When you operate a single co-working space, a noise problem is a facilities problem. When you operate three, it becomes a brand problem. Members who move between your locations expect a consistent experience — and if one branch has the quiet focus pods they rely on and another does not, you hear about it. Repeatedly.
We run three co-working branches in Dubai — one in Business Bay, one in JLT, and one in Deira. Combined we have just over 600 active members across the three sites, ranging from solo freelancers to small distributed teams booking dedicated desks. The one complaint that came up across all three locations consistently was the same: nowhere quiet enough for a call.
We had looked at acoustic pod suppliers before and kept running into the same wall — suppliers who could handle one location comfortably but had no clear process for a coordinated multi-site rollout. A colleague in the co-working industry pointed us toward desound, who had done exactly this kind of multi-branch installation in the UAE before. That referral changed the direction of the whole project.
Why a single-site supplier was never going to work
The challenge with rolling out acoustic pods across three branches is not just the volume. It is the coordination. Each location has different floor plans, different ceiling heights, different fire egress requirements, and different member usage patterns. Business Bay is our highest-traffic site with a lot of short-duration hot-deskers. JLT skews toward longer sessions and small team meetings. Deira has a mix, with stronger demand in the evenings.
A supplier who could deliver pods to one address and leave them on the loading dock was not going to solve this. What we needed was a supplier who could think across three sites simultaneously and manage the logistics as a single project rather than three separate orders.
The problems we had encountered with previous suppliers before settling on this approach:
- No site survey process. Most suppliers we spoke to wanted us to send floor plans and select a pod model from a catalogue. No one came to the branches to assess ceiling clearance, ventilation constraints, power access, or where pods would actually get used.
- Staggered delivery with no coordination. Being told pods would arrive “sometime in the next two weeks” across three separate orders meant three separate installation disruptions to live member-facing spaces.
- No post-installation support structure. Once the pods were delivered, aftercare was our problem. For a chain running three locations with a lean operations team, that was not workable.
How the multi-branch rollout actually worked
DeSound visited all three branches before anything was specified. Each site survey was done by the same team across consecutive days, which meant they understood the differences between locations rather than treating each one as an isolated brief. Business Bay got a different pod configuration than JLT based on the survey findings — not because we asked for that, but because the assessment drove it.
The proposal that came back was structured as a single project across three sites, with a phased delivery and installation schedule that minimized disruption at each branch. Installations were sequenced so no branch was without its operations team member for more than a day. That kind of scheduling only happens when the supplier treats multi-branch work as a discipline rather than a volume discount.
What the installation process looked like in practice:
- Delivery and installation at each branch was completed in a single day. Pods arrived assembled, were positioned per the agreed floor plan, and were operational by close of business. Members returning the following morning had working pods waiting.
- Pod specifications were consistent across all three sites where the space allowed, and thoughtfully varied where it did not. Members moving between branches encounter the same product experience even though the physical sites are different.
- Ventilation and power were handled as part of the installation scope, not handed back to us to arrange separately. That removed the coordination gap that had caused delays with previous supplier conversations.
What changed for members and operations
The member feedback was immediate. Within the first week of pods being live at Business Bay, booking demand made clear we had underestimated how much this was needed. JLT followed a similar pattern. Deira, which had the most evening usage, saw the pods become a consistent draw for members who previously left the branch to take calls from their cars.
From an operations standpoint:
- Multi-branch pod rollout as a managed project. The single-project approach meant one point of contact, one delivery schedule, and one installation team across all three sites. Our operations manager was not coordinating three separate supplier relationships — she was coordinating one.
- Consistent member experience across branches. Members who book pods at Business Bay and then work from JLT the following week are using the same product in the same condition. That consistency is harder to achieve than it sounds when you are sourcing across multiple sites.
- Complaints about noise dropped sharply. The specific complaint — nowhere quiet for a call — essentially stopped appearing in our monthly member feedback. That had been a recurring item for over a year across all three branches.
- Post-installation support is handled. Any maintenance or adjustment questions go back to the same team that installed. For a lean operations setup managing three sites, that continuity matters more than most procurement decisions acknowledge.
If you are running more than one co-working location in Dubai and you have been putting off the pod decision because the logistics feel complicated — the multi-branch coordination is solvable when the supplier has done it before. Their Acoustic Pods in Dubai range covers different configurations depending on whether you need single-person focus pods, small meeting pods, or a combination across different branch layouts.
What I would ask any pod supplier before committing
For anyone running multiple locations, three questions cut through a lot of the supplier evaluation quickly: Have you done a multi-site rollout in the UAE before? Who manages the installation at each branch and is it the same team? What does post-installation support look like for a chain rather than a single site?
The answers tell you immediately whether the supplier is thinking about your actual operating context or treating your three branches as three separate single orders. That distinction ends up mattering enormously when the pods are being installed in live member-facing spaces on a tight schedule.
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