Colliers Launches Global Platform for On-demand Workspaces

This week Colliers International announced that it has launched an online platform to provide access to more than 5,000 on-demand workspaces across 70 countries.

The platform, called Colliers Mobility Pass, provides users with the ability to choose from multiple flexible workspace vendors through a single platform. 

“The coworking and flexible workspace operators are joining the network, making their inventory available to be booked through this platform,” says Francesco De Camilli, head of Flexible Workspace Consulting, Americas at Colliers International. “The benefit for the end-user is to be able to access all of that diverse supply of coworking and flexible workspace inventory through one single access point and to receive one invoice.”

With many offices sitting empty, De Camilli says Colliers Mobility Pass can drive revenue into underutilized or unused coworking spaces. “There are predetermined layouts that spaces agree to that dictates their involvement in the network for whatever a booking is made,” he says. “It’s like ClassPass for coworking.”

Booking space is easy, according to De Camilli. Passes can be bought for individuals or teams. Those passes can provide access to anything from a hot-desk to private office access. “Once you have the mobile application downloaded on your phone and you are a paying member, you can access any one of those 5,000 on-demand workspaces and book those spaces freely,” he says.

Developed through a partnership with Upflex, the Colliers Mobility Pass works by providing membership options that give access to the partial or full network of workspaces on the platform. 

“They [Upflex] have the technology, and they have the network,” De Camilli says. “Every supplier on the network has agreed to a partnership with Upflex to offer inventory to be booked on demand.”

De Camilli says the partnership can help companies create a hub-and-spoke concept. 

“Companies don’t just want on-demand space,” De Camilli says. “They will continue to want dedicated space for their employees. This platform allows us to bundle together both dedicated and on-demand space into one contract.”

While planning was in the works for Colliers Mobility Pass before COVID-19, De Camilli says the pandemic made a dramatic impact.

“It was in process prior to COVID-19 as a solution to help Fortune 500 companies supplement their owned and leased space with a workspace solution for traveling employees or remote employees,” De Camilli says. “But COVID-19 has transformed how many corporations are thinking about real estate solutions.”

De Camilli says flexibility and choice are at the center of these new real estate strategies. “This enables occupiers to truly optimize their mix of dedicated and on-demand space to meet the needs of what’s now a much more distributed workforce,” he says. “So the partnership began ahead of COVID-19. Not only has it accelerated since COVID, but it has also evolved since then to be broader than just a solution for traveling and remote employees.”