Coworking or cafés: what a ₹5,500 hot desk replaces

Many of our members spent years working from cafés before joining, and most say they did not realise how much it cost until they added it up. Here is a rough comparison for a freelancer working 22 days a month.

In a café, the unwritten rule is one order every couple of hours. A coffee at ₹150 to ₹200, a snack or lunch at ₹250 to ₹350, and a second coffee in the afternoon comes to about ₹550 to ₹700 a day. Over 22 days that is ₹12,000 to ₹15,000, even before transport between cafés when one is too full or too loud.

Our monthly hot desk is ₹5,500 for 22 days, plus GST, which is shown separately on the monthly invoice. That covers any open seat in the shared hall from 8 am to 10 pm, 300 Mbps fibre with a backup line, full power backup, filter coffee and tea all day, printing up to 100 pages a month and use of the phone booths. Lunch is extra; most members spend ₹100 to ₹180 on a meal from the kitchens nearby or bring a tiffin.

The less obvious costs matter too. In a café, you lose time looking for a socket, take calls over the noise and lose work when the Wi-Fi drops. With an invoice in your business’s name, the hot desk can also be shown as a business expense, though your accountant should advise on that. If you only need a desk a few days a month, a day pass at ₹399 may make more sense than a monthly plan.