NextSpace Santa Cruz by Pacific Workspaces

I usually work from an office, and occasionally at home.  I needed to work in Santa Cruz, California, today, which is not my usual remote location.  A quick Google search revealed a co-working space I could rent for $25 for the day (9AM to 5PM at least).  The facility is in downtown Santa Cruz and called NextSpace.  I dropped in, settled into a desk and paid the fee.

It was a less-than-busy day according to the community manager.  There were two other people in the open area that morning.  More people came in during the day, but it didn’t really get crowded.

The office space has a little bit of Silicon Valley startup vibe.  People are generally quietly working.  I can get on the internet, go on VPN, receive email and generally be online to work.  However, a quick speed test, while disconnected from VPN of course, revealed a relatively slow connection.  My home connection is at least 10x faster than this.  Wired connection is a bit better.

Still, for $25, you get free coffee, desks, power, toilets, a first-come-first-serve phone room, and the aforementioned internet connection.

I did not try the coffee as I had coffee before coming in.  The men’s room did not have paper towels nor automatic hand dryers, which is a letdown.  They did fill the dispensers up in the afternoon.

The phone room (or booth to describe it more accurately), is very warm.  It appears there are no A/C vents, as it really does look like a phone booth with no pay phone and is 50% wider.  You can prop open the door slightly, but then if you are talking about confidential matters, that doesn’t really help.

I suppose I could have hung out at Starbucks for a while, bounced over to Peet’s, have lunch, and do the same thing in the afternoon.  But Starbucks and Peet’s, I would guess, is a bit noisier especially during peak hours.  You can’t really get on calls and talk without a lot of background noise.

If you do need to be on phone calls most of the day, this might not be a good place.  There are only two phone rooms and hogging one all day is bad form.  This would be good for working on your computer most of the time and getting work done.

Headphones would be good if you don’t like the noise level.  A few folks were wearing them, and I did too later in the day to stream some music.

Is it a good deal?  I think for $25, it is.