Your take on coliving?
curious to hear the community's thoughts on colivings. Have you tried them? What went well? What not so well?
There are some seriously cool colivings out there but I haven't tried a true one yet, would love to hear your experience!
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I have done this a few times and I have to say it's not for me. I rather like my private space both physically and mentally. One of the reasons I went full digital nomad was not to meet other digital nomads, but rather to live in a different place.
What i mean by that is that I actually enjoyed the places I was in, and didn't seek out a western enclave within them. Sure I've gravitated towards them as I spent more and more time in different places but it doesn't mean I want to stay in them all the time.
To give a wider perspective I have gone back and forth. I went to Cebu Philippines alone for a couple months. I was in Bali with a group of westerners digital nomads. But it was weird not everyone in the group actually worked all the time. Which actually makes it a bit hard to interface with all of them.
In absence of traveling in the past few years I have found a great support group of fellow online workers, physically. We meet once a week. I live far away from where most live, but we do connect "outside" of work at various times.
If you're looking to try it, then try it. You never know who you will meet. But also know there are many other options available. And you can always organize something yourself. It's pretty simple.
That's an interesting perspective! Totally understand where you're coming from there. I guess for a digital nomad there's much less appeal in it since like you said, you're there for different reasons.
I think there's much more appeal for a regular remote worker who wants to try out a new working location for a month for example
I like them, its good to bounce ideas off of people
I stayed at Outsite in Lisbon and then Outpost in Bali...unfortunately both experiences felt more like a glorified hostel than a place to meet with other digital nomads.
I think it might work if there were community events that are targeted at getting people together (especially people staying for longer than ~2 weeks), but tbh I only met backpackers from my roommates in Lisbon and then short-term travelers at Bali. Like another person mentioned on this thread, not all the residents were necessarily there for work either.
A bit biased as I'm actually building one in the Philippines (and building it in public!).
I fell in love with the idea of Coliving while I was digital nomading in Central America, mostly staying in backpackers hostels and just couldn't work properly.
I started going to AirBnBs, but then I found it hard to make friends.
For me, a Coliving is the perfect combination :)
P.S
I came across this app from a fellow indie hacker. Worth checking:
https://www.mapmelon.com/
I've been eyeing a stay at one of Outsite's locations for a bit now. Seems like a good balance between having adequate personal space & communal space with like-minded folks + their rates seem reasonable.
Can't say for certain as I haven't been yet, so others please correct me if you've had a not so stellar experience at Outsite
https://www.outsite.co/
Personally had not stayed at Outsite but reading online it seems they've had issues with QA in their locations. As they're scaling really rapidly the quality of their spaces or the community itself seems to be unreliable.
Which location were you looking at?
"reading online it seems they've had issues with QA in their locations"
Links? Sources?
Doesn't take much to find but here you go
https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad/comments/11lav3i/outsite_coliving_review_stay_away/
https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad/comments/w6s68z/have_you_ever_stayed_in_a_coliving_that_was_a/ihfymm3/
I've been researching deep into the coliving community and that's just the general vibe I've gotten. I've also spoken to coliving hosts who let me know around their growth strategy and franchise model.
Thank you
Oh interesting. Haven't seen reviews about that. I was looking at some of their spaces in Mexico / Central America. I noticed they have some that are exclusive Outsite locations vs. some are shared with what seems like Hotel / Airbnb guests.
I was only looking at the Outsite exclusive locations
Have you looked into multigenerational housing? I've heard of college students getting heavily discounted / free rent for taking care of the house / caring for others part-time. A section of the house is dedicated to you and each generation depending on the size of the home.
Haven't heard of it. Thought I must say I was more looking for a place to meet similar remote workers in cool locations, this more so sounds like subsidized housing!
I think it's pretty hit or miss, mostly dependent on who you are living with. If you are able to have some say in this, it will improve the chances that you end up having a good time. Which coliving spaces were you considering?
That makes sense, it sounds like finding communities with common interests will be key then.
I've been looking at a few, Lokal in Tbilisi 🇬🇪, Sun & Co in Xabia 🇪🇸
What actually is coliving? Obviously I can google this and get a whole bunch of random info but what are the specifications of a coliving habitat?
I imagine it to be similar to a co-working space, except everyone is doing non-work things. Like a massive dorm, with a kitchen.
There definitely is a need for definitive messaging on what it is as you said.
The communities I'm specifically referring to typically look like this:
It's basically a much more intimate way of staying with similar minded, career-focused people in cool places.