Entryway system for little occupied areas without access to the rest of the building

I often have a similar (not the same but still) case with my office buildings. There is often some small café at ground level, access from the street and not further into the building. In some cases, the café counter is less than 3 m in from the entrance and it is physically impossible to have 3 m long walk-off mats. They don’t want the whole café floor to be full of mats. In those cases, we have dropped/lost the credit. Although I don’t agree that we should, I think these small spaces should be exempt.

I’d like to hear how your issue goes.

It is my opinion that the spaces you describe should be excluded from the entryway system requirement, however I have not found GBCI to share my opinion on this one. 

This issue shows up on my factory projects. Factories typically include a small 'waiting lobby' for the truck drivers. This is usually a 150 square foot room with no access to the rest of the building. GBCI still requires entryway systems at this entrance since it is regularly used. If there is not enough length inside the room, GBCI has allowed entrayway system(s) to be placed on the exterior, but under cover. 

Entryway systems can be excluded at exterior entrances to loading docks and garages, but must be placed between the loading dock/garage and the building if there is access between the two. The aforementioned programmatic space types would not have carpet, and maybe that is why they can be excluded, is my guess. 

v4.1 credit is "choose your own adventure" ....but still a little frustrating that such small spaces can kill this option of the credit.