Best Western Wilmslow Road, Fallowfield

The Best Western sits on Wilmslow Road in Fallowfield, in the heart of south Manchester's student belt close to the main University of Manchester campus. The hotel was taken into Home Office use under the Serco North West regional contract and houses adult asylum seekers awaiting initial decisions.

ITV News Granada reported that Greater Manchester Police arrested six people at a protest outside the hotel on 7 September 2025, with officers deployed in numbers to manage the demonstration and a counter protest^[1]Broadcast. The following day Granada reported that three of the six had been charged with public order offences and bailed to appear at Manchester and Salford Magistrates Court^[2]Broadcast.

Greater Manchester Police issued a Section 34 dispersal order for the streets around the hotel after the 7 September 2025 protest, allowing officers to direct people to leave the area for up to 48 hours. The Mancunion student newspaper reported on the order and student union response in the days that followed^[3]Press.

At the £170 per person per night Migration Observatory benchmark^[4], a 90 room hotel run at full asylum occupancy implies headline taxpayer exposure of about £15,300 per night and roughly £5.6 million per year. That sits broadly in line with the May 2025 NAO average of about £5.84 million per hotel^[5]NAO.