Strikes me as a sensible business model if you can actually cover the recurring costs by getting enough people in. UK version...

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/jan/08/pay-per-minut...

London: https://london.ziferblat.net/

Manchester: https://www.ziferblat.co.uk/

8p/min = £4.80 per hour. Bearing in mind I'd pay £5 for coffee and a cake in many places that seems reasonable.

UK: many public access spaces have places to sit and public wifi (e.g. central reference library, University buildings, some City Council buildings &c)

In Taiwan, there are some excellent tea houses that have an unusual billing model. You can drink their tea for the list price, or you can bring your own tea leaves but use their water, etc by paying for time.

These are not generally the kind of places where you would bring a laptop.

I try to make it profitable if I'm staying longer. If I stay for a long time, I will 'renew' my lease by buying more drinks or snacks :D Places that are friendly and welcoming today…I've gotta make it PROFITABLE for them to stay in business if I want them to be around tomorrow…

HanaHaus is a deliberate coworking place-café combination: http://www.hanahaus.com/about/

Is that the one owned by SAP?