with Spaces that gives me 5 days of dedicated coworking in Pittsburgh each month that I almost never use, along with a few other perks, like the power to book a meeting room or private office in coworking facilities across the Spaces office network and also their partner networks (Regus and HQ are two others, and there are a few more as well).
I never book private offices or meeting rooms either, but one of the other perks is the ability to check into the "Business Lounge" in any one of those partner offices.
The Business lounge is basically just the public coworking space / break room area of the small office spaces that the network offers to small businesses, and includes fast wifi, a chill working environment where a business video call is socially acceptable, and often free coffee and a break room kitchen.
I can use those lounges, as many days of the year as I like, anywhere in the world.
The offices are generally open from at least 9 to 5, and in France many of the offices actually run 8:30 to 18:30 hours, which is really excellent for my schedule.
As a third-space for a remote worker, this is basically the platonic ideal.
I've used offices in Pittsburgh, New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, London and Paris, and on this trip alone I've also added Bordeaux, Marseille, Lyon, and Nantes.
They're often very near city centers and so they're easy to reach by transit, or alongside major train stations.
Some of the touches are really fantastic (great free coffee machines in some places, thoughtfully appointed working areas in others). In Marseille on this trip the office manager for one center called me after I sent her a request, and recommended I work at the sister location across the street because of the view, which was very sweet of her and was absolutely worth it.
That was this view, I was pleased she'd called to nudge me in that direction.
And in Lyon, a city defined and deeply in conversation with its rivers, the office complex that I used had a sort of moat along one edge of the property, which created this delightfully unnecessary visual effect:
As a result, the four wings of this office building looked like they were on the water, and in the afternoons you'd often see team members standing at the "bow" of the building having a drink.
Sometimes a design choice can really make the difference in how we think about a place, and this one really charmed me.
So yeah, if you're a remote worker and you travel like I do, I highly recommend it -- it's a tax deductible business expense for me, and for a few years my previous employer even compensated me for it as part of our wellness program meant to increase the quality of life for remote employees.
(One observation for anyone else using this sort of approach : HQ and Regus facilities are usually more ergonomic for actually getting work done.
The Spaces facilities have been appointed mostly to act as comfortable "break room" locations in tandem with the dedicated office rooms, but "comfortable place to have a coffee before going back to work" is different from "I'd like to sit and crunch numbers in this spreadsheet for a few hours.") and so often the chairs recline too much and the table surfaces are the wrong height.)
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