By the Unity Stays directors, Marcus Chong & Gadir Al-Khatib · Last updated 12 August 2026
In short: Compare the total cost of the stay — rate, cleaning, utilities, parking, cancellation terms and meals a kitchen saves — not the nightly rate. Agree invoicing with purchase-order references, amendment terms, an extension rate and a named out-of-hours contact in writing before the first booking, and ask for evidence of gas, electrical, fire and insurance compliance.
Compare total cost, not nightly rate
A nightly rate is a poor basis for comparison because the things around it differ so much. Build a total for the actual stay before comparing anything.
Include: the nightly or weekly rate, any cleaning or service charges, whether utilities and broadband are inclusive, parking, any charge for additional occupants, and what an amendment or cancellation would cost.
Then add the things that are not on the invoice. A hotel room for a four-week stay means every meal bought out; an apartment with a kitchen and laundry does not. On longer stays that difference frequently exceeds the accommodation cost difference.
The commercial terms that matter
These are the ones that cause problems later, and they are worth settling in writing before the first booking rather than per booking.
- Invoice or purchase order, with payment terms — not a card at checkout
- Amendment and cancellation terms, because dates move and projects slip
- Extension rate, agreed rather than repriced at whatever the nightly rate has moved to
- Named contact with an out-of-hours route, not a support queue
- What is included — cleaning frequency, linen changes, consumables
- Substitution — whether the occupier can change during a booked period
Duty of care is part of the purchase
If you place an employee or contractor in accommodation, your organisation carries responsibilities for their safety that do not disappear because someone else owns the building.
Ask for evidence rather than assurance: gas and electrical safety certification, a written fire risk assessment, working interlinked smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms, and public liability insurance. A serious operator produces these without hesitation because they already exist.
Ask about access too. Self check-in with a code that works at any hour is better for a late arrival than a key collection with a cut-off, and a lone traveller arriving at midnight is a duty-of-care question as much as a convenience one.
The questions that reveal a serious operator
Four questions, and the answers separate operators faster than any brochure.
Who answers at nine on a Sunday, and what is their name? A named person is a different proposition from an inbox.
What happens if the boiler fails mid-stay? Listen for whether there is a relocation plan or only an apology.
Can you show me the fire risk assessment? It either exists or it does not.
What did you do the last time a booking went wrong? Everyone has one. An operator who cannot describe it has either not been doing this long or is not being straight.
Where we fit, and where we do not
We hold our own properties in a limited number of places and manage properties across the UK. Company bookings are invoiced, longer stays are priced below the nightly rate, joining instructions come as one forwardable message, and there is a named contact rather than a queue.
Where we do not have anything suitable in a town, we say so. Our business stays pages are explicit about which cities we hold stock in and which we source through vetted operators, because a booker needs to know which they are getting.
Tell us the town, the dates, the number of people and what the work is, and you will get a direct answer including when the answer is no.