Sure Hotel by Best Western, Aberdeen

The Sure Hotel by Best Western Aberdeen sits on the A944 Lang Stracht road on the western edge of the city. As of mid 2023 Aberdeen had two contingency hotels in use, with a third due to follow, all under the Mears Group Asylum Accommodation and Support Contract for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

In 2024 the UK Government announced an eleven hotel closure tranche covering sites across the four nations. The Sure Hotel was confirmed by STV News and the Press & Journal as one of the named Aberdeen sites in the tranche^[2]Press^[1]Press.

An imam at Masjid Alhikmah told the Press & Journal that local mosques, churches and charities had visited the Sure Hotel and the Patio Hotel for years to support new asylum arrivals, often turning up with no clothes or belongings. The imam set out the welfare gaps and the community led volunteer effort that had sprung up around the city contingency hotels^[3]Press.

The 2024 closure announcement was framed by the UK Government as part of a national push to end hotel use, with the GOV.UK statement claiming an annual saving of nearly £65 million across the eleven sites^[4]GOV.UK. At the £170 per person per night Migration Observatory benchmark^[5], the closure of a roughly 150 resident contingency hotel implies annual savings on the order of £9 million at full occupancy, before contractor margin and ancillary security cost is taken into account^[6]NAO.