Spaces Atrium on 5th Sandton — Local services in Gauteng

Our company Africa Incoming a Tour Operator well associated with South African Tourism leased out an office at the Atrium on 5th Sandton at Spaces (Regus) in November 2019 on a 6 month lease which would end at the end of May however was automatically extended without authourization . We were requested to pay 3 months rental upfront + A retainer fee and deposit which we had done . In April 2022 the Country went into stage 5 complete lockdown and Tourism being the biggest industry affected operations had come to a complete end . In May 2020 I had sent an email to Spaces (Regus) informing them that we will no longer be utilizing the office space due to the lock down and Tourism not operating , we only received a response from Regus (Spaces) In November with invoices for monthly rental upto R70 000 .

We have been continuously contacting them and their legal team disputing that we had cancelled in May 2020 and our lease had ended , it is not acceptable to be invoicing us after cancelling. Furthermore we had requested to collect our items which had been kept in the office since the lockdown and was told to go to their storage. A few items were found however 2 laptops is nowhere to be found or accounted for . I have personally been there to search for our laptops and no one can answer for it . There is zero communication or responsibility taken from their end, however they have gone far as legal but choose to disregard all email communication. I would definitely not suggest operating your business from their centres, no professionalism or honesty. You never know what you’re really signing up for. Due to our company giving immediate notice in May there is no way we will accept charges for a year of office rental, but will hold Spaces accountable for the assets missing from the office. It is extremely frustrating dealing with what’s known to be a big , well-known brand like Regus and receiving services...

Staff at the main desk were extremely unhelpful. It was my team's first day there and they didn't show us around, didn't inform us of any key information we should know such as rules, beverages, parking. I had to walk up to them and ask each time which felt as if I was interrupting them in between their conversations at the front.

Parking is not covered which I feel should be made more clear as you do have to pay for parking on top of the daily rate. When I asked about beverage options, I was told that there is "unlimited hot water". You read that correctly. I presume this is there way of saying we can bring our own coffee, which also wasn't made clear?

Overall, it seems all your money is getting you here is a desk, air-con and a nice view. Maybe there's more to it, but I wasn't informed. I won't return to...

Regus contract renewal issues - be careful!

I'm very disappointed with how Regus handled my business's contract renewal. After our initial year, they automatically renewed the contract without our consent. We immediately contacted them to explain we didn't want to renew, but they refused to cancel. Now they're suing us for a full year of services we didn't agree to.

From what I've read, this isn't an isolated incident. Be aware that Regus might use aggressive legal tactics to enforce contracts, even when clients express a wish to end them. If you're a small business, carefully consider the contract terms before signing up, especially automatic...