Hampton by Hilton Bristol City Centre: Asylum Accommodation Profile
The Hampton by Hilton Bristol City Centre on Bond Street has been identified in local reporting as a Bristol hotel linked to asylum accommodation, including coverage of protests and counter-protests in September 2025. This profile covers its location, estimated operating costs, and regional context.
Capacity
186
rooms
Per night
£170
per resident
Annual
£12m
estimated
Cumulative taxpayer spend
£26,845,380
Cumulative spend since January 2024: £26,845,380
- Asylum use began
- January 2024
- Current status
- Still in asylum use
- Peak residents
- 186
- Days in asylum use
- 849
- 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 Hampton by Hilton Bristol City Centre sits on Bond Street, between Broadmead and Cabot Circus in Bristol's main retail district, within walking distance of Bristol Bus Station and Bristol Temple Meads railway station. The surrounding area combines retail, office and residential use and forms part of the commercial core of the city.
Bristol is the largest city in the South West of England and has a long history as a destination for migration. The Bond Street location places the hotel close to a dense concentration of city-centre services and public transport, which are among the criteria used by the Home Office's regional accommodation providers when selecting sites[6].
Local and Regional Coverage
Bristol 247 reported in September 2025 that the Hampton by Hilton on Bond Street was the location of anti-migrant protests, which were substantially outnumbered by counter-protesters[1]. The report confirms the hotel's association with asylum accommodation in public reporting.
ITV News West Country, in August 2025, reported that Bristol City Council had declined to campaign against the continued use of asylum hotels in the city, setting out a position distinct from several other English councils at the time[2].
Estimated Cost Breakdown
Cost in context
Hampton by Hilton Bristol
£170
estimated
UK asylum hotel avg
£170
NAO
Budget hotel commercial
£80
commercial
Hostel bed
£30
commercial
The Hampton by Hilton Bristol City Centre is a branded Hilton property with an estimated ~186 rooms based on pre-contract commercial capacity. The figures below 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 (186 rooms)
Additional Per Person Costs (Outside Hotel Contract)
These costs are separate from the £170/night hotel contract rate and are funded through other Home Office and public service budgets.
Figures are estimates based on published UK averages[3][4] and the 2024/25 hotel accommodation spending trend reported by the BBC[5]. Room counts are based on publicly listed commercial capacity; actual contracted rates are commercially confidential and are not published.
Asylum Accommodation in Bristol
ITV News reported in August 2025 that Bristol City Council had explicitly declined to join a revolt by other councils against the continued use of asylum hotels, citing the city's long-established status as a place of sanctuary[2].
At national level, Home Office spending on asylum hotels has been the subject of extended scrutiny across the 2024/25 period[5], with dispersal delivered through the three AASC regional contractors — Serco, Mears Group, and Clearsprings Ready Homes[6]. The wider South West region continues to include asylum accommodation in Bournemouth, Torquay, Gloucester, and Exeter alongside Bristol.
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 in its region[6].
When a hotel enters the programme, rooms allocated under the contract are typically removed from commercial availability for the duration of the agreement. Transitions out of hotel use depend on the availability of dispersed housing and larger sites, both of which have faced reported delays across the 2024/25 period[5].
Sources
- ‘Bristol Patriots’ once again hugely outnumbered by counter-protesters — Bristol 247, Sep 2025
Identifies the Hampton by Hilton on Bond Street as the Bristol hotel targeted by anti-migrant protests in September 2025 and the location where counter-protesters substantially outnumbered them.
- ‘A long-established place of sanctuary’: Bristol refuses to join revolt over asylum seeker hotels — ITV News West Country, Aug 2025
Sets out Bristol City Council’s refusal to campaign against the continued use of asylum hotels in the city and provides national context on hotel-based asylum accommodation in Bristol.
- 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.