If you are a contractor planning an extended work stay, you have two main accommodation options: hotels or serviced apartments. For a single overnight stay, a hotel is perfectly practical. But for anything longer than two or three nights, the comparison shifts decisively in favour of serviced accommodation. Here is a clear breakdown of the differences, so you can make the right call for your next project.
Cost: The Numbers That Matter
A mid-range hotel room in a UK city or town typically costs between £75 and £130 per night. On a four-week project — 28 nights — that is between £2,100 and £3,640 for your room alone. Add restaurant meals (typically £25 to £50 per day), hotel parking (often £10 to £20 per day in city centres), and laundry costs, and the total cost of a hotel-based month away from home can easily reach £4,000 to £5,000.
A three-bedroom serviced accommodation property for the same period, shared between two or three contractors, works out considerably cheaper per person. You have a kitchen, so meals cost what they cost at home. Parking is typically included. Laundry is done in your own washing machine. The total accommodation and living cost for a contractor in a well-chosen serviced apartment can be 30 to 50 per cent lower than a comparable hotel stay — with significantly more comfort.
Space and Comfort
A standard hotel room gives you roughly 20 to 30 square metres: a bed, a small desk, a bathroom, and a kettle. After two weeks, the walls close in. Serviced accommodation gives you a full house — separate living room, kitchen, bedrooms, bathroom, and often a garden. You can decompress properly after a long day on site, cook what you want, and maintain something closer to a normal daily routine.
For contractors on projects longer than a month, the mental health benefit of having genuine living space cannot be overstated. The ability to cook a proper meal, do your own laundry, and have a private outdoor space makes a meaningful difference to wellbeing and performance over an extended project.
Practicalities: Wi-Fi, Parking, and Flexibility
Hotel Wi-Fi ranges from adequate to genuinely frustrating. For contractors who need to make video calls, access remote systems, or work late in the evening, unreliable or throttled hotel internet is a real productivity problem. Serviced accommodation properties typically offer full residential broadband — the same connection a family uses at home, without bandwidth limits or throttling.
Parking is another practical advantage. Hotel parking in UK city centres often costs an additional £10 to £20 per night. Most serviced accommodation properties include two allocated parking spaces in the rental cost. For a contractor with a work vehicle or tools, having secure, included parking is not a minor convenience — it is a significant saving and a security consideration.
Team Stays: The Contractor Advantage
Hotels are fundamentally designed for solo travellers or couples. When a contractor team of three or four people needs accommodation in the same location, they book three or four separate hotel rooms, at three or four separate room rates. A three-bedroom serviced accommodation property, by contrast, houses the whole team in one property — with shared living space that makes it easier to debrief, plan the next day, and maintain team cohesion.
Splitting the cost of one three-bedroom property between three people typically works out to less than half the cost of individual hotel rooms — while providing more space and comfort than any of those hotel rooms would offer individually.
The Verdict for Extended Work Stays
For stays of a week or more, serviced accommodation wins on cost, space, practicality, and comfort. Hotels make sense when your plans are uncertain and you need maximum flexibility — but for a project with defined dates, locking in a serviced apartment is almost always the better decision.
Rivoli Stays offers fully furnished three-bedroom contractor accommodation in Derby and Burton upon Trent, with fast Wi-Fi, allocated parking, fully equipped kitchens, and self check-in included. Book direct at rivolistays.co.uk for the best available rate with no booking fees.