Co-working offices giant WeWork points to strong booking numbers in London

WeWork may have filed for bankruptcy in the US and Canada last month but its UK business just had a strong bookings performance in London as more people head back to offices, a company executive has said.

Ben Samuels, chief revenue officer at the co-working offices giant, told the Evening Standard on demand bookings, which offer “drop-in” workspace by the hour or day, surged 33% in November from a year earlier in the capital.

All access bookings, a subscription membership that provides access to some 700 WeWork sites globally, improved 25% across its 36 London locations comparing January to November this year. Conference room bookings also rose.

The rise meant it was the biggest month on record for WeWork bookings (all access and on demand) in London.

The firm, once valued at £38 billion, filed for Chapter 11 in the US and Canada on November 6 in a move to restructure its financial position while continuing to operate. Other markets and franchisees were not impacted.

Samuels said members across the globe received an email from WeWork CEO David Tolley to say it was business as usual.

Samuels added that WeWork is seeing the return to office trend as "quite robust".

"We are seeing people migrate more towards an office or at least include the office as part of that hybrid work model more and more frequently." Firms like WeWork are expected to benefit as employers seek flexible workspace options.