Nomad Hotels? How "Work From Anywhere" Is Driving the Rise of Subscription Living

New business models are emerging to serve a rapidly-growing global market of remote workers and digital nomads. Soon enough, we'll think of paying rent to one landlord in one city as old-fashioned.

The American poet and activist Maya Angelou famously kept a hotel room in every town she ever lived. She would pay for the room on a monthly basis, establishing a dedicated and separate workspace for reading, writing and thinking on weekdays. Once she’d selected the right hotel, she’d stick with it for months at a time. As anybody who makes things knows, a familiar and consistent environment is often the ideal setting for creativity and productivity to flourish.

In the 2020s, Angelou’s concept is experiencing a renaissance—not only for writers in their homebase setting, but for globe-trotting knowledge workers of all kinds.

When people think about becoming digital nomads, it doesn’t take long for them to encounter the issue of accommodation. Today, housing is among the biggest friction points of borderless living. Whether it’s the slow process of buying and selling a home or the arduous task of finding decent rentals in competitive urban markets, it’s clear that the slow and archaic sys…