You’re managing 50+ people. Most work remotely. Some come in occasionally. A few would use an office weekly if you had one.
If you’re responsible for workspace decisions at a hybrid-first company, the signs of wasted office spend aren’t always obvious. But they’re costing companies like yours £500k+ annually.
Here’s how to spot the waste and what companies like Konversational (90+ employees) and Standing together against Domestic Abuse (69 remote staff) are doing instead.
Walk into your office on a Tuesday and count the occupied desks. Then count the empty ones. If occupancy is below 30%, you’ve got a problem.
Konversational has 31 people in their London team, but only 10 attend regularly. If they’d leased a traditional office at £800-1,200 per desk monthly, they’d be paying £24,800-37,200 for roughly 20 empty desks every day.
Instead, they switched to 60 day passes per month at £25-35 per pass. Monthly cost: £1,500-2,100 instead of £25,000-35,000. Stop paying for desks. Start paying for days.
You’re paying rent out of inertia. “We’ve always had an office” isn’t a strategy – it’s a sunk cost fallacy.
Standing together against Domestic Abuse had an office in Hammersmith “for years and years but nobody ever uses it and it was costing the charity a lot of money.” A 69-person remote charity paying for permanent office space with near-zero utilisation.
Calculate your total cost: rent, rates, utilities, service charges. Then ask if your team would actually use flexible day passes instead. Standing together now books day passes for monthly team meet-ups, occasional London staff who want office access 1-2 days weekly, and annual events. Cost? A fraction of the lease.
Your distributed team needs occasional face-time – monthly sessions, quarterly planning, annual all-hands. But you’re paying for daily access nobody wants.
If you’re paying £30,000-50,000 monthly for space that’s only used 5-6 days per month, that’s the waste. Book meeting rooms and day passes only when you need them. Monthly team session for 6 people costs £80-120 for the day. Quarterly planning for the whole team? Day passes for 1-2 days. Annual events? Book event space. Pay for 5-6 days monthly, not 20+ empty days.
You’re hiring but your lease doesn’t flex. Either you’re paying for space you don’t need yet, or you’re about to outgrow what you have and face expensive renegotiations.
Konversational’s Head of Talent said clearly: “We are also growing the team, so new people will be joining as we go.” With a traditional lease, that means guessing how many desks you’ll need in 6-12 months and paying for empty ones or scrambling to sublease.
Switch to workspace that scales instantly. Hiring 10 people next quarter? Add 10 more day pass memberships. Project wrapping up? Scale down next month. No lease amendments, no penalties.
Your marketing team wants in-office collaboration twice weekly. Your tech team prefers remote work with occasional sprint planning. Your ops team wants daily office access. One-size-fits-all doesn’t work, but your lease forces everyone into the same model.
Mix dedicated desks and day passes based on actual needs. Regular users who come 3+ days weekly get dedicated desks (£350-500/month). Weekly users who come 1-2 days get day passes (£25-35/day). Occasional users grab passes as needed. Everyone gets what works for them without forcing one pattern on the whole company.
You’ve got one central office. Staff in South London trek to North London. Staff in West London travel East. Half your team won’t use it because the commute kills the benefit.
Standing together against Domestic Abuse had one Hammersmith office for UK-wide staff. Most people couldn’t justify the journey, so utilisation was nearly zero. Give your team location options instead. With multiple locations across London (Holborn, Borough, Liverpool Street, Soho, Shoreditch, Camden, Hammersmith) plus Manchester and Reading, South London staff use Borough, North London uses Camden, East uses Shoreditch. Same day pass programme, different convenient locations.
You see the monthly rent number and think that’s what office space costs. But rent is only 60-70% of the true cost.
Here’s what a 50-desk office in Central London actually costs: Rent (£35,000-45,000), business rates (£4,000-6,000), service charges and utilities (£4,000-6,000), fit-out amortised (£4,000-7,000), facilities management (£2,000-3,000). Total: £49,000-67,000 monthly, not the £35k-45k you think.
Compare that to day passes for the same 50-person hybrid team: 15 regular users at 3 days/week (£4,500-6,300), 20 occasional users at 1 day/month (£500-700), meeting rooms (£400-600). Total: £5,400-7,600 monthly. Annual savings: £523,000-714,000.
Traditional leases require 3-5 year commitments. You’re signing based on guesses about future behaviour, not real data.
Trial it first. Buy day passes for a month across different team members. Try different locations to see what works geographically. Track who uses it and how often. Gather feedback. After a month, you’ll know who needs dedicated desks, which locations get used most, and actual usage patterns. Then scale based on real data with no penalty for adjusting.
Team members with accessibility needs have to work around your fixed office layout instead of the space working for them. With a traditional office, you’re stuck with whatever layout you built. Changing it is expensive or impossible.
With flexible day passes, you can book spaces that accommodate diverse needs: meeting rooms with standard chairs instead of high stools, accessible desks and workspaces, ground floor access, adjustable furniture. Specify accessibility requirements when booking. Your team’s needs shouldn’t be an afterthought.
Your meeting rooms are double-booked. You don’t have professional space to host clients, donors, or partners. Or you’re paying for meeting rooms you barely use.
Book meeting rooms by the hour or day as you need them. One-hour client meeting costs £40-60. Monthly team session for 10 people runs £150-200 for the day. Annual fundraiser needs event space with catering and AV. Day pass members get access to bookable meeting rooms with member discounts, often with meeting room credits included. Pay for what you use when you use it, not for rooms sitting empty all week.
Konversational’s Head of Talent and Operations:
“Work.Life’s Flex membership has been a game changer for how our team works. We’re a tech company with 90+ employees spread across Dublin, London, Paris, Zurich, and Lausanne, so flexibility is key for us. With 60 day passes each month shared between 32 team members – it’s the ideal setup. Everyone can come in as often as they need, whether that’s for client meetings, collaboration days, or just a quiet space to focus.”
If you spotted 3+ of these signs, you’re likely overspending.
Quick calculation: Take your current all-in office cost (rent + rates + service charges + utilities + cleaning + facilities). Calculate your current utilisation (average daily occupancy divided by total desks). Compare that to what you’d pay with day passes (estimated monthly office days × £25-35).
If the gap is £20,000+ monthly, that’s £240,000+ annually you could save.
Calculate actual usage: who needs office access, how often, for what, and where they’re located. Run the numbers: regular users plus occasional users plus meeting rooms compared to current cost. Trial for a month across different team members and locations. Scale based on real usage patterns.
The question isn’t “how many desks do we need?” It’s “how many days of office access does our team actually use?”
Get that number right, and you’ll save £200k-700k annually while giving your team better, more flexible workspace.
See what flexible workspace looks like for your team:
Tailored solutions for growing teams
Adding 10 or more team members? That’s exciting — and we’re here to help! For teams like yours, we offer custom membership options designed to fit your needs perfectly.
Let us know some more information using the form below — we usually reply within an hour during business hours. Prefer to chat? Give us a call on 020 3349 8269 — we’d love to hear from you!