Skip to main content

Escape Your WFH Quarantine with Globe’s Rooms by the Hour

Almost everyone flying solo (Read: without a significant other) amid this pandemic has struggled with isolation for the past few months. On the other hand, for those living with a SO, kids, or both, alone time is virtually non-existent. Now more than ever, so many of us are desperate for an escape. One clever new startup is giving quarantine-weary urbanites a way to do just that, if only for a little while.

According to its tagline, Globe promises its users a way to “find a nap on every corner.” It’s an ultra-short-term rental service that works like an hourly Airbnb. Approved users search the app for listings in their neighborhood to rent by the hour, confirm their rental, then pay between $50-75 per hour for the privilege. Given the current coronavirus situation, Globe is doing everything it can to assure guest and host safety. No overnight stays are allowed, for example. To prove they’re not feverish, potential guests are also required to send a photo of themselves with a thermometer before they’re provided check-in instructions.

Related Videos
globe living
fizkes/Shutterstock

Many guests are just desperate for an hour or two of alone time — a general escape, rather than a full-blown “day-cation.” Many more, however, want a change of scenario to mix up their Groundhog-Day-esque work-from-home situation. Globe’s owners confirmed some guests want a more professional, nicer-looking backdrop to host business Zoom chats or a quieter office space away from their kids.

Globe was founded in June 2019 by Emmanuel Bamfo and Eric Xu, but has since flown largely under the radar. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, demand has skyrocketed. The service currently has about 10,000 approved guests, but only half that many active hosts with available space to rent. The irony is that, like most of us, many Globe hosts are working from home right now. Bamfo confirmed it has another 100,000 guests on the waiting list. Unfortunately, none of them can be granted access until Globe has more hosts with available space.

Anyone seeking a brief reprieve from their WFH quarantine bunker can join the Globe waiting list for free. Although, given the explosion in demand, the pandemic may well be over before they’re actually approved.

For a cheaper, more fulfilling alternative to Globe’s by-the-hour retreats, learn how to escape safely to the outdoors during your local shelter-in-place outdoors.

Editors' Recommendations

10 Movies We Should Have Paid Attention to Before COVID-19
world close movie theater

It goes without saying that we all are living in a world of uncertainty. Sure, there have been other pandemics that wiped out the majority of populations and we've seen pictures of the Great Depression, but surely there must be something more relevant? Or at least occurred in all our lifetimes? The movies, of course — there have been plenty of pandemic and zombie apocalypse films that should’ve warned us about what tomorrow brings. Beyond the viral world-ending movies, there are other flicks that hold information about what the coronavirus future holds. Let us call on Hollywood for a closer look at life in quarantine and post-pandemic.
Outbreak (1995)
Outbreak (1995) Official Trailer - Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman Sci-Fi Movie

A classic before it’s relevance, Outbreak details the spread of an airborne virus that originated in a monkey. Villages are wiped out, cities shut down as mass hysteria ensues with the all too familiar battle between science and politics. Outbreak used to be a token rainy Sunday afternoon thriller; today, it’s somewhat of a comedy.
I am Legend (2007)
I Am Legend (2007) Official Trailer #1 - Sci-Fi Thriller

Read more
The Best Non-Fiction Books About Pandemics, Diseases, and Outbreaks of the Past
reading book bed

For some of us currently living through the COVID-19 pandemic, reading a book about another outbreak that afflicted humanity might sound like the last tome on Earth to crack open right now. Others, however, will find reading about epidemics of the past just the right thing for the moment. A good nonfiction account can help the reader gain a better understanding of how pandemics start, spread, and ultimately end, potentially offering comfort in these uncertain times. It can also offer a broader and deeper context that the daily news cycle might not.

If a book about a past disease was a compelling read before the novel coronavirus spread around the globe, it's still a good read post-COVID-19. Viruses and bacteria have done so much to shape the history of the world that it's impossible to imagine our human story without them. From the deadly role malaria played in ancient Rome (Roman Fever, as it was known) to the devastating bouts of bubonic plague that swept Europe, to smallpox ravaging the native populations of the Americas, to the Spanish flu coming on the heels of World War I, epidemics have caused death on a scale second to none. Just take the Spanish flu, properly called the 1918 Pandemic: that pandemic killed somewhere between 50 million and 100 million people in just over a year, whereas WWI, immediately before it, caused 40 million casualties.

Read more
Improve Your Love Life (Even In Quarantine) With Advice from Relationship Coaches
journalism news newspaper online media couple

Social isolation has changed a lot of things about the way we live today. One of the most subtle and yet most significant is how it has changed our love lives. If we may state the obvious, it's a weird time to be in a relationship. For that matter, it’s a weird time to not be in a relationship. And it’s maybe especially weird to be trying to get into a relationship.

Nevertheless, human beings persist. No matter how awkward, tedious, or even threatening we find other people to be, we still crave connection so deeply that we’ll do just about anything to achieve it.

Read more