Temporary Accommodation Expenditure & Commercial Hotel Contracts
Case reference FOI2026/01191
Received 20 May 2026
Published 12 June 2026
Request
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide the following information regarding Herefordshire Council's expenditure on, and use of, commercial hotel and Bed & Breakfast (B&B) accommodation for homeless applicants.
Please provide data for the following financial years: 2023/24, 2024/25, and 2025/26 (to date).
1. Total Expenditure and Placement Volumes
* What was the council's total net expenditure on nightly-paid temporary accommodation (B&Bs, commercial hotels, and private hostels) for each of the specified financial years?
* How many unique households were placed in nightly-paid temporary accommodation by the council during each of these years?
2. Spend and Placement Breakdown for Budget Hotel Chains
* What was the council’s total expenditure, specifically on Travelodge properties within Herefordshire (including the Hereford Travelodge on Pomona Place and Hereford Grafton Travelodge on Ross Road), for each of the specified financial years?
* What was the council's total expenditure, specifically on Premier Inn properties within Herefordshire for each of the specified financial years?
* How many unique individuals or households were accommodated in Travelodge and Premier Inn properties in each of these financial years?
3. Procurement and Contractual Frameworks
Are room bookings with Travelodge and Premier Inn conducted on an ad-hoc "spot-purchase" basis, or does the council operate under a formal contract, block-booking framework, or guaranteed occupancy agreement?
If a formal contract or block-booking agreement is in place, please provide the contract start date, end date, and the annual value of the contract.
4. Average Nightly Rates
Please provide the average nightly rate paid by the council to Travelodge in Hereford City for:
A single-occupant room
A family room
An accessible/disabled-friendly room (if charged at a different rate)
5. Duration of Placements in Commercial Hotels
* What was the average, shortest, and longest length of stay (in nights) for a household placed in commercial hotel accommodation (specifically Travelodge) during the specified financial years?
* Of the households currently placed in commercial hotel or B&B accommodation, how many have been accommodated there for longer than the statutory 6-week limit?
6. Accommodation Suitability and Amenities
* How many complaints, formal reviews, or incident reports has the housing team received in the last 24 months regarding the lack of cooking and food storage facilities (e.g. lack of hobs, ovens, or refrigeration) for applicants placed in commercial hotels?
Response
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide the following information regarding Herefordshire Council's expenditure on, and use of, commercial hotel and Bed & Breakfast (B&B) accommodation for homeless applicants.
Please provide data for the following financial years: 2023/24, 2024/25, and 2025/26 (to date).
1. Total Expenditure and Placement Volumes
* What was the council's total net expenditure on nightly-paid temporary accommodation (B&Bs, commercial hotels, and private hostels) for each of the specified financial years?
A: 2023/24 - £1,710,913.00
2024/25 - £2,200,402.00
2025/26 - £2,131,597.00 (please note this figure is only up to 31/12/25 as these are the current figures available).
* How many unique households were placed in nightly-paid temporary accommodation by the council during each of these years?
A: 2023 – 234
2024 – 167
2025 – 165
01/01/26 – 30/04/26 – 106
2. Spend and Placement Breakdown for Budget Hotel Chains
* What was the council’s total expenditure, specifically on Travelodge properties within Herefordshire (including the Hereford Travelodge on Pomona Place and Hereford Grafton Travelodge on Ross Road), for each of the specified financial years?
A: We do not hold records for the amount the council spent for placements at particular sites for chain hotels. Placements at Travelodge hotels both within Herefordshire and outside of Herefordshire have occurred throughout the above period.
Provided below is the total expenditure paid to Travelodge for all sites where bookings were made.
2023/24 – £532,353
2024/25 – £225,130
2025/26 - £366,331 (please note this figure is only up to 31/12/25 as these are the current figures available).
* What was the council's total expenditure, specifically on Premier Inn properties within Herefordshire for each of the specified financial years?
A: We do not hold records for the amount the council spent for placements at particular sites for chain hotels. Placements at Premier Inn hotels both within Herefordshire and outside of Herefordshire have occurred throughout the above period. Provided below is the total expenditure paid to Premier Inn for all sites where bookings were made.
2023/24 – £135,011
2024/25 – £80,309
2025/26 - £130,978 (please note this figure is only up to 31/12/25 as these are the current figures available).
* How many unique individuals or households were accommodated in Travelodge and Premier Inn properties in each of these financial years?
A: This information is not held in a form that would enable it to be located, retrieved and extracted within the Appropriate Time Limit which equates to 18 hours as defined by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limits and Fees) Regulations 2004.
Our electronic reporting systems are unable to run a report for this information. The team don’t record the number of bookings placed in each hotel each year, rather they record the number of households in temporary accommodation, the type of temporary accommodation and the length of time they are in that temporary accommodation type.
In order to provide the data requested the team would have to manually check all of the files of each of the households placed in temporary accommodation in the years stated – this would mean manually checking 672 booking records and then cross checking these records against the relevant housing files to find out where they had been placed.
This would at a conservative estimate take at least 112 hours to complete. Where the Limit is exceeded Public Authorities are not obliged to supply the information requested by virtue of S12 of the Act. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.
3. Procurement and Contractual Frameworks
Are room bookings with Travelodge and Premier Inn conducted on an ad-hoc "spot-purchase" basis, or does the council operate under a formal contract, block-booking framework, or guaranteed occupancy agreement?
If a formal contract or block-booking agreement is in place, please provide the contract start date, end date, and the annual value of the contract.
A: Rooms are booked on a spot purchase basis.
4. Average Nightly Rates
Please provide the average nightly rate paid by the council to Travelodge in Hereford City for:
A single-occupant room
A family room
An accessible/disabled-friendly room (if charged at a different rate)
A: We do not hold records for the amount the council spent for placements at particular Travelodge sites. We only hold records for the total amount paid to each chain hotel company for use of all sites (including those within Herefordshire and those outside of Herefordshire) where placements were booked in each year. On this basis we are unable to provide the data requested.
5. Duration of Placements in Commercial Hotels
* What was the average, shortest, and longest length of stay (in nights) for a household placed in commercial hotel accommodation (specifically Travelodge) during the specified financial years?
A: We do not collate records of how long a household is in a particular hotel or B&B for. We do however collate data for the total amount of time a household is in B&B/hotel type accommodation and that is what is reproduced below.
|
Years |
Shortest |
Longest |
Average |
|
|
|
|
|
|
2023 |
1 |
451 |
89 |
|
2024 |
1 |
756 |
108 |
|
2025 |
1 |
907 |
132 |
|
01/01/26 – 30/04/26 |
1 |
1272 |
148 |
* Of the households currently placed in commercial hotel or B&B accommodation, how many have been accommodated there for longer than the statutory 6-week limit?
A: On 9th June 2026 we had 38 households in hotel/B&B accommodation (to whom the 6-week rule applies) who have been in this type of temporary accommodation for longer than 6 weeks.
6. Accommodation Suitability and Amenities
* How many complaints, formal reviews, or incident reports has the housing team received in the last 24 months regarding the lack of cooking and food storage facilities (e.g. lack of hobs, ovens, or refrigeration) for applicants placed in commercial hotels?
A: Formal Complaints (inclusive of Ombudsman enquiries) received that included issues around cooking & food storage facilities in B&B/hotel accommodation offered as temporary accommodation = 11.
S202 Reviews received regarding suitability of B&B/hotel accommodation offered as temporary accommodation offered under S193(2) of the Housing Act 1996 = 5.
Incident reports related to lack of cooking and food storage facilities = 0.
Documents
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