BUSINESS TRAVEL has many, many downsides: barbaric jet lag, cramped seats, cacophonous hotel rooms, delays when it comes to flights, trains, rental cars. But one aspect of working on the road has gotten an upgrade in recent years: Thanks to clever new apps and websites, you can now efficiently find a place to park with your laptop. Whether you’re looking for a half-day hotel room to bridge the gap between checkout and takeoff, a private place to record your podcast or a poolside seat with high-speed Wi-Fi, these apps can pump up your productivity, pleasurably.
Miss your open-plan office? Several apps have popped up to fill empty spaces in co-working spots. Consider downloading more than one, since they tend to have different strengths and cover different locations. The app Croissant might be the most affordable. Its basic plan, at just $39 a month, secures you 10 hours a month at a rented desk, in dozens of cities, from Los Angeles to Bucharest. LiquidSpace offers a choice of open-plan desks, private offices and meeting rooms in hundreds of U.S. cities, as large as New York and as small as Homewood, Ala. Prices vary; in Boston, for instance, a day pass starts around $20. ShareDesk offers unusual geographic scope, claiming to have 4,500 locations in 440 cities across the globe. getcroissant.com, liquidspace.com, sharedesk.net
MOMO & Co, a co-working space in Amsterdam, one of the scores of places in dozens of cities available to rent via the Croissant app.
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Moma & Co./Croissant
HotelTonight isn’t the only platform that lets you book an urgent, last-minute hotel, but its prices often beat those of other booking apps and sites. Though you can book as much as a week in advance, it’s especially handy when you have a sudden change of plans or a late-night flight and your hotel can’t offer you a later checkout time. Just watch out for the taxes and fees that get added to the total; they can be steep. hoteltonight.com
Finding an affordable meeting space away from home can be challenging. Currently operating in a half-dozen major U.S. cities, London, Toronto and Montreal, Breather lets you easily book a meeting pod, conference room or seminar space by the hour. The workspaces are customizable, and you can add on amenities such as a projector, flipboard or webcam. From $30 an hour, $150 a day, breather.com
The Hoxton Hotel in Paris, bookable by the hour on the Dayuse website.
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The Hoxton, Paris
Competitors DayUse and HotelsByDay let hotels generate revenue with empty rooms, while giving travelers a place to sleep off a redeye, take a pre-meeting shower or practice a presentation in private. HotelsByDay covers 520 cities, mostly in the U.S.; DayUse is more international, serving 23 different countries. Check both to give you the widest choice; their inventories don’t necessarily overlap. From $39 for six hours, dayuse.com and hotelsbyday.com
Kaleidoscope Coffee in Richmond, Calif., among the coffee ships, libraries and other laptop-friendly publics spots listed on Work Hard Anywhere.
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WHA
You can get the upsides of camping out in a cafe—like local flavor and access to a good pour-over—without having to worry about sluggish Wi-Fi or a dearth of outlets. WHA by Work Hard Anywhere pinpoints laptop-friendly public spots, including coffee shops and libraries, around the world. Crowdsourced ratings detail the availability of parking, internet, power and seating. Free, available for iPhone, workhardanywhere.com
There are worse things than answering email from a poolside lounge chair or cabana. Daycation lets you buy day passes to resorts in several U.S. and Caribbean destinations. In Miami Beach, the luxury options include the pools at the COMO Metropolitan and the Fontainebleau hotels. Cabanas are available at some locations, for an additional charge. Pro tip: Use Daycation to upgrade your trip when you’ve been booked into budget digs. From $15 a day, daycationapp.com
Do you have trouble finding a work spot while traveling? Share your best tips and tricks below.
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