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.
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 (10-15), Pic Saint Loup (20-30p training), Aigoual (30-50p 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.
Responsible offices, from energy to waste
Renting an office here means joining a site that produces its own electricity and recovers its waste.
Beyond offices and coworking, Espace Entreprise Garosud has made ecological sobriety part of daily life.
- Low-carbon travel: a cycle path to come by bike and EV charging points.
- Energy autonomy: through 3,000 m² of photovoltaics, the site generates as much electricity as it uses, with a low-consumption design.
- Lean back-office: mail is digitised, reducing paper shipments and the related footprint.
- Biowaste recovered on site: no more single-use products at the restaurant; organic scraps feed six hens that give back donated eggs — a genuine short loop.
- Responsible resources: repurposed furniture, local produce in the kitchen and an anti-waste approach.
- Sorting and reuse: single-use plastic dropped in rooms and drink machines, lasting tableware (mugs, eco-cups), paper and cardboard recycled.
Questions fréquentes
What is a business centre?
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.
What is 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.
What is coworking?
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.
What is the difference between an Office Spot and an Office Rental?
An Office Spot is a furnished private office billed by the hour, half-day, day or week, in two sizes at our centre — 12m² (up to 3 people) and 20m² (up to 8). An Office Rental is a furnished or unfurnished private office on a monthly contract, from 12 to 40m², from €390+VAT/month.
What is 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, which means meaningful tax credits on your first hires here.
Are coffee breaks and catering available?
Yes, indeed. Options include a welcome coffee in the room, breakfast with pastries, a tea-time break with biscuits, lunch at the on-site restaurant and its terrace, meal trays brought straight to the room, and buffet or cocktail dinner on quotation.
What does the on-site restaurant do to minimise waste?
The approach at Ô Resto Garosud combines removing single-use products with on-site biowaste recovery: its organic waste is given to six hens, which sharply lowers waste volumes. Reusable tableware and anti-food-waste initiatives complete the picture.
Does the centre back local sourcing and circular-economy practices?
Yes: office furniture bought second-hand, local produce used for catering, an anti-food-waste partnership, and digitised mail to cut down on postal shipments.
What is the number of offices on each site?
At the Garosud centre, 75 equipped offices and 70 industrial units — the largest business centre in Occitanie; at the Millénaire centre in Castelnau-le-Lez, 40 offices. In total, 115 offices across the two addresses.