Mallorca Co-Work Adventure: Digital Nomad Island Escape 🏝️💻🌍☀️🌊

I decided to join JMT in order to meet a group of people who were likeminded when it comes to traveling and working, but also co-living. Prior to joining I have had several conversations with Lorenzo and also expressed my worries regarding my age, where I thought that I would be much older than the rest of the group and this would reflect in terms of understanding of general behaviour when co-living, but also in terms of socialising. I am 44 yrs. old and my work as an interpreter demanded a quiet and private place with good wi-fi connection where I could have conversations without outside-noise. Those were the concerns I expressed to Lorenzo prior confirming my attending, and he assured me that nothing of this would be a problem. I also asked for a group chat with all of participants before entering a house, but didn’t happen until just a few days prior entering the villa. I missed a videocall initiated by the host in order to make us feel welcome and give us a possibility to greet at each other since many of us shared a room. By doing this the host could have made us feel more comfortable and included. On my question regarding the price for the single room the host told me it would be a double price, approx. 1500 euro, this was a bit too much and I said that I would share a room even if I knew I would have problems sleeping while sharing the room, and also miss out the opportunity to have my own “office”, but after arriving I learned from the people staying in the private rooms that they have paid only 1100 euros for single rooms with private bathroom. I would have expected of the host to offer me this price as well especially since my work needed a quiet and private place to work, and I wouldn’t have hesitated to agree to this. The initial plan was to work during the day and visit the island in the afternoons when everyone is done working. After arrival many members of the group said that they had their days off, and the trips were planned according to this, and since I felt that I would have miss out on many trips, I needed to cancel a lot of my appointments in order to join the trips. If this would have been clearly communicated by host prior the arrival it would have made my work-planning a lot easier, and this could have been done at a group call prior arriving. I even made a joke by saying that I thought that I joined a co-work, not no-work group. The timing of information given and group planning was made way to late regarding everything. It was ad-hoc planning throughout the whole trip, and it made it difficult for me to cancel my work in order to join the trips. The villa its self was a total disaster. I would have expected of our host to even visit the villa prior inviting 8 people to live and work at this place. Pollenca is well known area with luxury villas, and this one lacked a lot and is outdated and there hasn’t been any work done in the villa in long time. We got to see a few pictures of our accommodation, and only one bedroom was shown. In the house all the beds were different, from king size bed, normal bed and “help-bed on wheels” which was assigned to be mine without even giving me a possibility to choose the room due to circumstances of my female mate. The bed was smaller than the regular bed, and utterly uncomfortable. My needs weren’t taken into a consideration. If I would have known this before coming – I would have cancelled my trip, and asked for a refund. Wi-fi signal didn’t reach out to all rooms and there was no sound isolation between the rooms and every time someone opened a door, another slammed and the amount of noise was making it hard to be able to work. People were having meetings and talking without headphones all over the villa, and even in front of the windows, and even this made it more difficult to work. The host didn’t try to address this issue by himself. Prior the check in the host sent us the rules of conduct regarding co-living, cleaning, shopping and behaving – nothing of this was followed and it became a huge problem. When talking to him he asked to speak with each and every one the side, and never addressing the big issue in plenum, during our dinner. The most elementary things regarding noise, cleaning, food making should never have become a problem in a group that is co-living and when it does it should be addressed by the host in plenum the moment it actually becomes a problem. As group itself, the feeling of how our host made this group was that he accepted those who signed up, because there weren’t many people to choose from. This reflects through the facts that a few mates were staying for only a few days, also coming a few days after check in-and leaving before the rest, but also through the group set up, where there were several issues that might have had to be addressed since it directly affected all group mates, and perhaps the host should have asked all of if we are fine being in that kind of group. We didn’t know anything about each other before joining. The different and individual needs that some of our mates had affected the others, including when going on trips, and this was something that should have been brought to everybody’s attention before paying and joining the group. On the other hand, we have visited many great places on the island, but then again everywhere you go on the island Mallorca is stunning. We had a few dinners at great locations and good restaurants, and we had laughs and good time. But the co-work and co-live situation demanded a lot more planning, clear communication and in the end execution which was not how I have expected it to be. Our host is a young man that possesses many good qualities, but he is in learning process and needs to use them in correct way and I am sure that he will take our feedback in consideration regarding his future trips, so that he can become even better host for his future guests.