Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – The Office Whisperer
Nirit Cohen – WorkFutures
Angela Howard – Culture Expert
Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
Would you rent out your home to strangers for their own personal workspace?
Given the phenomenal growth and near universal acceptance of ‘what’s yours is mine (for a small fee)’ — aka the Sharing Economy — the idea of renting out your home isn’t all that unusual.
Game-changers like Airbnb, Uber and Getaround pioneered this transformative shift in thinking, and many more have since jumped on the sharing bandwagon.
One of them is Vrumi, which plays matchmaker between home-owners and business owners looking for a unique space in which to work.
Many homes moonlight as coworking spaces, yet they’re certainly not restricted to laptop workers. Some spaces provide studios for yoga teachers, others offer quiet consultation rooms for health advisors or alternative meeting space for project teams.
What’s interesting about Vrumi is the way they organise and market their spaces.
Spaces are organised by the type of environment — such as ‘Thinking’, ‘Inspiring’, ‘Meeting’, ‘Creating’ or in this case, ‘Wellbeing’.
Wellness and wellbeing in the workplace has shouldered its way to the top of the agenda for business owners as they seek to empower and motivate their employees. Naturally, wellness has also become a hugely influential topic for flexible workspace operators and community managers, as members seek ways to balance their lifestyle and reduce the unhealthy habit of prolonged sitting.
On wellbeing, Vrumi lists a number of photogenic homes that offer large spaces “to move around in”, both for health-orientated business — think nutritionists and physiotherapists — alongside workers who want more mobility during their working day, or simply a sense of calm.
Therapy rooms, a “peaceful” loft space, living rooms with rooftop gardens, light-filled lounges, an “urban oasis”, and reflective rooms with long gardens — they’re all advertised with careful attention to language and professional photography.
With wellness-focused space taking centre stage on a niche site like Vrumi, it certainly highlights the momentum that’s gathering around workplace wellbeing. Many operators now focus specifically on health and wellbeing incentives within their spaces — Huckletree is one such example — and Vrumi consolidates this trend with an environment-first, facilities-second approach.
Should more workspace operators take note?
And, while these homely spaces may not directly compete with corporate business centres or coworking spaces, Vrumi has identified a neat opportunity and subsequently hit hungrily on rocketing demand for flexible (and alternative) workspace while simultaneously tapping into our growing appetite for the sharing economy. Food for thought.
