Why Does Asylum Hotel Accommodation Cost £170 Per Person Per Day?
The figure of £170 per person per day is one of the most cited numbers in the asylum accommodation debate. But where does this number come from, what does it actually cover, and how does it compare to what an ordinary traveller would pay?
Where the £170 Figure Comes From
The £170 per person per day estimate comes from analysis by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, drawing on Home Office spending data and National Audit Office investigations. It represents an average across all asylum hotel accommodation, meaning some sites cost significantly more and others less.
This figure is not the room rate alone. It is the total cost to the taxpayer per person per night, including the hotel room, meals, security, management fees paid to contractors like Serco and Clearsprings Ready Homes, and wraparound services.
What the £170 Covers
When the government places an asylum seeker in a hotel, the daily cost breaks down into several components:
Hotel Room Rate
The base nightly rate paid to the hotel operator. Bulk-booked rates vary widely, from £50 to over £150 per room depending on location and quality. London and South East hotels command the highest rates.
Meals and Catering
Three meals per day are typically provided. Catering is usually contracted separately from the hotel and can add £15 to £30 per person per day to the cost.
Security
24/7 on-site security is required at all asylum accommodation sites. This typically involves staffed reception desks, CCTV monitoring, and incident response. Costs vary by site size but can amount to £10 to £20 per resident per day.
Contractor Management Fees
Companies like Serco, Mears, and Clearsprings Ready Homes receive management fees for operating the accommodation sites. These cover staff, administration, transport, maintenance, and profit margins. The NAO has noted that these contract terms were often agreed under emergency procurement conditions, which limited competitive pricing.
Wraparound Services
Healthcare access coordination, translation and interpreter services, safeguarding for vulnerable individuals, and transport to immigration reporting centres. These services are mandated by law and contracted through a mix of providers.
How This Compares to Standard Hotel Pricing
A common question is how asylum hotel costs compare to what the public pays for the same rooms. However, the comparison is not straightforward.
£80 - £120
Average UK hotel room per night (standard booking)
£170
Average total cost per asylum seeker per night
The £170 figure includes services that a standard hotel guest would never receive: meals, security, management oversight, and healthcare coordination. When the base room rate alone is isolated, many of the hotels used are budget or mid-range properties where the government secures bulk rates below the public rack rate.
That said, the NAO found that emergency procurement meant some contracts were agreed at above-market rates, particularly during the 2022 accommodation crisis when demand far outstripped supply.
Why Hotels Instead of Purpose-Built Accommodation?
The Home Office has acknowledged that hotels are the most expensive form of asylum accommodation. Purpose-built reception centres, dispersed housing, and shared accommodation all cost significantly less per person. So why are hotels still being used?
- 1.Speed of deployment. Hotels can be brought online within days. Building or converting purpose-built accommodation takes months or years.
- 2.Local opposition. Plans for purpose-built reception centres (such as the proposed sites in Linton-on-Ouse and Wethersfield) faced significant community and legal opposition, delaying or blocking alternatives.
- 3.Demand volatility. Channel crossing numbers fluctuate significantly. Hotels offer flexibility that fixed accommodation does not: rooms can be released when demand falls.
- 4.Legal obligations. The UK has a legal duty to provide accommodation to destitute asylum seekers. When the standard estate is full, the government must source emergency accommodation or face legal challenge.
The Scale of Hotel Use
At the peak of hotel usage in late 2023, over 400 hotels across England were being used to accommodate asylum seekers, with an estimated 51,000 people in hotel accommodation at any given time. The cost of this hotel programme alone was approximately £8 million per day.
Since then, the government has made progress in closing some hotels. As of early 2025, our tracker shows approximately 222 active asylum accommodation locations across the UK, including hotels, former military sites, and other contingency accommodation.
However, the reduction in hotel numbers has not proportionally reduced costs, because the remaining sites tend to be larger and the per-person costs of alternative accommodation types, while lower than hotels, still represent significant expenditure.
Sources
- Migration Observatory, University of Oxford — Asylum and refugee resettlement in the UK (2024)
- National Audit Office — Investigation into asylum accommodation (2024)
- Home Office — Asylum accommodation costs: FOI response (2024)
- House of Commons Library — Asylum accommodation: hotels (2024)
- BBC News — Asylum hotel costs: How much is the UK spending? (2024)