planning
Co-living
for digital nomads
This page will educate you on the concept of co-living and introduce you to the leading brands in the industry.
Contents
The Co-Living Concept
Co-living is a relatively new concept, that came along with the digital nomad era, during the last decade. Co-living is a modern approach to shared housing, where you will experience a perfect balance of community and independence.
Co-living spaces make short-term living very convenient, by making it affordable, flexible, seamless, and stress-free, to move to a new city. Everything will be prepared for your arrival. You will have your private bedroom, included amenities, in a fully equipped house with shared common areas, where everything is in place to make you comfortable and productive.
Co-living is aimed at students, workers, digital nomads, or individuals relocating. This means that you will find like-minded people, that is there for the same reasons, share the same passions, and value the same type of lifestyle. That makes Co-living an obvious choice for digital nomads.
Moving to a new city for a short terms period can sometimes be difficult and stressful. Many digital nomads have probably tried moving to a new place and know the struggle of finding accommodation, living alone, meeting new people, etc. All this can be overwhelming and time-consuming when you also have work that takes up your time. Co-living takes away that stress, by putting you in the right place, surrounded by the right people, to achieve the best time abroad.
Co-living is like a real-life scenario of the series ‘friends’ – And we think every digital nomad should try it out.
For many digital nomads, co-living becomes the perfect mix of independence and community. When you’re tired and want to be by yourself, you will have a nice private space to retreat into. And when you’re up for socializing, you will find a vibrant community, of like-minded people, available to share meals, work together, experience your new city, do sports activities, hang out, etc. It’s simply the best of both worlds, and there is a big chance you will create some strong friendships or even get new clients for your business.
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Find Co-Living Spaces
When traveling to a new destination, we usually search for co-living spaces in one of 3 different ways:
- Through a basic Google search
- Through the Co-living platform, you find below
- Checking if one of our favorite co-living brands is present in the city. (list included in this article)
Editor's Favorite Co-Living Brands
We have created a list containing some of the leading and most innovative co-living spaces in the industry. All the co-living spaces listed in this article are offering multiple locations across the world. So this selection of co-living brands will have you covered in all parts of the world, whether you’re looking for a beach getaway in Bali or want to get a feel for the hustle in New York City. We have chosen to highlight these co-living brands since they are among our personal favorites at the moment, and we expect them to have a big impact on the evolution of the co-living industry in the following years.
Contents
Brand reviews
Outsite was founded in 2015 to serve a new segment of location-independent professionals; looking to combine their flexible work and desire to travel.
“Outsite’s mission is to create a world where everyone can design and live their best lives, with the freedom to live and work anywhere.”
Outsite currently has 24 spaces in urban, coastal, and alpine locations, spread across three continents and nine countries. All of their beautiful homes have well-integrated coworking spaces and beautiful interactive common areas, designed for an amazing community feeling.
Every co-living space has a community manager who takes care of all the administrative tasks and makes sure you have all necessary amenities, to get the most productive and social stay.
Outsite value their community, and they even have a membership with discounts for the digital nomads, who use all the different Outsite destinations around the world. After staying once with Outsite co-living, many people begin to plan their travel destinations after the presence of Outsite.
While many companies in the travel industry are affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and start to scale down on their businesses, Outsite seems to be during really well. They recently opened two new destinations in November 2020. One Co-living space on the Canarian island, Fuerteventura, and another one on the Caribbean island, Barbados. Outsite has been good at adjusting the traditional co-living concept to fit digital nomads and travelers.
Selina co-living is another favorite of ours. Selina originally started as a hostel, but from the very beginning, they have been good at creating concepts that turn their locations into more than a simple hostel. They would for example add coworking facilities, cinema rooms, surf schools, yoga facilities, restaurants, bars, and much more. Each location would have an individual focus, and all their hostels have been beautifully decorated by some amazing artists. You will experience a clear link between all their different location and great attention to detail and comfort, that will allow you to feel at home at Selina, wherever you may be in the world. Once you have stayed at a Selina location, it’s hard not to fall in love with the concept. Many people I’ve met at Selina, have ended up planning their upcoming travel destination after the presence of Selina.
Since they started as a hostel, Selina attracts a young crowd of backpackers and will be a good option for younger digital nomads, who seek lots of social activities and fun after a day of work.
If you’re a social media influencer or a good video editor, Selina has an exciting program called Selina Film Residency Program, that allows you to experience a lot of their locations, Selina will cover the accommodation costs in return for content. A concept we absolutely love as creative digital nomads.
With 81 independent locations, Selina is the largest co-living provider on the list. Selina is highly represented throughout all Central and South America, and in recent years they have expanded into North America and Europe.
After realizing that they had all the facilities in place for co-living and noticed that there was a high demand for a long-term stay, Selina recently launched their CoLive concept, which is a perfect solution for digital nomads. Their co-living concepts gather all their locations with co-working facilities on one page and give you some incredible discounts for long-term stays. A very cool feature is that their Selina CoLive program allows you to pay a monthly rental fee, which gives you access to changing between different locations per month. This makes it a very attractive deal, for digital nomads, who prefer to move around and experience more than just one city, when they travel to a new country.
Once you have stayed at a Selina location, it’s hard not to fall in love with the concept. Many people I’ve met at Selina, have ended up planning their upcoming travel destination after the presence of Selina. Whether you’re looking to experience the pulse of a big city, find your inner peace in the jungle, or simply want a beach getaway – Selina got you covered.
OutPost primarily manages co-living spaces in Bali, with an exception in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. OutPost are really popular among digital nomads, and it is very likely, that we will see them expand to new destinations in the following years. In Bali, they currently have two co-living spaces in Ubud and one in Canggu.
OutPost Is perfect for digital nomads working remotely, organizations going for a group trip, or smaller companies planning a team retreat.
Their co-living spaces are designed to feel like home, with cozy rooms, private bathrooms, as well as relaxing communal areas to connect with like-minded travelers.
On-site, you will find comfortable coworking facilities, a delicious café, great staff support, regular cleaning services, and much more. After a day of work, you can cool down in the swimming pool, before attending some of the weekly events in the evening
LifeX was founded in Denmark, where the co-living concept originally emerged from, back in the 1970s. Compared to the two brands above, LifeX is not branded towards digital nomads and the travel industry. They focus more on the original co-living concept, where they facilitate shared flats. A concept that helps people get settled in a new city, by removing all the hassle and obstacles that normally come with renting an apartment yourself. LifeX is great for students who are taking a semester abroad, or someone moving to a new city for a job opportunity, and want an easy transition.
As mentioned LifeX facilitates shared flats, so you will not have staff on each location, but in comparison to the options above, where you can just book a room, LifeX has an application process, to make sure you match the community of the flat you’re moving into. Their conditions include a minimum stay of three months, making LifeX a great option if you’re going to be in a destination for a long time and don’t want to have new roommates every week.
LifeX is growing rapidly and at the moment they are represented with apartments in Copenhagen, Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Paris, and London. All their apartments are located in trendy neighborhoods and the apartments are renovated with beautiful Scandinavian design aesthetics.
Quarters is another company, who has built a great brand around the concept of Co-living. Just like LifeX, they are using the traditional real estate approach to co-living. Quarters facilitate apartment sharing and take care of all the administrative and practical things. Most of their apartments are located in large buildings, where they also have some attractive communal facilities, that cover everything from sunny rooftop terraces to cinema rooms and working spaces.
You will find Quarters in both United States and Europe. In the US Quarters is represented with several locations big cities like Washington DC, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. In the EU you will find Quarters co-living in Berlin, Rotterdam, Leipzig, and The Hague.
Just like LifeX, a minimum stay of 3 months is required to book a room at Quarters. The leasing process is super fast, and you will have final approval in just three days. The price points at Quarters are super competitive, which makes it easier to move to more expensive cities like New York.
The community values of a co-living space have high priority at Quarters. Through an app, you can connect with other members in the same city, explore events, and social activities. Their app also lets you take care of more practical things like cleaning, maintenance, service or repairs, and much more.
I am a millennial, and I want to travel and work remotely. There are many platforms that I use like Airbnb, Hostelworld, WeWork, and Booking.com, but the downside is that they don’t offer me a range of co-working-ready hotels and hostels.
RemoteDream helps me get inspired, and find and book the best remote-work-suitable hotels and hostels. They offer a qualified network of locations that are ideal for remote work, workstations, and digital nomads.
Locations qualify based on:
– Quality work spots
– Co-working
– Community of likeminded people
– Excellent Wi-Fi
– Extras such as surf spots/beachfront, rooftop bars, and other surprising good stuff.
Additionally, there are no minimum stay limits, and am able to choose locations based on reviews from professionals. The intuitive filter system helps me find the ultimate location with filters for °C in winter/ a chosen timezone, bar, and more.