How to Find the Right Coliving After Fifteen Stays
After more than fifteen colivings, I learned the hard part isn't the building, it's finding the place where the right people are. Here's how I'd tell a friend to actually do it.
Joëlle Van Beers
Joëlle has been a digital nomad for over three years, visited 10+ colivings, and is co-founder of Coliving Community.
I have been a digital nomad since 2021, and in that time I have stayed in more than fifteen colivings. Some became the best months of my life. A few taught me exactly what I did not want. Every single one taught me the same lesson in the end: the building matters far less than the people in it, and the hardest part of this whole lifestyle is finding the place where the right people are.
Two Problems, Not One
When I started, I did not really know what I was doing. I booked on a good feeling and hoped. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes I landed somewhere with fast Wi-Fi and a lovely kitchen and nobody to share dinner with. What I learned slowly is that finding a coliving is actually two separate problems. First you need to know which places even exist. Then you need to know which of them are any good.
Knowing Which Ones Are Good
This is where Coliving Community earns its trust. They go, they stay, they write it down honestly. When they tell you what a place is really like, the community, the workspace, who it suits and who it does not, you believe them, because they were there. That deep, qualitative read is exactly what you want once you have narrowed things down to a few options and you need the truth about each one. If you want the honest lowdown before you commit, start with their website.
Knowing Which Places Exist
The reason I wanted to write this here is that my cofounders and I built something that solves the first problem, and the two fit together rather well.
I am one of four cofounders of FindYourColiving. Where Coliving Community goes deep on a curated set of spaces, we go wide. We try to map every coliving that exists, not only the ones we have a deal with. Right now that is more than 900 coliving spaces across 300 plus cities in over 90 countries, and it keeps growing as new places open. You search by city or country, then filter for budget, amenities, and the kind of community you are after, until a long list becomes a short one you can actually consider.
How I'd Tell a Friend to Do It
Think of it as breadth and depth working together. Use FindYourColiving to see the whole field and shortlist a handful of places that fit what you need. Then read Coliving Community to go deep on the ones that caught your eye before you commit. That is genuinely how I would tell a friend to do it, and it is why we are working together to help nomads find the right home.
Why We Made It Free
One thing that matters to me: FindYourColiving is completely free. We take no commission and we add no booking fee. When you find a place you like, we send you straight to the coliving's own website so you book directly with them at their price. We did not build this to sit between you and your next home taking a cut. We built it because the four of us have lived this lifestyle and we wanted the tool we wished we had when we started.
Find Your People
If you are somewhere in that overwhelming early stage, staring at too many options and not sure where to begin, you do not have to do it alone. Shortlist a few places, read the honest reviews here before you commit, and come talk to real nomads who have stayed in them: Coliving Community WhatsApp group. After fifteen colivings I have opinions, and the community here is full of people glad to share theirs too.
Because that community is the whole point, and it is out there waiting for you. You just have to find your people, and now there are two good ways to start.