Cam S.
Yelp
I joined WeWork Congress right before they opened in February 2015. I took a tour while the offices were still under construction, but the flexible conference room policy, 24/7 access, great brand partnerships and perks, and special opening discount for the first three months of a "dedicated desk" coworking membership made me decide to give it a try.
When I arrived on the first day, I was impressed with the space--it's bright, open, modern, and stylishly appointed. The open area where the "dedicated desks" are had lots of private phone booths, and there's ample open space adjacent to the kitchen with couches, barstools, a dining table, etc. The downtown location is great if downtown is convenient for you--the building WeWork is in is very nice, with a Starbucks downstairs, right at 6th & Congress.
The lack of parking was the first nail in the coffin for me, however. WeWork doesn't include parking in their membership--they do provide access to monthly rates (at typical downtown prices) in a few parking garages nearby, but in addition to WeWork's membership rates (which are on the expensive end of the Austin coworking spectrum), the monthly cost is pretty significant. And as a freelancer who needs to be mobile for meetings around town, dealing with downtown parking was just really, really inconvenient (which I should have known to expect).
I ended up cancelling my WeWork membership after 2 weeks (but was locked into paying for 2 months--more about that below). Overall, the space and the membership seem designed for private office tenants, not general coworking members.
Each "dedicated desk" is just an assigned chair at a long communal table with no dividers--each spot has a small rolling filing cabinet and a chair. Overall, it was really cramped. The filing cabinets under the tables created limited leg room, and the lack of dividers (and tightly packed space) had people's things spilling over into each other's spaces. This setup would be totally fine for open, unassigned coworking space, but it seemed like a stretch to call these "dedicated desks".
Moreover, several small companies had rented out clusters of dedicated desks, which made the space feel more like a series of offices without walls. I was seated right next to one of these small companies, and while the people were super nice, they were up and down all day, walking among each other's desks, standing in groups right behind me to have impromptu discussions, and talking constantly.
There were also a number of people in the open area who were on phone headsets throughout the day, which is true in any coworking space. I have headphones and I know how to use them, but there was so much activity--not just noise--throughout the day that I felt like I needed to abscond to the open couch area just to get a quiet, undisturbed moment. (And in that case, why am I paying a premium for a dedicated desk?)
So I decided to cancel--and that's when I realized that WeWork's "30-day move-out policy" meant that I would have had to cancel on my very first day of membership in order to avoid being charged for a SECOND month. The policy requires you to give notice at least 30 days before your last day--which makes perfect sense for the private offices. But do I really need to give 30 days' notice (actually more like 45 days in my case) to vacate a single chair at a long communal table, on a month-to-month membership, no less?
I definitely feel there should be more flexibility for general coworking members--especially those who join a new space, sight unseen. Even at my discounted rate, I'm paying considerably more than one month of full-price membership for using the space for only two weeks. Seems pretty unforgiving!
And to make matters worse (personal rant here), they notified me that the ACH I used to pay my deposit and first month's membership stopped working (not due to insufficient funds), so I am having to set up my payment method all over again just to pay for this second, completely unused month of membership. Sigh.
All that said, there appears to be a more flexible (and far cheaper) membership option for this space now, which they didn't tell me about on my tour. So I would recommend doing that if you're intent on WeWork for general coworking.
All in all, this is a premium space with some great perks and killer private office space, but if you want general coworking, I'd recommend looking elsewhere. There are far more flexible, affordable, and equally well managed options in Austin--most with free parking too!