Drummond Hotel, Ballykelly
The Drummond Hotel on Main Street in Ballykelly, Co Londonderry, is a family run hotel that has been brought into the Mears Group Northern Ireland asylum accommodation portfolio. BBC News NI has reported on Mears resident welfare complaints across its NI estate, including the Drummond, in connection with the £13.8 million profit refund Mears made to the Home Office[1]Broadcast[2].
Capacity
60
rooms
Per night
£170
per resident
Annual
£3.7m
estimated
Background
The Drummond is a family run hotel dating back to 1829 located in Ballykelly between Limavady and Derry. Northern Ireland asylum accommodation is provided by Mears Group under a regional Home Office contract, with capacity divided between dispersed flats and a small number of hotels. The wider NI hotel estate had expanded to nineteen hotels by late 2022[3].
Mears welfare reporting
BBC News NI investigated Mears Group's Northern Ireland asylum accommodation operations and reported on complaints from former residents about food, heating and hygiene conditions across multiple hotels including the Drummond. Mears returned £13.8 million in excess profits to the Home Office after concerns were raised that profit margins exceeded the cap allowed under the contract[1]Broadcast. The NLB Policy Watch report additionally documented eviction practices across Mears NI hotels including this site[2].
Cost analysis
At the £170 per person per night Migration Observatory benchmark[4], a 60 person site implies headline taxpayer exposure of around £10,200 per night and roughly £3.7 million per year. The May 2025 NAO contract review flagged the Northern Ireland portfolio as small in absolute terms but proportionally high cost[5]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
Drummond Ballykelly
£170
benchmark
UK asylum hotel avg
£170
NAO
NI budget hotel
£70
commercial
Hostel bed
£30
commercial
Timeline
Timeline
Pre-2022
Operates as a family run Drummond Hotel
2022
Brought into Mears asylum use
Joins the Northern Ireland regional Mears hotel estate.
2023
Resident welfare complaints surface
Documented across multiple Mears NI hotels.
2024
Mears returns £13.8m profit refund
BBC News NI reports the refund alongside resident welfare findings.
Sources
- Asylum hotel firm hands back almost £14m in profits amid anger over service — BBC News NI, 2024
BBC News NI investigation into Mears, the Northern Ireland asylum accommodation provider, revealing complaints from former residents at Mears hotels including the Drummond Hotel in Ballykelly about food, heating and hygiene conditions.
- Evictions from asylum accommodation in Northern Ireland — No Loan Bank Policy Watch, 2023
Northern Ireland policy watch report documenting evictions and conditions at Mears-managed asylum accommodation including the Drummond Hotel in Ballykelly.
- Major rise in hotel use for asylum-seekers: It feels like we are in a prison — The Detail (Northern Ireland), 2022
Investigative report on the expansion of the Northern Ireland asylum hotel estate from 2021 onwards, recording 19 hotels including 14 in Belfast under the Mears regional contract.
- 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.