L'Espace Entreprise · Montpellier
A short glossary.
The serviced workspace world has its own jargon. Here is a short glossary of the terms you will hear when comparing offers — in plain British English, with the French equivalents where it helps.
Plain English
French equivalents
Practical
Glossary
- Business centre centre d'affaires
- A building containing fully furnished and equipped offices and meeting / training rooms, designed to be available at short notice for short or medium periods of time. Business centres also offer a range of ancillary services — from domiciliation to management assistance.
- Domiciliation domiciliation
- The hosting of a company's registered address (siège social) at a third-party location. In France this requires the host to be an officially Préfecture-approved centre (agréé préfectoral). For founders, it means using a credible address without renting a physical office.
- Coworking coworking, espace partagé
- A workspace model where independent professionals and small businesses share infrastructure (internet, reception, kitchen, meeting rooms) while keeping their own private offices or desks. Distinguished from open-plan hot-desking by the presence of private offices.
- Pack Light · Pack Premium forfait domiciliation
- Our tiered domiciliation offers. Pack Light: postal address + mail reception. Pack Premium: address + dedicated phone + fax + occasional workspace + storage. The "Optic" variants add fibre-optic teleservices (hosted phone, video-conference, fax-to-mail).
- Office Spot bureau à l'heure
- A furnished private office billed by the hour, half-day, day or week. Two sizes at our centre — 12m² (up to 3 people) and 20m² (up to 8). Distinguished from Office Rental, which is monthly.
- Office Rental location de bureau
- A furnished or unfurnished private office on a monthly contract. From 12 to 40m², from €390+VAT/month. Zone AFR tax benefits apply in our district.
- Meeting / training room salle de réunion / formation
- A bookable room — by the hour, half-day or day — equipped for meetings or training. Our three rooms: Littoral (4p), Pic Saint Loup (12p training), Aigoual (20p board / seminar).
- Reservation Centre central de réservation
- Our service for booking rooms beyond our own three when capacity, format or location requires it. We have a partner network of meeting venues across the city. Conversely, businesses with unoccupied rooms can list with us.
- Teleservices téléservices
- A range of innovative phone / fax / video services built on our fibre-optic infrastructure: Voice-to-Mail, Fax-to-Mail, hosted phone numbers, video-conference. Designed for SMEs that wouldn't justify their own infrastructure.
- Zone AFR Aide à Finalité Régionale
- A French regional aid zone where SMEs get tax benefits on new hires and on certain investments. Our Castelnau-le-Lez location falls within Zone AFR — practical impact: meaningful tax credits in your first hires here.