Renting desks and offices from your incubator
How taking space works: you request rather than book, what each status means, how the payment actually completes, and what cancelling does.
What you will learn
- Why you request space rather than booking it directly
- What each status on a request means
- The payment step people miss, and what happens if they do
- How to cancel, and what that does to an active allocation
You request, they approve#
Space is not booked instantly. You ask for it, and somebody at the centre approves or turns it down - which is right, because they know what is free, what is being held for an incoming cohort, and what your programme entitles you to.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Pending | Submitted. Waiting on the centre. |
| Approved | They have agreed. This is when payment matters. |
| Rejected | Turned down. Ask them why before requesting the same thing again. |
| Cancelled | Withdrawn - by you, or by them. |
Paying for it#
Payment is a two-step thing and the second step is the one people miss. You start the payment, the provider takes it, and the platform then verifies that it went through. Until that verification lands, the payment is not recorded - even if your bank says the money left.
Do not close the tab mid-payment
If you close the window between paying and returning, the verification step may not run and your booking can sit unpaid while your account shows the money gone. If that happens, do not pay again - check the payments list first, then tell the centre.
Subscriptions and invoices#
Ongoing space is a subscription rather than a one-off charge, so it renews rather than expiring quietly.
- Your active subscriptions, and what each one covers
- A payment history, with an invoice you can download for each one
- Cancel a subscription when you are leaving or downsizing
Tip
Download invoices as you go rather than at year end. They are the record your accountant will ask for, and hunting for twelve of them in March is nobody's idea of a good afternoon.
An allocation, once you have the space#
Once approved and paid, the space is allocated to you. An allocation is active until it ends - either because you cancelled and it ran its course, or because the centre terminated it.
Careful
Cancelling a subscription is not the same as leaving today. Read what the centre told you about notice periods - the platform records the arrangement, it does not override whatever you agreed with them.
