A café can lose a table for 5 hours to one coffee, so laptop guests get turned away

A Prague café owner pulled the wifi, saying a guest can turn a table into an office for 5 hours on one coffee.e15.czCzech café owners on working guests (another site)Four Prague cafés describe the same weekday pattern and its cost: one owner says a guest can turn a table into an office for five hours on the price of one coffee, and that café removed its wifi; another says the laptops clog the lunch seating.Complaint ·

Good for Someone who enjoys signing up cafés and hotels one by one, street by street.

Category
Retail
Entry
Easy
Verified

The opportunity

1/2 · Some pain

Czech cafés and their laptop guests are stuck: the table is held for hours, and those hours are never sold.2 sourcese15.czCzech café owners on working guests (another site)Four Prague cafés describe the same weekday pattern and its cost: one owner says a guest can turn a table into an office for five hours on the price of one coffee, and that café removed its wifi; another says…Complaint · medium.seznam.czTurned away for a laptop (another site)A Czech freelancer describes being refused the use of a laptop for half an hour in a café, and reports being told she would be putting the takings at risk.Complaint ·

  • A café owner says one coffee can buy 5 hours of a table.e15.czCzech café owners on working guests (another site)Four Prague cafés describe the same weekday pattern and its cost: one owner says a guest can turn a table into an office for five hours on the price of one coffee, and that café removed its wifi; another says the laptops clog the lunch seating.Complaint ·
  • Another café says laptop guests take the seats lunch customers need.e15.czCzech café owners on working guests (another site)Four Prague cafés describe the same weekday pattern and its cost: one owner says a guest can turn a table into an office for five hours on the price of one coffee, and that café removed its wifi; another says the laptops clog the lunch seating.Complaint ·
  • A freelancer was told to shut her laptop after half an hour.medium.seznam.czTurned away for a laptop (another site)A Czech freelancer describes being refused the use of a laptop for half an hour in a café, and reports being told she would be putting the takings at risk.Complaint ·

Suggested solution

Build a booking app where cafés, hotels and gyms sell their quiet hours as work seats by the hour, as 3 companies already do in 3 other countries.

Why now

0/3 · No deadline

No law forces this; what has changed is that some cafés now switch the wifi off or ask guests to stop.2 sourcese15.czCzech café owners on working guests (another site)Four Prague cafés describe the same weekday pattern and its cost: one owner says a guest can turn a table into an office for five hours on the price of one coffee, and that café removed its wifi; another says…Complaint · medium.seznam.czTurned away for a laptop (another site)A Czech freelancer describes being refused the use of a laptop for half an hour in a café, and reports being told she would be putting the takings at risk.Complaint ·

  • A café that pulls its wifi loses the guests who came to work.e15.czCzech café owners on working guests (another site)Four Prague cafés describe the same weekday pattern and its cost: one owner says a guest can turn a table into an office for five hours on the price of one coffee, and that café removed its wifi; another says the laptops clog the lunch seating.Complaint ·
  • A guest told to shut her laptop loses the seat and the afternoon.medium.seznam.czTurned away for a laptop (another site)A Czech freelancer describes being refused the use of a laptop for half an hour in a café, and reports being told she would be putting the takings at risk.Complaint ·
  • A venue with a quiet morning earns nothing from the empty tables.e15.czCzech café owners on working guests (another site)Four Prague cafés describe the same weekday pattern and its cost: one owner says a guest can turn a table into an office for five hours on the price of one coffee, and that café removed its wifi; another says the laptops clog the lunch seating.Complaint ·

Willing to pay

1/2 · Some signs

People who work away from an office already pay Czech venues by the hour, by the day and by the month.2 sourcescowork.czThe Czech coworking catalogue (another site)An independent catalogue of Czech coworking counts 75 spaces in 35 towns, lists their prices and access terms, and takes no bookings — it tells visitors to agree the terms with the operator.Statistic · Market checkworklounge.comMarket scan — who sells a Czech venue's quiet hours (another site)Six Czech searches in the words a customer would use found coworking operators selling their own rooms, a booking product for an employer's own desks, a catalogue that takes no bookings and meeting rooms sold…Market check ·

  • A Prague café sells hours in its own work room.Market checkworklounge.comMarket scan — who sells a Czech venue's quiet hours (another site)Six Czech searches in the words a customer would use found coworking operators selling their own rooms, a booking product for an employer's own desks, a catalogue that takes no bookings and meeting rooms sold by the started hour — and nobody pooling the quiet hours of cafés, hotels and gyms.Market check ·
  • Prague coworking operators sell day entry and monthly shared desks.Market checkworklounge.comMarket scan — who sells a Czech venue's quiet hours (another site)Six Czech searches in the words a customer would use found coworking operators selling their own rooms, a booking product for an employer's own desks, a catalogue that takes no bookings and meeting rooms sold by the started hour — and nobody pooling the quiet hours of cafés, hotels and gyms.Market check ·
  • Meeting rooms in the city are sold by the started hour.Market checkworklounge.comMarket scan — who sells a Czech venue's quiet hours (another site)Six Czech searches in the words a customer would use found coworking operators selling their own rooms, a booking product for an employer's own desks, a catalogue that takes no bookings and meeting rooms sold by the started hour — and nobody pooling the quiet hours of cafés, hotels and gyms.Market check ·

Per hour

Per seat, monthly

Validated abroad

3/3 · Proven in 2+ markets

Marketplaces that sell other people's spare space are established in the United States and Germany.2 sourcesliquidspace.comLiquidSpace (another site)The American version at scale: hosts list desks, private offices and meeting rooms — hotels among them — and anyone books them by the hour or the day, in more than 3,500 cities.Company abroad · sharednc.comshareDnC (another site)The German version, trading since 2015: ordinary firms let out the part of their office they do not use, and its site counts 3,235 active listings across 238 German cities.Company abroad ·

Where it works: PT, US, DE — home market CZPTDECZUS
  1. DeskAmigo (another site)Based in Portugal
  2. LiquidSpace (another site)Based in United States
  3. shareDnC (another site)Based in Germany

Market gap

2/2 · Open

Czech sellers of work space sell their own rooms by the hour, the day or the month, and none pools other venues.2 sourcescowork.czThe Czech coworking catalogue (another site)An independent catalogue of Czech coworking counts 75 spaces in 35 towns, lists their prices and access terms, and takes no bookings — it tells visitors to agree the terms with the operator.Statistic · Market checkworklounge.comMarket scan — who sells a Czech venue's quiet hours (another site)Six Czech searches in the words a customer would use found coworking operators selling their own rooms, a booking product for an employer's own desks, a catalogue that takes no bookings and meeting rooms sold…Market check ·

New, selling this: nobody on file. Established, selling this: nobody on file. New, selling something nearby: WHATSPOT (since 2022), cowork.cz, Coworking 6,33, EasyWeek, Spaces. Established, selling something nearby: WorkLounge (since 2016). No established player sells this here.

The space is still open

Execution difficulty

3/3 · Easy

Makes it easier

  • No licence stands in the way.
  • Venues already sell work seats by the hour.
  • The product is an ordinary booking app.

Makes it harder

  • Both sides have to arrive together.
  • A venue that lists a quiet room earns nothing until the first booking lands.

Suggested first moves

  1. Build a booking page for one café that sells its quiet morning as work seats, and run it for a month.
  2. Call the owners who switched their wifi off and ask what would make a working guest welcome again.
  3. Sign venues one street at a time, so the first guests always find a seat within a short walk.