By the Unity Stays directors, Marcus Chong & Gadir Al-Khatib · Last updated 12 August 2026
In short: Interim accommodation fills a gap of a few weeks to several months — relocation, secondment, renovation, a house move — with a furnished property, bills and broadband included, and no fixed term. It costs more per month than a tenancy but asks no commitment or referencing; book longer than you expect, ask for a monthly rate, and agree early-departure terms in writing.
Who needs it, and for how long
Interim accommodation covers a specific gap: you need somewhere to live, you know it is temporary, and a tenancy does not fit the timescale.
It comes up on relocation for a new job, on secondment, between a sale and a purchase, during renovation or after damage to a home, and during a separation. The stays run from a few weeks to several months, which is longer than a hotel makes sense for and shorter than most tenancies will accommodate.
The common thread is uncertainty about the end date. That is why flexibility on extending matters more here than almost anything else.
What matters when the stay is months
Priorities shift as a stay lengthens, and the things that seemed important when booking stop being the things that matter by week six.
- Storage. A month's belongings do not fit in a room designed for a suitcase
- A proper kitchen, because eating out for two months is neither affordable nor pleasant
- Laundry in the property, not a service you have to book
- Somewhere to work, if any of the stay overlaps with working from home
- A neighbourhood you can live in — a shop, somewhere to walk, transport — rather than a location chosen for proximity to an office
- Clear terms on extending and on leaving early, because the end date will move
- Whether pets or children are genuinely accommodated, asked explicitly rather than inferred from a listing
How it differs from a tenancy
A short-stay arrangement is a licence to occupy rather than a tenancy. Practically, that means it is furnished and equipped, bills and broadband are included in the price, there is no deposit protection scheme in the way there is with an assured shorthold tenancy, and there is no fixed term to be released from.
The trade is straightforward: it costs more per month than an equivalent tenancy and asks for no commitment, no referencing, no six-month minimum and no furniture. For a stay of unknown length that is usually the right trade, and for a stay you know will run over a year it usually is not.
It is worth being clear which of those you are in, because the honest answer sometimes points at a tenancy — and if it does, we would rather say so.
Booking it well
Book longer than you think you need. Extending is harder than shortening, and in most towns the property you are in may not be free for the extra fortnight if someone else has booked it.
Ask for a monthly rate rather than accepting a nightly one — anything beyond a few weeks should be priced as a monthly stay, and platform pricing rarely reflects that. Confirm exactly what is included, particularly utilities, because a long stay uses considerably more of them than a weekend. Ask about the mid-stay cleaning arrangement; on our properties a professional service clean is included weekly on stays of two weeks or more.
And ask what happens if you need to leave early, in writing. It is the question people most often skip and most often need the answer to.
Where we can help
Our properties suit interim stays well: full kitchens, laundry, fast broadband, self check-in, and pricing that drops for longer bookings. Companies can book and pay on invoice, which matters for relocation and secondment arrangements handled by an employer.
We hold our own stock in a limited number of places and manage properties across the UK. If we do not have something suitable where you need it, we will tell you rather than putting you somewhere that does not fit — a two-month stay in the wrong property is a genuinely miserable thing to arrange for someone.