Citrus Hotel Cheltenham: Asylum Accommodation Profile
The Citrus Hotel on Wellington Street in Cheltenham was named in an April 2026 GOV.UK announcement as one of 11 asylum hotels closed under the government's transition to larger sites. This profile covers its location, the scale of the estimated historical cost while in use, and the regional context.
Capacity
100
peak residents
Per night
£170
per resident
Annual
£6.2m
estimated
Cumulative taxpayer spend
£20,468,000
Total spend January 2023 to April 2026: £20,468,000
- Asylum use began
- January 2023
- Asylum use ended
- April 2026
- Peak residents
- 100
- Days in asylum use
- 1,204
- 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 Citrus Hotel sits on Wellington Street in central Cheltenham, within walking distance of the Promenade and the Montpellier quarter. Cheltenham is a Regency spa town in Gloucestershire whose hotel stock is heavily influenced by its year-round festival calendar, including the Cheltenham Literature and Music Festivals and the Cheltenham Festival racing week at Prestbury Park.
The property is operated as a mid-range hotel by Compass Hospitality and sits on a site formerly trading as "The Big Sleep Hotel". Before its April 2026 closure from the asylum programme[1], the hotel was reported as one of several Gloucestershire hotels used by the Home Office for temporary asylum accommodation.
Government and National Coverage
The GOV.UK announcement dated 15 April 2026 lists the Citrus Hotel in Cheltenham among 11 asylum hotels being closed, with the government stating the closures would save the taxpayer nearly £65 million a year and that residents would be moved to larger facilities such as Crowborough military barracks[1].
National coverage by IBTimes UK on the same day confirmed the closure and set out the wider policy context, naming the Citrus Hotel alongside ten other sites including Banbury House Hotel, Marine Court Hotel, the Rock Hotel, and the Wool Merchant Hotel[2].
Estimated Historical Cost Breakdown
Cost in context
Citrus Hotel Cheltenham
£170
estimated
UK asylum hotel avg
£170
NAO
Budget hotel commercial
£80
commercial
Hostel bed
£30
commercial
The following figures estimate the running cost of the Citrus Hotel during the period it was in use as asylum accommodation (i.e. before the April 2026 closure[1]). They scale an industry benchmark of around £170 per person per night[3] using the cost components set out by the National Audit Office[4]. Per-hotel contract figures are not published.
Estimated Cost Per Person Per Night
Estimated Total Cost for This Site (59 rooms)
Additional Per Person Costs (Outside Hotel Contract)
These costs are separate from the £170/night hotel accommodation rate and are funded through other Home Office or public service budgets.
Figures are historical estimates based on published UK averages[3][4] and the 2024/25 hotel accommodation spending trend reported by the BBC[5]. Room count is an estimate from pre-closure figures; actual contracted rates are commercially confidential. Per-person costs assume single occupancy; shared rooms would reduce the per-person rate but not the total site cost.
Asylum Accommodation in Gloucestershire
The Citrus closure is part of a wider shift. The government's April 2026 announcement sets out a transition from hotel-based accommodation to larger facilities such as former military sites, citing the opening of Crowborough barracks three months earlier as an example[1]. The announced round of closures brought the total number of asylum hotels down from its 2023 peak, continuing a trend reported across the 2024/25 period[5].
In a spa town with a strong year-round festival calendar, the removal of rooms from commercial availability during the contract period had knock-on implications for visitor capacity. The wider South West region continues to host asylum accommodation placements in Bristol, Torquay, Bournemouth, and Exeter among other locations.
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[6].
When a hotel enters the programme, the rooms allocated under the contract are typically removed from commercial availability for the duration of the contract. Transitions out of hotel use depend on the availability of dispersed housing and larger sites; the April 2026 Citrus closure, announced alongside ten other sites, was part of a government move to scale up larger facilities instead of hotels[1][2].
Sources
- Asylum hotels close as government scales up use of large sites — GOV.UK (Home Office), Apr 2026
Official government announcement of 11 asylum hotel closures, listing the Citrus Hotel in Cheltenham by name and estimating annual savings of nearly £65 million.
- UK Government Plans to Close All Asylum Hotels Before Election, Leaving Migrants Facing Possible Eviction — IBTimes UK, Apr 2026
National coverage of the 11-hotel closure round, naming the Citrus Hotel in Cheltenham alongside ten other sites and setting out the government’s transition to larger, more basic facilities.
- 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%).
- 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.