Access
Coworking capacity and occupancy
Separate sold access, bookings, attendance and actual use to plan coworking desks and rooms around recurring demand.
Plan capacity around how many people need each type of space at the same time.
Count usable desks, meeting rooms and other work areas separately.
Sold memberships, bookings, attendance and observed use answer different questions; no single one measures the whole site.
Establish usable capacity
Inventory the site: record shared and dedicated desks, private offices, meeting rooms, call spaces and areas reserved for other purposes.
Note access hours, booking rules, equipment and any reason one space cannot substitute for another; a lounge seat may suit a short task without being a suitable full-day workstation.
Check site-specific occupancy arrangements and the space needed for movement, ventilation and facilities before treating an empty area as capacity.
Separate planned space from operating capacity
The Great Room’s announced Level 23 Sydney floor shows the difference between a space plan and an operating record.
It was scheduled to open in November 2024, spanning 1,486 square metres, with 250 desks, more than 25 Dedicated Offices, meeting rooms and amenities.
Those announced counts describe the planned offer, not how much was later occupied.
The planned mix included Dedicated Office+ Suites with private meeting rooms and an enclosed manager’s cabin, plus phone booths and a nursing room.
Record these as separate resource types so a room or amenity is not treated as interchangeable with a desk merely because both sit within the same floor area.
The Level 23 announcement described it as a sibling space to The Great Room’s existing Level 29 floor in the same tower.
For an operator managing more than one floor or distinct area, retain location-level counts as well as any site total; a combined number alone cannot show where usable capacity sits.
When a new area is planned or changed, record the stated capacity and resource mix separately from later observations of attendance and use.
Update the operating record only when the space is available and its usable resources have been checked against site conditions.
The Great Room, Sydney: the planned Level 23 offer
Keep the measures separate
| Measure | What it shows | What it can miss |
|---|---|---|
| Sold entitlement | Access promised to members | Whether they attend together |
| Booking requests | Space and times members seek | Walk-ins and requests made outside the system |
| Attendance | People present at a time | Which space each person needs |
| Observed use | Desks or rooms in use | Demand that could not be accommodated |
Observed occupancy for comparable desks at a stated time is occupied usable desks ÷ usable desks available at that time.
Record the date, time and denominator with the result.
Room demand needs separate categories and time blocks; an empty large room does not necessarily meet a request for a small, suitable room.
Interpret occupancy in context
A Sydney example shows why headline occupancy needs context.
The Great Room’s Level 29 coworking floor was reported to reach 90 per cent occupancy within months of opening, against an average coworking space occupancy rate of around 70 per cent in the same account.
Treat those figures as a description of that case, not a target for every site.
The percentage alone does not show which resources were occupied, when use was measured or how much capacity remained in each category.
Before comparing a figure with your own site, identify its denominator and period, then check whether it describes desks, rooms, memberships or the site as a whole.
A site-wide percentage can conceal the mix behind it.
A floor with heavily used desks and spare meeting rooms presents a different operational picture from one with the reverse pattern, even if a single summary figure looks similar.
Preserve the underlying resource categories when reporting a combined result.
Level 29 occupancy against the market average
- 29Reported Level occupancy — 90%
- 70%Average coworking occupancy cited in the same account
Find the recurring constraint
Compare ordinary periods, regular busy days and exceptional events.
An average may hide a weekly shortage, while one unusual event may overstate normal demand.
Review recurring peaks alongside failed requests, queues and member reports.
Attendance alone cannot show whether the shortage concerns desks, rooms or another facility.
If a resource repeatedly runs short, identify the affected time and task.
Check whether unused reservations can be released, booking rules can change or a suitable area can be allocated differently.
Assess physical changes against the site's requirements before relying on them.
Keep a short review record: usable capacity by resource, observed use at comparable times, recurring peaks, unmet requests and changes made.
This supports a decision to adjust the current space or investigate expansion.
A short observation period cannot establish future membership demand.
In this guide
- Measuring desk use rather than sold memberships aloneCount occupied and usable desks at matching times, then compare bookings and memberships without confusing them with physical use.
- Comparing peak attendance with average occupancyCompare matched attendance periods and recurring peaks, then check which coworking resources are constrained.
- Planning room capacity from booking demandUse room requests, reservations, observed use and recurring conflicts to identify the meeting-room capacity a site needs.
- Identifying unused space before expansionMap coworking space by zone and time, diagnose low use and assess practical changes before an expansion decision.
