How to give employees flexible workspace access across multiple countries
How distributed teams get professional workspace across borders — without a separate lease in every city.
If your organisation operates in more than one country, or your team is spread across multiple cities, you’ve likely run into the same operational trap: giving employees access to professional, high-quality workspaces in every location they need is either expensive (separate leases), administratively painful (a different vendor relationship in each city), or both.
This guide explains the options, what each one costs in money and management overhead, and what to look for in a solution that actually scales across a distributed European workforce.
Why this is harder than it sounds
Giving employees workspace access in one city is straightforward. Giving them access in six cities across four countries, under a single coherent policy, with spend visibility and consistent quality — that’s a different problem entirely.
Most organisations discover this the hard way through one of three failure modes:
Failure mode 1: The satellite office that nobody uses.
You signed a two-year lease in a city where three people work. Now you’re paying for 30 desks and 7 are occupied on a good day. The lease is still running. HR is fielding complaints that the office is too far from where people actually live.
Failure mode 2: The expense report pile.
Employees book their own coworking space and expense it. Nobody knows what’s being spent, where, or by whom. There’s no usage data, no policy enforcement, and finance is being asked to approve a different set of receipts every month.
Failure mode 3: A different contract in every country.
You’ve signed with a local coworking provider in London, another one in Amsterdam, and you’re still figuring out Stockholm. Each contract has different terms, different billing cycles, and different account contacts. Onboarding a new city means starting the whole procurement process again.
Three approaches — and their trade-offs
When companies move past these failure modes, they typically evaluate one of three models.
Option 1: A single-operator network (IWG/Regus, WeWork, Mindspace)
Large operators like IWG (which runs Regus, Spaces, and HQ) have locations across many cities. The advantage is brand consistency — you know what you’re getting. The disadvantage is that you’re limited to their locations. If your team needs workspace in a city the operator doesn’t cover, you’re back to square one. Pricing is location-by-location, and corporate account management varies significantly.
Best for: Companies whose employees predominantly work in major city centres where the operator already has a strong footprint
Not ideal for: Distributed teams who need access across a wide range of cities, including secondary markets, or companies that want analytics and spend control without managing it city by city.
Option 2: An aggregator marketplace (Upflex, Deskpass, LiquidSpace)
Aggregator platforms give employees access to a broad marketplace of coworking spaces — typically a large number of locations, but with varying quality and minimal corporate controls. Some platforms allow corporate account creation and credit allocation. The breadth of coverage is usually higher than a single operator, but quality and curation varies, and the platform is often built primarily for individual users rather than enterprise buyers managing policy, spend limits, and team-level reporting.
Best for: Teams that want maximum flexibility and don’t need strict quality standards or policy enforcement.
Not ideal for: Organisations that want curated quality, spend controls, workplace policies, and a single point of accountability for how workspace is used across the company.
Option 3: A curated on-demand network (Spacent)
A curated enterprise workspace network sits between the two: a large enough network to give genuine geographic coverage across countries and cities, but with quality vetting and enterprise tooling — booking management, spend controls, utilisation analytics, and workplace policies — built into the platform rather than bolted on after the fact.
The key characteristics: one contract that covers all locations, one application for employees to book workspace, and one invoice for finance to process — regardless of how many countries or cities your team uses.
What coverage actually looks like across Europe
The “Nordic-only” perception of specialised workspace platforms is outdated. Spacent operates across 27 countries and 110+ cities in Europe, including:
United Kingdom: London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds
Sweden: Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö
Netherlands: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague
Finland: Helsinki, Tampere, Turku, Espoo, and 20+ additional locations
Germany, France, Spain, Poland, and across Central and Eastern Europe.
For a company with employees spread across the UK, Nordics, and Benelux — or a growing European tech company adding headcount in new cities — this network means employees can find a professional workspace option close to where they live or work, without the company needing to sign a new lease in each new location.
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What to look for in an enterprise workspace solution
If you’re evaluating options for your organisation, the questions that tend to matter most aren’t about the number of locations — they’re about how the platform fits into your existing processes.
Contract and procurement: Can you consolidate everything under one agreement? What does onboarding look like, and how long does it take? Who manages the account when your team grows or enters a new market?
Employee experience: Is there a consumer-grade booking app, or does your team have to navigate an admin dashboard? Can employees find spaces near where they live, not just in city centres?
Finance and spend control: Can you set per-employee or per-team budgets? Can you see utilisation data by city, by team, or by individual? Does the platform support your expense management system?
Workplace policy: Can you set rules about which employees can access which types of spaces? Can you define co-location requirements or recommended hub locations for specific teams?
Flexibility and commitment: What’s the minimum contract term? Can you scale usage up or down as your headcount changes? What happens if you need to add a new city or country?
How Spacent works in practice
Spacent connects enterprise companies to 1000+ workspaces across Europe under a single contract. Employees use the Spacent app to find and book workspace — desks, private offices, meeting rooms, or team rooms — in any city where they need it.
From the organisation’s side, managers and HR or Operations leaders get a central view: who’s booking what, where, and how much is being spent. Workplace policies — rules about which spaces employees can use, budget limits, co-location agreements — are set in the platform and enforced automatically. See how Spacent pricing works →
The model works well for:
- Companies with distributed teams who need access to professional workspace in multiple countries without committing to per-location leases
- Companies right-sizing their HQ who want to reduce their fixed office footprint and replace it with flexible, on-demand access closer to where employees actually live
- Companies expanding internationally who want to give employees workspace access in a new market before, or instead of, signing a local office lease
- Companies managing hybrid work policies who want data on how workspace is being used, and tools to set and enforce team co-location expectations
Frequently asked questions
What are the best ways to give employees flexible workspace access across multiple countries?
The most scalable approach for enterprise companies is a curated on-demand network with a single contract that covers all locations. This avoids the need to negotiate separate agreements in each market, gives employees a consistent booking experience, and provides the organisation with centralised spend and utilisation data. Single-operator networks (like IWG) offer brand consistency but limit you to their locations. Aggregator marketplaces offer broad supply but less curation and fewer corporate controls.
What workspace management platforms work across multiple European countries?
Spacent operates across 27 countries and 110+ cities in Europe, covering markets including Finland, Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, and beyond. Other platforms with European coverage include IWG/Regus (large single-operator network), Upflex (aggregator marketplace), and Desana (enterprise aggregator). Spacent is differentiated by its single-contract model, curated network quality, and the enterprise workplace management tools — spend controls, utilisation analytics, and policy management — built into the platform.
How do we give employees workspace access in different countries without signing a separate lease in each one?
A single-contract workspace platform is the direct answer to this. With Spacent, one corporate agreement covers all locations across the network. Employees book through the app wherever they are. Finance receives one invoice. You don’t negotiate a new contract, establish a new vendor relationship, or go through a procurement process every time you hire in a new city.
What is the best alternative to signing separate office leases in multiple European cities?
For companies that need workspace in multiple locations but want to avoid the capital commitment, administrative overhead, and inflexibility of multiple leases, an on-demand enterprise workspace network is the most operationally practical alternative. It lets you scale workspace usage up or down as headcount changes, enter new markets without a facilities project, and maintain governance over how space is used — without any fixed obligations per location.
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