Essential Metrics and KPIs to Measure, by Mark Navarro

We spoke to coworking expert Marc Navarro to explore key coworking space metrics and KPIs to track business success. Learn which formulas and KPIs Marc uses to optimise occupancy, revenue, and member engagement.

Running a coworking space used to be all about instinct—but not any more. It was once easy to tell if a space was buzzing, if the meeting rooms were in demand, and if members were smiling at the coffee machine. But in today’s market—with much larger spaces, more private offices, and stronger competition—operators need more than gut feeling. They need the right data to steer their business in the right direction.

If you’re relying solely on occupancy to judge performance, you’re likely missing key signals. The coworking KPIs you track should give you the full picture: member engagement, space usage, churn risk, revenue streams, and operational efficiency.

In this post, we’ll walk through the essential coworking performance metrics you should monitor to know whether your space is truly thriving.

Using software designed for coworking spaces with built-in analytics makes this both easier and actionable and is something I’d thoroughly recommend operators do.

Top Coworking Space KPIs to Track

Let’s look at the metrics and KPIs that will make a difference to your planning and bottom line.

Profit & Loss

Maybe this shouldn’t be on the list—but let’s start simple: how much are you making? How much are you spending? Get the basic economics nailed down.

A P&L statement typically includes

• Total sales or revenue
• Operating expenses (e.g., wages, rent, utilities)
• Cost of goods sold (if any)
• Other income and expenses (e.g., interest, taxes)
• Net profit or net loss (the “bottom line”)

It helps you—and your managers—understand how well the business is generating income, controlling costs, and managing profitability.

Remember to compare these figures not only with the previous month, but also with the same month last year, as coworking can be seasonal.

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

Another key financial coworking space metric is Monthly Recurring Revenue. In coworking spaces, revenue from non-recurring services—like meeting room rentals, events, day passes, training sessions, etc.—is important, but by nature, it’s unpredictable and pay-per-use. You can’t rely on it as stable income.

To calculate MRR, add up the revenue from all your recurring services. Do this not only for the current month but also for the upcoming months, based on the contracts you already have in place. This allows you to forecast future income and proactively plan things like space renovations or discount campaigns.

If you offer dedicated desk memberships with one-month contracts, consider adjusting your future MRR projections by subtracting the Revenue Churn (we’ll cover this metric later) specific to that membership type. Use either the annual churn rate or the churn rate for that specific month—whichever is higher—to keep your projections realistic.

Why compare POR with EOR?

Let’s say coworking space X has 90% physical occupancy, but the numbers still look underwhelming, and the managers are concerned.

After reviewing the data, they calculate the economic occupancy rate and discover it barely reaches 70%.

Looking deeper into EOR by service, they find that private offices are underperforming. Why? During the launch, they offered massive discounts—and never updated the pricing since.

There are other ways to assess performance, like Average Revenue Per Member (ARPM), which we’ll revisit later. But Economic Occupancy offers a clearer view across all services, showing at a glance where your attention is needed. It reveals how much you’re actually making compared to what you should be making.

It’s important to compare both occupancy metrics. A space operating at 100% physical occupancy still incurs full operational costs—but if the EOR is significantly lower, you’re not earning what a “full” space should generate.

When comparing POR and EOR, consider what you can learn from a temporary or persistent imbalance between the two.

For instance, if your EOR is consistently lower than your POR, it means you’re not able to sell at full price—so it’s worth investigating why.

Common reasons for a POR–EOR imbalance

• Aggressive or outdated discount policies
• Overly optimistic pricing
• Economic slowdown
• Competitor pricing or promotional pressure
• An outdated or less appealing space

Tracking both workspace performance metrics over time gives you a much clearer picture of what’s really happening—and helps you respond accordingly. You might, for example, be in an aggressive discount phase after a recent expansion. That’s fine—as long as you’re aware and in control of the strategy.

How to calculate occupancy for Pay-Per-Use services

Looking at pay-per-use services, to simplify things, we’ll focus on how often day passes are actually used, not when they’re purchased. Use the following formulas for the time period you’re measuring:

• Occupancy Rate = (Number of day passes used / Total available day pass seats) × 100
• Occupancy Rate = (Number of meeting room hours booked / Total available meeting room hours) × 100

In the case of meeting rooms, a few additional considerations are worth noting:

• How we define total available hours will impact the metric. For instance, counting 24-hour days vs. only open hours will yield very different results. It’s recommended to use the full range of available hours—including outside regular business hours—to encourage creativity in monetizing the space 24/7.
• It’s important to track free usage by members vs. paid usage.

It’s a good idea to track both monthly and annual churn rates, since coworking can be seasonal, and having both figures offers better insight and security.

However, not all customers are equal, so it’s useful to have a more precise metric. There are two main ways to approach this, but the most effective is up next.