I first came up with the idea for Haven six years ago when I had young kids and was working as a chief marketing officer. I'm not in the education space or the childcare space, but I had looked at daycares and realized that there could be a better childcare experience. As a new mom working remotely in a demanding job, I decided to incorporate workspace and fitness into each location too.

At Haven, parents don't just drop off their children and leave. They don't have to stick around, but in many cases, they drop off and then head upstairs to a fully separate part of the Haven building. They're able to take care of their professional and personal needs, whether it is having meetings, handling phone calls or having conversations with other parents who are in similar stages. They can eliminate time otherwise spent in the car driving to multiple places, whether it’s a childcare facility, the office, the gym or doing personal errands. We have personal trainers, massage therapists and estheticians and therapists on site.

We opened our first location in Rhode Island in August 2019. We made it through COVID and have since opened up two additional locations with a few hundred members total. We’ve just completed and launched our franchise program so hopefully in 2030 we’ll have workspaces in as many communities as we can.  ROOM’s phone booths will be standard components in building out those new Haven spaces.

A Noticeably Peaceful Experience

We turned to ROOM to outfit our coworking spaces early on. While other competitors popped onto the scene later, the quality and the experience I’ve had with ROOM has exceeded the competition. I like the aesthetic of the products, the quality, the fact that they’re soundproof and it’s noticeably peaceful and quiet when you step into the spaces. The brand has proven to be really solid. I'm most excited about ROOM’s versatility and the different product designs the company has developed. Their Focus Room product has the potential to be a mother's room or nursing suite. In fact, we’ve started discussions with the team at ROOM about how to create a space that is suitable for those purposes.I also like the flexibility of the products, which allows us to shift our spaces and change the work environments. It doesn't have to be set in stone.

A Sustainable Option for Growth

With ROOM, we can avoid lengthy, costly and detrimental construction projects with drywall in new locations. With their modular design, you’re not creating construction waste and using new materials resources. Instead, we can rely on easy-to-install sustainable booths that adapt with our needs. 

That focus on sustainability is very important to Haven. Because we offer an office, personal services, a gym and childcare in one place, we found Haven saves our members around 670 hours a year—which is 29 days that they're not driving their car. Our website has a calculator that shows time and money saved and their carbon footprint impact. 

Our largest location is 9,000 square feet and we have two booths in each Haven location. But with the way we’re seeing workspaces going, we’re going to be incorporating more of the Focus Rooms and the Meeting Rooms in each of our spaces because our members are looking for that kind of privacy, alongside space for collaboration.

Franchisees Will Integrate ROOM into New Spaces

Our franchise program includes a few different sizes of clubs for franchisees to open; every space is different. We're not cookie cutter, so locations in a coastal coastal town may be one thing while a mountain town will be another. The way we go about designing a Haven workspace varies. There will be varying sizes of the same amenities. So a business owner may identify a space, and then we approve it. From there, we'll work with them to integrate ROOM products and their workspace equipment. We have design people we lean on, and then ROOM has worked with us, utilizing their experiences and expertise, to optimize our designs.

When deciding how many ROOM products to include in an office, we take into account square footage of the space, the needs of our members, and make sure our spaces are easy to navigate. We don’t want everything stacked on top of each other.

Increased Demand for Quiet Space

As a former interior designer creating space for clients, I would choose products based on other things, such as the colors, a product’s clean lines, or the fact that it was 10 inches taller than everything else. It was never based on price and durability. I convinced clients to buy a product, but then I would walk away. Their facilities people would have to manage the product when it broke down.

Now, as owner-operators of workspace, we designers have to be conscious about price and equally conscious about quality. I'm responsible if something breaks down; the facilities person comes to me. The ROOM booths hold up well over time, requiring very little maintenance. ROOM has the right balance of affordability and quality, which makes it a really great asset to use at scale—making our members happy and helping our bottom line. In co-working, we’re seeing a shift from the traditional huge open floor plan where people work on long tables to workspaces that have more private spaces. Though they want privacy, people don't want to be isolated at home and they don't necessarily want to have to go to the corporate office. So, our spaces need a mix of environments that work for community building and for focused, quiet work

Without a doubt, I would absolutely recommend ROOM to anyone who has an office space now or an open floor plan environment. It’s important for, and the responsibility of leaders in any workspace to create environments that a person can truly thrive in. And for me, that means incorporating ROOM into our floorplans. We were able to create this place that is so comfortable and warm and welcoming. We’re going to be incorporating more and more of the ROOM products into all of our spaces.