Where do you meet your job applicants for a quick 5-10mins interview?

I'm new to this business and currently operating from my home office. For now, I schedule in-person interviews at a neutral, public location—the shared parking lot of the local police department and public library, and then conduct the interviews in the library hall. Before scheduling, I always ask candidates to let me know in advance if they can’t make it, so I don’t make the trip unnecessarily.

Today, I scheduled three in-person interviews after initial phone screenings. One candidate texted me early in the morning to cancel, which was great. However, the second didn’t show up and, when I reached out, he said he changed his mind because meeting in a parking lot/library seemed odd without a formal office. The third candidate also didn’t show and didn’t respond to my messages.

I’m considering switching to a local coffee shop or renting an office space by the hour to make the process more professional. My frustration isn’t about candidates changing their minds—I understand that happens—but it’s about the lack of basic courtesy to send a simple text if they decide not to show up, especially when I specifically ask for that heads-up.

Any thoughts or advice on handling this would be appreciated! In particular, I am interested how did you handle this when you did not have an office and was interviewing candidates!!

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