1. Cost per night — and cost per week
For a single night, a hotel is often cheaper than an equivalent contractor apartment. That flips fast. Once you factor in weekly rates, meal allowances and laundry, contractor accommodation is typically 20–40% cheaper for stays of a week or more.
A £110-a-night hotel with £30/day in meals costs around £980/week. A comparable exclusive-use two-bed apartment with full kitchen, Wi-Fi and utilities included is often £550–£700/week — and sleeps two contractors, not one.
2. Space, welfare and retention
A hotel room is 25 m² with a bed, a kettle and a chair. A contractor house or apartment gives your team a kitchen, a living room, workspace and privacy. On long assignments that's not a luxury — it's the difference between a crew that stays and a crew that walks.
Welfare-driven turnover is expensive. Losing one specialist to poor accommodation typically costs more than the entire year's accommodation upgrade for the whole team.
3. Admin and invoicing
Ten contractors in a hotel = 10 folios, 10 sets of extras, 10 expense claims. Ten contractors in three exclusive-use houses = one monthly VAT invoice against a PO.
For programmes with 30+ contractors, the admin saving alone typically justifies switching from hotels to dedicated contractor accommodation.
4. Flexibility and lock-in
Hotel block-bookings look flexible until you need to hold rooms across a slow week. Contractor accommodation booked as exclusive-use holds the property regardless of occupancy — critical for rotation-based work where the same beds must be there next Monday.
5. Total cost of ownership
When you add up nightly rate, meals, laundry, admin overhead and turnover risk, contractor accommodation typically wins on total cost of ownership from around night 5 onwards. Beyond a month, hotels rarely make sense for a project team.