If you are here, that means that you are probably already thinking about staying in a coliving and now you’re looking for a strategy to find the best experience for yourself. Welcome! You are not alone!
Making a step like this is not as easy as choosing a hotel, and we know it. You’re choosing a place to call your home for the next month or more which is a long period for a bad experience.
Also, there are many more factors to consider than when choosing a hotel room or an Airbnb so the whole process can become overwhelming. But, don’t worry – we’re here to help.
Find below our guide on how to choose the right coliving for yourself.
Why is choosing a coliving space different from booking a room?
First, let’s break down why booking a room is so much different than choosing your coliving.
| Booking a hotel room or Airbnb | Choosing a coliving |
| The trip is the priority | The accommodation is the priority |
| Short stay (usually) | Long stay (at least one month) |
| Vacation stay | Home + office space |
| No communal activities | Emphasis on community |
When booking a room, your trip is the priority, and the accommodation is behind it. When choosing a coliving, the accommodation is in the first place.
With coliving, you are looking to stay for a month or more instead of booking a room for a few days up to 2 weeks, as per usual on vacations.
When looking for a coliving, you are looking for a place that will be both your home and your office for the next month or more. When choosing an apartment to live in, you would probably take a bit more precaution than when booking a vacation stay.
In typical vacation rentals, you are less likely to have shared spaces that are meant to connect you with others, and in colivings, that is one of the main focuses.
So, now that we established how different a coliving is from a regular vacation/travel rental, let’s get to some tips on how to choose the right one for yourself.
Start by writing down what you are looking for
Why do you want to stay in coliving? What motivates you? It helps to think about this as a first step and prioritize what you’re looking for. When you know your priorities, you will know where to start.
Cheaper place to stay
Do you already have a long trip planned and are now looking for a cheaper place to stay? If that is the case, the factor that you should start from is costs.
A place to connect with people
But maybe you are just looking for a place to connect with people. In that case, you’re obviously going to look for a coliving that has a lot of people, somewhere vibrant.
Looking for a coworking place
Maybe you’re tired of working from home, but also don’t want an office, so you’re looking for an amazing place for work. In that case, you should focus on great work environments before the location or the people.
There are tons of reasons why somebody would choose to go to a coliving, so give yourself time to think this through – what are you looking to gain from this experience?
For example, we’re looking to connect with people, but we also would love to find a place in Spain to practice Spanish and work our way onto moving there. So, those two factors have already narrowed our search.
We will look into colivings in Spain (luckily there are a lot of them, you can check some of the options here), but we will also focus on big cities such as Barcelona and Valencia that would have a lot of people visiting.
Try to find your reasons, and the search will be 50% easier.
Choosing a location (the big picture)
If your priorities are not set on the location, this will be one of the next steps. What are some factors to consider when choosing the location?
- The first thing is obviously to find out which locations offer coliving spaces.
- Secondly, and more importantly, where can you find the specific thing you are searching for? After you narrow down the search (Eg. 50 cities that have coliving spaces that have yoga practice), you can try to consider these factors to narrow the search even more:
Distance from your home
This one is a no-brainer. If it’s super far, expensive, and/or complicated to visit, maybe leave it for the next time. If this is your first coliving, it is better to make things as easy as possible. But don’t worry, wherever you are there are options.
The US has some awesome colivings in San Francisco and NY; Europe has colivings all over the place. South America has some great options in Colombia and Argentina, and Asia has colivings in Indonesia, Hong Kong, or India.
Time of the year you’re visiting
If you have a specific period of the year that you are planning on going to, ask Google what places are worth visiting at that time.
Also, this is a good way to explore if the location will be crowded or a ghost town. Some coliving are packed during the tourist season. If you’re there for the people and networking, the tourist season might even be a bad choice.
Many regular tourists might choose these places for longer stays, and many digital nomads avoid staying during these periods. Always read the comments and do a bit of stalking if that’s important to you.
COVID-19 protocols
Now, this one is obvious but worth mentioning. That is the reality that we live in. Covid rules change rapidly, especially in Europe. And not the whole European Union has the same rules, so be careful.
Do good research on the official embassy websites before you depart.
The living costs
Remember: you’re not coming as a tourist, but more as a short-term resident. If you’re coming on a budget, check websites like Numbeo to see the living costs in the place you’re thinking about visiting.
Check the food prices in supermarkets, transportation costs in the area, etc.
Choosing the location (the small picture)
Now, this is not something that you will be able to choose everywhere, but if a city has multiple options for a coliving, here are some tips on how to choose the right one according to its location.
Workspaces
If the coliving doesn’t have a workspace (which is unusual, but it can happen), it’s best if it is close to a local coffee shop that is great for working or some offices that you can rent.
Having your place far away from a working area can be exhausting and take your time away from the magic that coliving offers.
Transportation
We mentioned this one previously, but check if the coliving is well-connected with other parts of the city. You will be staying there for quite some time, so it’s important to be connected with other parts of the city, as well – restaurants, city center, parks, etc.
This will also help you calculate your budget. If you’re far from the city, you’ll need to invest in renting a car or find a similar solution to be mobile.
Basics
Another handy thing to check before choosing your coliving is if there are supermarkets, coffee shops, parks, etc. nearby.
Since you’ll be living there, it’s great to see if your neighborhood offers these basics because not all do.
The neighborhood
Other important things about a neighborhood are if it is loud, tranquil, is it safe, in which zone is it (centric, university, outside the city). These all are important to match what you’re looking for.
Amenities check-list for choosing a perfect coliving place
There are some basic amenities that every rental, and not only colivings, has to offer, but co-living spaces have other important amenities. Here’s what to look for:
Privacy
Some coliving spaces offer private rooms, while others have bunk beds like hostels. Most of the places have both types so you can see what works the best for you. However, it’s important to check if the rooms offer enough privacy; are there any private zones where you can hide from the others?
Also, it’s great to see if the bathrooms/toilets are private or shared and if they are shared to see what that means exactly and how many people will be sharing it.
Again, remember, you’ll be staying here long, so having the possibility of being alone without anyone bothering is still important.
Working spaces and amenities
Working environments are super important for colivings because most people coming are digital nomads or remote workers.
If you are one of those people, be sure to check how a coliving has handled this. Does it have designated working areas, a fast and reliable Wifi, charging places, Zoom rooms, etc.? Most coliving spaces have coworking offices, but some can be more basic than others.
Depending on your job, analyze the working areas, read the comments, and see if you will be able to work uninterrupted there. If you need some office supplies or furniture to work, be sure to ask the coliving if they have that and if it is possible to rent it.
Recreational spaces
Recreational and relaxation spaces are a big thing in colivings. The whole culture of coliving is made for digital workers who spend a lot of their time working on the computers. For those looking at a screen for most of their day, it’s important to add balance to their lives and to have spaces to unplug.
These spaces can be gardens, chill zones, private spaces, a pool, a bar, a disco zone, etc. Different colivings offer different stuff, so looking into those can tell you a lot about the culture of a coliving and help you see if it matches your energy.
Activities
The coliving places definitely wouldn’t be so interesting to digital nomads and other visitors without all the activities that are included during your stay.
Activities, events, and hobbies are a usual feature of coliving places. Some of the most common activities you can expect to find are daily yoga, surfing, Sunday BBQs, etc.
Other than those common ones you can always expect from coliving places to go one step further and to organize some unusual and unique activities for their colivers.
Kitchen and bathroom
This one is obvious so we’re not going to speak a lot about it, but be sure to analyze how well-equipped the kitchen and the bathroom are. Since you will be living there, make sure the place has all the necessary amenities.
Safety
Since you’ll be sharing most of these places with other people, be sure to check if there is a safe place to leave your personal belongings. If you’re sharing the room, there should probably be lockers with keys for each person.
Where to start your search
We hope these tips will help you choose the right coliving for yourself. If you struggle where to start looking, we recommend Coliving.com. They have plenty of options there, and you can use the filter to navigate your search.
If you want to see other suggestions, we covered some Colivings in Spain that we thought were cool, so go check that out.
Let us know if this helped you!
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Secure yourself the best coliving experience
- Coliving.com – The most popular platform for finding coliving spaces online. On top of that, they have the biggest base of coliving accommodation in the world.
- SafetyWing – The best travel insurance for digital nomads and remote workers. It is perfect for all people who want to experience a coliving way of lifestyle.
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