Sometimes, on business trips, I might be going to a meeting with customer for half the day, say. If my flight is not till the evening, I may want to find a quiet place to work on my laptop for several hours. I often tend to head for coffee shops, which have the advantage of coffee (!), but the following disadvantages:
They are often not even slightly quiet - noisy coffee machines, other people talking, etc.
I feel a moral obligation (even if it's partly in my head!) to keep buying coffee, pastries, etc., which isn't good for the waistline or wallet.
Some may not have good or any wifi, and it may be hard to find a power socket.
Assuming that I'm doing this on a budget (claiming back temporary office space such as Regus is a non-starter), what other typical alternatives exist for finding quiet, comfortable, ideally free or cheap working space in a city for a few hours?