Letting a cabin whole, or by the seat
A private cabin is a room with a door and a fixed number of seats. You can sell it whole, to one company on one agreement, or by the seat, each seat on its own agreement. A dedicated desk is a fixed desk on the open floor that one member holds; the cabin is priced against it.
| Question | Let whole | Let by the seat |
|---|---|---|
| Who holds the agreement? | One company, for every seat. | Each seat holder. A cabin can hold several companies. |
| Who carries the empty-seat risk? | The tenant, who pays for the whole cabin. | You. A seat that is not let earns nothing. |
| Best when | Teams want a room of their own and you want certainty. | You have a steady flow of individuals or pairs. |
A cabin has 4 seats. A dedicated desk is ₹8,000 a month. The cabin takes the floor of 6 open desks once its walls, door and the gap around it are counted. Every number here is an invented round figure: use your own.
The risk of empty seats
Letting by the seat earns the most when the cabin is full and the least when it is not. Letting whole earns a fixed amount, but loses all of it when the tenant leaves. Compare them on the seat price (S), the whole-cabin price (W), and how often each is occupied.
S is ₹12,000, so four seats come to ₹48,000. You set W at ₹42,000, ₹6,000 less, as the tenant's reward for taking every seat.
| Example: seats let by the seat | Rent by the seat | Let whole |
|---|---|---|
| 1 seat | ₹12,000 | ₹42,000 |
| 2 seats | ₹24,000 | ₹42,000 |
| 3 seats | ₹36,000 | ₹42,000 |
| 4 seats | ₹48,000 | ₹42,000 |
Whole wins at 1, 2 or 3 seats let; by the seat wins only at 4. The break-even is W ÷ S = ₹42,000 ÷ ₹12,000 = 3.5 seats. But that table ignores vacancy: a whole cabin sits empty until the next tenant signs. The fair test is:
Whole beats by the seat when
W × (months the cabin is let ÷ months available) > S × (average seats let)
Say seats let by the seat average 3 of 4: ₹12,000 × 3 = ₹36,000 a month. Say a whole cabin is empty one month in six after a departure: ₹42,000 × 5 ÷ 6 = ₹35,000. By the seat is slightly ahead, though whole looked better in the table. Your decision rests on two numbers you can measure: the seats you really average, and how long a vacated cabin really stays empty.
Meeting credits as a sweetener
Instead of cutting the price, include meeting-room hours with the cabin. Credits are usually cheaper for you than the same value in cash: an unused room-hour costs you nothing, while a price cut is paid every month. The real cost of a credit hour is the room's list price × the chance that you would have sold that hour to someone else. A boardroom hour is worth more than a meeting-room hour, so you can charge it as several credit hours.
A meeting room lists at ₹500 an hour, and in 40% of the hours your cabin tenants would want, it would have been booked anyway. A credit hour costs you 0.4 × ₹500 = ₹200, so six hours cost ₹1,200 a month and look like ₹3,000 to the tenant. A ₹6,000 price cut costs you ₹6,000 every month. If hours persuade a tenant who would otherwise ask for a cut, they are the cheaper concession.
Decide three things before you promise credits: whether hours go to the company as a pool, to each person, or both; whether unused hours carry over; and what happens when they run out. A tenant who sees the overage price before booking is less likely to be surprised by it.
The worked example in one table
| Example: one 4-seat cabin | Number |
|---|---|
| Floor-parity price per seat (₹8,000 × 1.5) | ₹12,000 |
| Whole-cabin price, against ₹48,000 for four seats | ₹42,000 |
| Break-even seats let (₹42,000 ÷ ₹12,000) | 3.5 |
| By the seat at an average of 3 seats | ₹36,000 |
| Whole, empty one month in six | ₹35,000 |
| Six meeting hours a month, at real cost | ₹1,200 |
None of these is a market price. They show the method: start from the floor, compare the two ways of letting on the seats and vacancy you really have, and use credits where a price cut would be permanent.
How Atrium handles cabins
Atrium (by Sehsaa) keeps a cabin as a set of real seats, so both ways of letting use the same records.
- Cabins with real seats. A private cabin is made of seats and can be let whole or by the seat. Floor maps and bookings shows how cabins sit on the map.
- Only let seats count towards Atrium's bill. A desk counts when a member holds it under an agreement at the month-end count, and a cabin's seats count like any other desk. Let whole, every seat is held, so every seat counts. Let to two people, two seats count. An empty cabin adds nothing.
- Meeting credits. Included hours are set per plan or per contract, as a company pool, individual allowances or both. Room multipliers make a boardroom hour use more credit, staff can gift hours, each plan chooses whether unused hours carry over, and a member sees what a booking will cost once the hours run out. Hours used beyond the allowance go onto a separate draft invoice, one per contract per month, for staff to review.
- Your prices stay yours. The price list holds a rate card per branch, with a revision history. Atrium does not suggest what a cabin seat should cost.
At ₹79 an occupied desk, the rate while a workspace has up to 150 occupied desks, the cabin adds nothing with no seats let, 2 × ₹79 = ₹158 with two let, and 4 × ₹79 = ₹316 let whole, before 18% GST. Even ₹316 is under 1% of the ₹42,000 whole-cabin rent. The ₹2,499 monthly minimum applies to the whole workspace, not to each cabin.
Cabin pricing questions
Should I let cabins whole or by the seat?
Let whole when teams want a room of their own and you value certainty; let by the seat when you have a steady flow of individuals and can live with gaps. Test it: whole wins when the whole price × the share of months let is more than the seat price × the average seats let. Example: ₹42,000 × 5 ÷ 6 = ₹35,000 against ₹12,000 × 3 = ₹36,000.
How much more should a cabin seat cost than a desk?
At least the extra floor it uses: the desk price × the cabin's floor per seat ÷ one desk's floor, plus a privacy premium that you judge yourself. Example: ₹8,000 × 1.5 = ₹12,000 per seat. We give no market percentage because we have no sourced one.
Do empty cabin seats cost anything on Atrium?
No. Only seats a member holds under an agreement count at the month-end count, and an empty cabin adds nothing. Example: a 4-seat cabin with two seats let adds two occupied desks to the count. Prices exclude 18% GST, and the ₹2,499 monthly minimum applies to the whole workspace.
Build your cabins from real seats.
Make each cabin from its seats, let it whole or by the seat, and see your Atrium bill follow the seats you have let. 30 days free, no card, up to 50 desks. Atrium is priced per occupied desk: see the price list.