Best Western Homestead Court Hotel

The Homestead Court Hotel is a three-star hotel and conference venue on Homestead Lane in Welwyn Garden City, operating under the Best Western brand. It is laid out across more than one building, which is what allows the current arrangement: the main accommodation block has been taken under a government contract, while the restaurant, bar and a separate room block on the other side of the car park continue to trade commercially. Welwyn Hatfield has been a significant asylum-hotel area — the borough housed 238 asylum seekers in hotels by August 2025, up from 190 that March.

Unlike many contingency hotels, this site is documented by the operator itself. The hotel's public booking page tells guests that “our standard rooms in the main building are sadly not available, due to a Government Contract taking this part of the building”, adding that this “does not affect our offering as our restaurant and bar areas are unaffected”^[1]GOV.UK. East of England asylum accommodation is delivered through the Home Office's contracted providers — Serco, Mears and Clearsprings Ready Homes — which between them house almost all asylum seekers in government accommodation under contracts initially valued at around £4bn^[2]Press. The number of residents and the exact start and end dates of the contract at this hotel have not been published.

No site-specific cost figure has been published, so the following is an illustrative benchmark only. At the £170 per person per night Migration Observatory figure^[3], the block-booked main building — on the order of 50–60 rooms — at full occupancy would imply roughly £9,000–£10,000 per night. The May 2025 NAO contract review put the average per-hotel run rate across the portfolio at about £5.84 million per year^[4]NAO.