Chine Hotel Bournemouth: Asylum Accommodation Profile
The Chine Hotel on Boscombe Spa Road is one of three hotels in Bournemouth reported in 2025 press coverage to be used for asylum accommodation. This profile covers its location, estimated operating costs, and regional context.
Capacity
120
peak residents
Per night
£170
per resident
Annual
£7.4m
estimated
Cumulative taxpayer spend
£13,606,800
Cumulative spend since July 2024: £13,606,800 (+ £24,000 ancillary)
- Asylum use began
- July 2024
- Current status
- Still in asylum use
- Peak residents
- 120
- Days in asylum use
- 667
- Benchmark rate
- £170/person/night
No site-specific total has been published, so this figure approximates it using the contracted bed capacity (peak resident count as a proxy) at the £170/person/night NAO all-in benchmark across the documented asylum-use window. Home Office contracts pay for the full capacity whether beds are occupied or empty, so this is a rough "taxpayer exposure" measure — not a settled invoice.
Key Facts
Location and Context
The Chine Hotel sits on Boscombe Spa Road in the Boscombe district of Bournemouth, within walking distance of Boscombe seafront and Boscombe Pier. The area is served by local shops, bus routes along Christchurch Road, and the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch hospitals, and sits east of the town centre where several other large hotels originally built for the seaside tourism trade are located.
National coverage in August 2025 identified the Chine Hotel as one of three Bournemouth hotels near the beach taken over by the Home Office and closed to the paying public for more than a year[1]. The same site was named in separate national political coverage during 2025[2].
Local and National Coverage
Reporting by NationalWorld in August 2025 names the Chine Hotel alongside two other Bournemouth hotels as properties contracted for asylum accommodation, stating the 79-room hotel had been closed to commercial guests for more than twelve months[1].
National political coverage in the same period again referenced the Chine Hotel in the context of broader reporting on Bournemouth asylum accommodation[2]. Home Office contracts themselves are commercially confidential and are not published at a per-hotel level.
Estimated Cost Breakdown
Cost in context
Chine Hotel Bournemouth
£170
estimated
UK asylum hotel avg
£170
NAO
Budget hotel commercial
£80
commercial
Hostel bed
£30
commercial
The Chine Hotel is reported to have 79 rooms and to have been closed to commercial guests[1]. The Home Office does not publish per-hotel costs, so the figures below scale up an industry benchmark of around £170 per person per night[3] using the cost components set out by the National Audit Office[4].
Estimated Cost Per Person Per Night
Estimated Total Cost for This Site (79 rooms)
Additional Per Person Costs (Outside Hotel Contract)
These costs are funded separately from the ~£170/night hotel accommodation rate and are not included in the figures above.
Figures are estimates based on published UK averages[3][4] and the 2024/25 hotel accommodation spending trend reported by the BBC[5]. Actual contract rates for the Chine Hotel are not published.
Asylum Accommodation in Boscombe and Bournemouth
National coverage identifies three Bournemouth hotels near the beach as reportedly in use for asylum accommodation, including the Chine Hotel on Boscombe Spa Road and the Britannia Hotel on Meyrick Road[1]. The clustering of hotel sites in the town reflects the large stock of hotel and guest house accommodation originally built for the seaside tourism trade.
Across the UK, Home Office spending on asylum hotels has been the subject of extended parliamentary and media scrutiny during the 2024/25 period[5][6]. Dispersal arrangements are delivered through three regional contractors — Serco, Mears Group, and Clearsprings Ready Homes — under the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts[7].
How Hotels Are Selected for Asylum Use
Asylum accommodation in England is delivered through the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts (AASC), held by Serco, Mears Group, and Clearsprings Ready Homes across three regional blocks. Each provider is responsible for sourcing rooms, catering, and support services within its region[7].
When a hotel is contracted, the rooms allocated under the agreement are typically removed from commercial availability for the duration of the contract, and the hotel operates under the terms set by the Home Office and the regional provider. Transition away from hotel use depends on the availability of dispersed housing and larger sites; both routes have faced reported planning and procurement delays across the 2024/25 period[5].
Sources
- Hotels in Bournemouth: Fury over three hotels near beach used to house migrants — NationalWorld, Aug 2025
Names the 79-room Chine Hotel on Boscombe Spa Road as one of three Bournemouth hotels taken over by the Home Office for asylum accommodation and closed to the paying public for more than a year.
- Young male asylum seekers: arrests in Bournemouth — GB News, Aug 2025
Names the Chine Hotel in 2025 coverage of criminal charges recorded against people staying at three Bournemouth asylum hotels.
- Asylum accommodation in the UK — Migration Observatory, University of Oxford, Aug 2025
£170 per person per day in hotels (2024/25 average); used for per-hotel estimates and food/utilities breakdowns.
- Investigation into asylum accommodation — National Audit Office, Mar 2024
Costs when leaving hotels (new accommodation add-ons).
- UK's asylum hotel bill down 30%, government says — BBC News, Jul 2025
£2.1 billion annual on hotels (2024/25; £5.77 million daily average, down 30%).
- Asylum accommodation support: Use of hotels — House of Lords Library, Jan 2025
£3.6 billion on asylum support (2022–23); extrapolated for 2023/24 hotel trends.
- The Home Office's asylum accommodation contracts — National Audit Office, May 2025
222 hotels in use; £1.296 billion annual (2024/25); per-hotel approximately £5.84 million.