Best Western Plus Moat House Reading

The Best Western Plus Moat House Reading is a 129 room hotel and conference venue at Sindlesham on the edge of Wokingham, about four miles from central Reading. The site has long served the Thames Valley as a wedding, conference and corporate events venue and is the only hotel in Wokingham Borough that has been brought into the Home Office asylum accommodation contract.

Wokingham Borough Council's published Freedom of Information page on asylum seeker accommodation confirms that asylum seeker hotel accommodation in Wokingham is concentrated at a single Home Office contracted hotel^[3]Council. Wokingham.Today reports that cross-party councillors have called on the council to formally condemn racist rhetoric directed at the Moat House, which has been used to house asylum seekers while their claims are processed for years^[1]Press.

In August 2025, Bracknell News reported the leader of Wokingham Borough Council confirming a review of the legal and planning implications of the Epping Forest High Court injunction for the Best Western Plus Moat House. Epping Forest District Council had secured a court order constraining the use of an asylum hotel on planning grounds, and the Wokingham review considered whether similar arguments could apply to the Sindlesham site^[2]Press.

At the £170 per person per night Migration Observatory benchmark^[4], 252 asylum seekers placed at the Moat House implies headline taxpayer exposure of about £42,840 per night and roughly £15.6 million per year. That sits well above the May 2025 NAO contract review average of about £5.84 million per year per hotel, reflecting the unusually high headcount loaded into this 129 room site^[5]NAO.