Facilities

Finding and setting up an office and guest house is often one of the most important and urgent tasks a set up team will have. Keep the following things in mind:

Three General Rules for Getting Space:

1. Act Fast.  Don’t delay a decision, as, in a multi-actor response, space is usually at its most plentiful and cheapest in the early days of a response. Acting fast is key to making sure you have enough decent space in the medium and long term. As days pass (just days, not weeks), options will disappear, quality will decline, and prices will rise.
2. Overestimate what you will need rather than underestimating. Emergency responses where we have too much room are very rare.
3. Don’t expect perfection.  Nothing you find will be perfect.  The most important factors to look at are:
   1. Security of Location and Facility
   2. Size
   3. Rental conditions (including owner permission to make changes)

That said, we look at three main things in this section:

What to look for in a facility,

Leasing a facility, and

Setting up a facility

Note:  We deal with Warehousing in a separate section.  Click here to go to those pages.