So, you might have heard of the hot trend amongst many travellers and remote workers lately that is coliving. From permanent coliving spaces to popup coliving programmes, travel enthusiasts are going crazy for these types of experiences. You might also be wondering whether they’re really worth the extra costs when we’ve already got the tried-and-trusted popular Airbnb website to find accommodation. Well, let me fill you in on why I, like many other digital nomads, choose to pay more to stay in a coliving…

Fit for remote working

Airbnbs were originally intended for vacations, so they might not be well equipped for remote working. Of course, there are some Airbnb hosts who are considerate of providing the right environment for remote workers, especially if they have experience of working remotely themselves. However, not all do, and it might take a lot of searching on the platform to find the right one. Why risk an Airbnb with dodgy Wi-Fi when your livelihood depends on it?

In a good coliving space, you’re usually guaranteed good strong Wi-Fi and suitable workspaces. It makes a big difference to have a proper desk and ergonomic office chair, rather than having to work at the kitchen table or from the sofa! Trust me – I’ve stayed in Airbnbs that didn’t even have one table, so I had to create a makeshift desk with chairs! Whereas most coliving spaces have desks inside the bedrooms as well as coworking spaces that all the colivers can share and work from. The very fact that coliving spaces are designed for remote workers forms a core part of the experience of one. Oh, and some of those extra things that you might need from time to time, such as a printer, extra monitor, or computer keyboard? Yep, you guessed it – many coliving spaces provide these – how many Airbnbs do?

The Community Advantage of Coliving

Colivings usually come with a curated community

When living by yourself in an Airbnb, you’re not going to have any community inside of it. Even in a shared Airbnb or ordinary houseshare, there’s no guarantee that you’ll gel or get close with your housemates – and that’s even if you get on with them! It’s likely they’re just there for accommodation in that particular location, and so they might not have anything in common with you.

On the other hand, many colivings take applications and screen guests before accepting them, or at the very least, they market themselves heavily around their community aspects – this helps to ensure that everyone who gets accepted to stay is likely to be a good fit for the community. Also, some colivings are themed – such as those based around a certain profession, hobby, or lifestyle, making it even more likely that you will find your tribe within one. For example, I recently took part in a writer-themed coliving at Chateau Coliving in France, which I found brilliant for getting inspired and meeting fellow writers to network with!

Colivings come with community facilitation and events

In a good coliving, you usually don’t have to do too much work to organise things or find people to do them with. This is because colivings usually come with a community manager or host who will help facilitate the community cohesion amongst residents and organise regular events to provide plenty of opportunities for everyone to meet and socialise with likeminded people. There are usually activities organised by the host, and the colivers also often take initiative to organise things between themselves.

Some coliving spaces, such as Sun and Co and Chateau Coliving, will hold weekly meetings between the hosts and colivers to co-create the activity schedule, ensuring there is plenty to do all week that also fits what the current community wants. Whereas some other coliving spaces don’t have such meetings, and instead allow much of the action to happen organically and perhaps more spontaneously between colivers.

Activities at a coliving can be anything from skill shares and roundtable discussions, to cooking lessons, art workshops, and days at the beach. And don’t worry about FOMO – there’s of course no obligation to join every event or outing, and no one will judge you if you have to opt out of something for any reason. We’re all adults here, so feel free to dip in and out of the action as much or as little as you like!

Colivings can be low-effort socialising and networking

Sure, you could always find external events to go to by trawling through various Facebook groups, WhatsApp chats, and Eventbrite and Meetup pages. These can be great and I’d, of course, encourage you to go to them to variate your experience at your visiting destination – you can even go to them with your fellow colivers to meet other people outside of the coliving.

That said, it can often be a lot of effort to psyche yourself up to leave your accommodation and travel somewhere to meet with people. If you’re living alone and ever have those days where you don’t feel like leaving the house, then it can be very easy to go without seeing a soul and become isolated. At least when you’re sitting in a coliving space all day, there are often people around that you can hang out with and chat with, even when you’re tired and don’t feel like going outside. Connections are often made organically while cooking in the shared kitchen or lounging in the living room. There are even plenty of fairly low-effort activities you can do with your fellow colivers, such as playing games, watching a movie, eating a takeaway meal together, or just sitting about drinking and chatting!

Balance between privacy and community

Colivings provide the best of both worlds between privacy and community. Most coliving spaces have private bedrooms, although some do offer shared rooms that can be a good option for some travellers for saving money. If you opt for a private room, you can have as much privacy as you need and desire. When the socialising and being around people gets too much, you have your own room to retreat into. And when you are bored of your own company and need to see people again, you simply leave your room and enter the common areas of the coliving space.

And, when an Airbnb might actually trump a coliving…

All that said, there are of course times when an Airbnb can be a better choice:

• If you’re an introvert, you might get tired of living in coliving spaces for too many weeks or months in a row. I’m going to be honest and say that this certainly applies to me, as much as I do love experiencing colivings in my life. Therefore, an Airbnb or alternative private accommodation can provide a respite from constant socialising, until of course you’re ready to book your next coliving and do it all again!
• If you need to go into “monk mode” – isolate yourself intentionally for a period of time to focus on achieving a particular goal – then staying in a coliving wouldn’t be the right place for this. This is where the solitude of an Airbnb would come in handy.
• If you’re travelling with kids, some colivings welcome young families – you would have to check which ones do on platforms like Mapmelon and whether or not there is any childcare available. However, many coliving spaces are not suitable for children as they usually revolve around childfree adult activities. Very young children in particular may also be disruptive in focused working environments. Therefore, a family would likely be better suited to staying in an Airbnb.
• Airbnb (as well as other platforms such as Booking.com) currently dominates the accommodation market, whereas colivings are still quite niche. Therefore, if you’re going to certain locations where colivings don’t exist (yet), then Airbnb might be one of your only options anyway, aside from hotels and possibly hostels. I guess there isn’t really a lot you can do in that situation, except maybe become a trendsetter and start your own coliving there! It doesn’t even have to be a permanent thing – you could just find a large enough apartment or villa to rent, invite a few people to stay in it with you, and host your own pop-up coliving!

Conclusion

The thing you have to consider with colivings is that you’re not just paying for accommodation. You’re paying for accommodation that is fit-for-purpose for digital nomads – making sure remote workers have what they need is a core offering, not an afterthought. The other big plus point is that good colivings always come with an in-built community that you don’t have to make too much effort to find or build yourself. 

I like to think of colivings as a sort of go-between a traditional retreat (designed to put you into a likeminded group right away and have lots of scheduled activities, but is usually expensive and very short term) and an ordinary houseshare or flatshare (the core purpose being a low-cost accommodation as you’re sharing space with others in the long term, but it’s not expected that you will get much value beyond that in terms of community).

If cost is a concern of yours, but you’re still interested in the value of participating in a coliving, then you have some options. There are some coliving spaces where you can volunteer in exchange for free or discounted accommodation, which could be ideal for travellers who have the right skills to offer and are time-rich and money-poor (or just want to save some cash!).

If money is your main concern and you’ve no interest or capacity for volunteering, then perhaps a coliving isn’t for you. At the end of the day, we can often always pay less for something. But is cheaper necessarily better? I reckon the value that comes with staying in a good coliving space is rather unmatched – you could meet your next business collaborator, new best friend, or even romantic partner! One could argue that you might find better-quality connections in a space that people have had to pay extra to access, so there’s that.

So, will I see you in a coliving space somewhere around the world soon?

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About the author: Toks Coyle is a travel blogger at Toks Travels, where she indulges in her two loves of writing and travel by documenting her trips and experiences of exploring the world, particularly coliving spaces and digital nomad experiences, giving out a few tips along the way. Toks also runs her own virtual assistant business, Toks.Rocks, where she provides flexible marketing admin support to small businesses and organisations remotely from wherever she and her laptop goes.