How to more than half the accommodation costs for your contractors
Are you fed up with the high costs of hotels when your contractors are away working in a location on a contract for weeks or even months where commuting isn’t an option? Not only do you have to pay the high nightly rate for hotels but you also have to pay for your contractors’ food as they cannot cook their own meals in a hotel and hotel food is expensive. Also, how do they do their own clothes washing and ironing when they are away from home? Unless there happens to be a launderette locally they cannot get their clothes washed unless they do hand washing in a sink or the bath which isn’t a practical alternative. As for the hotel ironing service that’s very expensive too.
So what is the solution if you are on a tight budget? Well, a serviced house of course!
What is a serviced house? Well, it is pretty much the same as a serviced apartment except it is a house! The advantage of a serviced house over a serviced apartment is that you can house more people meaning that the effective nightly rate per guest is effectively more than halved. Let me illustrate this by way of an example. It is based on a 3-month’ contract for 5 contractors, assumes an average month of 30 days and is exclusive of VAT.
HOTEL
The standard level at £80 per night
5 x £80 x 30 = £12,000 per month
SERVICED HOUSE (NIGHTS 1 - 28)
The executive level at £190 per night
£190 x 30 = £5,700 per month
More cash flow savings are made as the VAT drops to just 4% after the initial 28-night stay, so from night 29 - 90 the rate would be:
SERVICED HOUSE (NIGHTS 29 - 90)
The executive level at £164.66 per night
£164.66 x 30 = £4939.80
For a 3 month stay living in a serviced house would make you saving for your company of £20,420.40.
Of course, this saving doesn’t take into account the reduced cost of food, washing and ironing because of course, a serviced house offers a kitchen, washing machine, ironing board and an iron. So in effect, the monthly cost is more than halved.
This accommodation strategy works particularly well for groups of contractors. We were recently able to accommodate 30 contractors for 3 months. We have houses with not only 3-4 bedrooms but even 6-7! In addition to this, we offer double rooms with single beds provided colleagues don’t mind sharing bedrooms. This reduces the cost per contractor.
Ask us about our unserviced option too. Under this service, you forego the weekly maid service meaning the house isn’t cleaned each week and bed linen and towels aren’t changed for you. The nightly rate is reduced for this option but it is incumbent on you or your staff to keep the house cleaned and maintained and the bed linen and towels need to be changed by your staff too.
So if you would like to slash the cost of accommodation for your subcontractors do get in touch with us by calling the ShortstayMK team on +44 0 1908 540 636 / 07771 519 370 and ask for a quote. You know it makes sense.