Cresta Court Hotel, Altrincham
The Cresta Court Hotel on Church Street in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, is a 136-room property used as asylum accommodation under the North West regional contract. In autumn 2025 the building was targeted with fireworks during a protest gathering, drawing widespread condemnation and a Hope Not Hate intervention naming individual organisers[1]Broadcast[2]Press.
Capacity
136
rooms
Per night
£170
per resident
Annual
£8.4m
estimated
Background
The Cresta Court is one of the largest hotels in Altrincham town centre and has been managed under Serco's North West regional contract for some time. The site was a regular venue for small local demonstrations during the 2024-25 wave of asylum protests but escalated sharply in autumn 2025.
The 2025 fireworks attack
ITV News reported that fireworks were launched at the front of the hotel during a 2025 protest, with police later treating the incident as a public order matter and pursuing arrests[1]Broadcast. Hope Not Hate's analysis named individual protest organisers behind the gathering and tied the incident to a wider 2025 escalation across hotel sites in northern England[2]Press.
Cost analysis
At the £170 per-person per-night Migration Observatory benchmark[3], a 136-room hotel implies headline taxpayer exposure of about £23,120 per night and roughly £8.4 million per year. The May 2025 NAO contract review put the average per-hotel run-rate across the wider portfolio at about £5.84 million per year[4]NAO.
Per-person per-day cost stack (benchmark)
£170- Hotel rate (room + three meals)£10059%
- Weekly cash allowance£74%
- Legal aid & casework£127%
- NHS / interpreter / utilities£1911%
- Contractor / security overhead£3219%
Cost in context
Cresta Court Altrincham
£170
benchmark
UK asylum hotel avg
£170
NAO
Manchester budget hotel
£60
commercial
Hostel bed
£30
commercial
Timeline
Timeline
Pre-2023
Operates as a commercial Cresta Court Hotel in central Altrincham
2023-24
Hotel taken into asylum use
Serco North West regional contract.
2025
Fireworks attack outside the building
Public order incident during a 2025 protest; police pursue arrests.
Sources
- Rival protesters clash outside asylum seeker hotel — ITV Granada, Aug 2025
Reports the recurring protests and counter-protests outside the Cresta Court Hotel in Altrincham, an asylum hotel in continuous use since February 2023.
- Altrincham protesters shoot fireworks at hotel and tell residents to jump from windows — HOPE not hate, Nov 2025
Reports the Halloween 2025 fireworks attack against the Cresta Court Hotel in Altrincham while it was housing asylum seekers.
- 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.
- 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.