Global Meeting Rooms Are Expensive - Here’s a Smarter Alternative

Meeting rooms in global business hubs are expensive. They are priced and supplied in a way that often clashes with how modern, hybrid teams actually meet. This is where a flexible meeting‑room alternative becomes attractive.

What meeting rooms really cost

London

In London, central meeting rooms typically sit in the £60–£80 per hour range for small teams, with many standard 6–10 person spaces advertised around £70/h once you’re within walking distance of key stations. Larger rooms and more polished venues push into the £100–£200/h bracket, so a single half‑day meeting in a “normal” London meeting room can easily cost £300–£600 in room hire alone.

New York City

In New York City, the cheapest professional rooms in central Manhattan tend to start around 60 USD/h. However the majority of listings fall between roughly 100 and 150 USD/h for typical 8–12 person spaces. Once you add the fact that many providers require multi‑hour minimums, a straightforward half‑day team session often lands in the 400–700 USD range before anyone has ordered coffee.

Singapore

In Singapore, standard meeting rooms in central areas typically charge in the mid to double digit Singapore‑dollar range, with a lot of corporate‑grade rooms clustered around 60–70 SGD per hour. Once you step up to larger capacities or more premium interiors, it is easy to cross the 100 SGD/h line, which means a morning workshop in a CBD meeting room can cost 300–500 SGD before catering and service charges.

Paris

In Paris, everyday business meeting rooms in the central areas are usually priced somewhere around 80–100 EUR per hour. Higher‑end venues and larger, flexible spaces frequently sit well above this meaning that even relatively routine client meetings or team offsites can add up to several hundred euros in room hire for just a half‑day booking.

Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, meeting‑room prices in core districts such as Central and Tsim Sha Tsui commonly sit in the mid‑hundreds of HKD per hour, with many business‑grade spaces falling roughly in the 400–800 HKD/h band. Premium hotel, serviced‑office and harbour‑view venues often go higher, meaning a few hours in a central Hong Kong meeting room can easily run to several thousand Hong Kong dollars once you factor in duration and basic services.

Demand vs Supply

The mismatch between demand and supply is most prominent in global hubs where demand for high‑quality, central meeting rooms is high but supply is constrained. This is the case in central London, Manhattan in New York, the CBDs of Singapore and Hong Kong, and core districts in Paris and Zurich. In these markets, typical rates sit around £60–£80/h in London, 75–150 USD/h in New York, roughly 60–100 SGD/h in Singapore, and around 80–120 EUR or CHF/h in Paris and Zurich. This suggests pressure on the best‑located rooms despite growth in coworking and flexible offices.​

Meanwhile, hybrid working has shifted demand from predictable, daily office use towards bursts of in‑person collaboration: quarterly planning days, project sprints, client workshops and interviews. However, the dominant meeting‑room model still assumes 8‑hour day rates, fixed locations and a pipeline of advance bookings. This is especially the case in markets like London and New York, where small and medium rooms at key transport locations already average £60–£80/h and 75–150 USD/h respectively.

The gap an alternative can fill

Meeting room alternatives close the gap by changing both where space comes from and how it’s paid for. Instead of relying on expensive, purpose‑built meeting suites in offices, alternatives areas in hotel lobbies, cafés, coworking lounges eliminate a significant cost.

As these alternatives are distributed around transport hubs, residential areas and mixed‑use districts, and not just in Grade‑A office buildings, teams also save on time and travel. Hybrid‑first companies can then move away from under‑used permanent meeting rooms (with fixed rent, service charges and fit‑out costs) towards flexible spaces, from quiet hotel lounges to well‑equipped cafés. For most organisations, that shift means spending less on empty boardrooms and more on a responsive layer of meeting space that follows their people across cities and projects.

Why this matters in global hubs

Meeting room alternatives matter most in global hubs because these are the cities where traditional rooms are both expensive and constrained. In cities like London, New York, Singapore and Hong Kong, companies routinely plan weeks ahead just to secure suitable rooms. Free alternatives in hotel lobbies, cafés, and other third‑spaces give teams a way to meet near key hubs without paying for high‑margin hourly venues. For global businesses, meeting room alternatives support flexible work patterns and keep budget focused on the content and outcomes of meetings rather than on the room itself.​