Two guys have founded a company called Pub Hub – renting unused areas in pubs during the day as co-worker office space.
The fledgling business is the brainchild of founders Daniel Rubin and Doron Maman, who noted the amount of unused space during the day in hospitality venues, in cities such as New York, where office space is at a premium.
The Pub Hub team ‘flip’ the rented spaces for use during the day, and restore them afterwards. This mostly consists of adding comfort for extended seating and wheeling out a communal printer. The wi-fi at the venues is also upgraded to handle the workload.
Cafés have long been the unofficial office domain of many people, particularly the mobile workforce, but while it is tolerated, few cafes go so far as to offer invitation or facilities. The Pub Hubs provide a work space without offence for taking up space all day, and no noisy children.
The debut venue was Rosa Parks Bar in Israel’s Old North Tel Aviv, but they see potential in many European and American cities and hope to launch a network of locations.
Venues benefit from a rental agreement, but also from ‘work-in’ patronage and even the appearance of being busy.
The concept could easily be adopted by pubs anywhere seeking to make better use of space typically unused during office hours.
