Letting to Contractors UK: A Host's Guide for 2026
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Letting Your Property to Contractors: A UK Host's Guide to Crew Bookings (2026)
How UK hosts set up, price and run contractor crew bookings in 2026: beds, parking, Monday to Friday stays, deposits, licences vs tenancies, tax and VAT.
Updated October 2026
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Overview
Working crews book weeks at a time, travel in the quiet months when holiday demand falls away, and come back when the next job lands nearby. They also want very different things from a family on a long weekend, and hosts who treat a crew booking like a holiday booking often have a poor first experience.
This guide covers what a contractor-ready property looks like, how to price per person and per week, how to run the stay day to day, and the legal and tax points that changed in 2025 and 2026. It applies to cottages, houses, apartments, lodges and static caravans across England, Scotland and Wales.
Who books contractor accommodation and what they need
Enquiries usually come from a site manager or office administrator booking for a team, a subcontractor booking for their own gang, or a self-employed tradesperson. Infrastructure, energy, housebuilding and plant shutdown work drive most of it.
What they ask for is consistent:
Separate beds. Four adult workers will not share doubles. A property that "sleeps 6" with two doubles and a sofa bed is, for a crew, a property for two or three.
Parking for vans. Usually one van per two or three workers, sometimes with trailers or roof racks. Height barriers, permit-only streets and narrow single-track lanes rule a property out.
Tell hosts what you are looking for
Post your dates, area and budget once. Verified hosts send you their best offer, and there is no guest fee.
A proper kitchen. Crews cook in the evening and make packed lunches. A full-size fridge, freezer space, an oven and enough pans and plates for everyone matters more than décor.
Washing and drying. Workwear gets filthy. A washing machine and a tumble dryer or heated drying space is close to essential, especially from October to March.
Early starts. Many sites start at 7am or earlier, so self check-in, a key safe and a quiet neighbourhood that tolerates 5.30am van doors all help.
Write your listing around these points rather than the hot tub or the view. The price guide at /guides/contractor-accommodation-price-guide-2026 shows what bookers expect to pay and where hotels sit by comparison.
Getting the property crew-ready
You rarely need a refit. The changes that make the biggest difference are small:
Count real beds. List the number of separate sleeping spaces honestly. Swapping one double for two singles can turn a two-worker property into a three-worker one and lift the weekly total.
Add boot and kit storage. A boot tray by the door, hooks for hi-vis and a lockable cupboard or shed for tools keeps the house cleaner and reassures bookers whose kit is worth more than your furniture.
Duplicate the basics. More mugs, more towels, a second kettle, a larger fridge or an extra under-counter freezer. Crews of four go through supplies quickly.
Protect the floors with washable runners in the hallway.
Write a one-page house guide. Bins, parking, quiet hours, Wi-Fi, the nearest 24-hour garage and builders' merchant.
Pricing a crew booking
Holiday pricing works per night per property. Crew pricing is usually discussed per person per night and agreed per week, because the booker is matching it against a lodging allowance or a project budget. Work out both numbers and show you understand the second one.
A practical way to set it:
Start with your weekly floor. The lowest total for seven nights (or five, for Monday to Friday) you would accept after cleaning, utilities and wear. Our guide to setting a floor price walks through the calculation.
Divide by heads and nights. If your floor for a week is a given figure and the property sleeps four in separate beds, divide by 28 person-nights to see your per-person rate. Compare it with nearby hotels and budget chains.
Decide your length-of-stay steps. A four-week booking that fills a quiet winter month is worth more to most hosts than four separate weekends, even at a lower nightly figure, because there are fewer changeovers and no void nights between them.
Price utilities in or set a fair-use cap. Crews running a dryer every evening in January use far more electricity than a summer family. Either build an estimate into the price or state a fair-use limit in writing before the booking is confirmed.
Bookers on construction projects often know the industry lodging allowance and will ask for a rate that fits it. The Working Rule Agreement allowances and the tax position for workers are covered in our guide to CIJC lodging allowance. For how bookers approach the conversation from their side, see how to negotiate accommodation rates for work crews.
On Offer2Stay, crews post what they need and verified hosts send their best offer back, with your pre-set floor making sure no offer goes out below a figure you can live with.
Monday to Friday stays and weekend use
Many crews go home at weekends. A Monday-to-Friday pattern, arriving Sunday evening or Monday morning and leaving Friday afternoon, leaves Friday and Saturday nights open. Hosts handle it in three ways:
Charge the full week and let the crew leave belongings in the property. This is simplest and suits busy sites where the same team returns every week.
Charge five nights and let the weekends separately. This only works if the crew empties the property each Friday, which is rarely practical.
Charge five nights plus a holding fee for the weekend so their kit can stay, a middle ground for longer contracts.
Agree which model applies before the booking starts and put it in the confirmation.
Running the stay
The hosts who keep crew bookings coming back tend to do the same few things:
Name a lead contact in the crew and at the booking company.
Book a mid-stay clean. For anything over a week, a weekly clean and linen change protects the property and lets you see its condition. Include it in the price rather than charging separately.
Take a damage deposit or a company guarantee. A deposit held through the booking platform or a written undertaking from the employing company covers you without awkward conversations later. Photograph the property at check-in.
Set occupancy in writing. Maximum occupants and named workers only, for insurance and fire safety.
Check your insurance. Standard holiday let policies do not always cover lets to workers or stays of several weeks. Tell your insurer you are taking contractors and get confirmation in writing.
Invoice promptly. Companies need an invoice showing dates, address, guest numbers and your VAT status. A slow or messy invoice costs repeat bookings.
The legal side: licence or tenancy
Since 1 May 2026, the Renters' Rights Act 2025 has changed residential lettings in England: fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies have given way to periodic assured tenancies, and section 21 "no-fault" possession has gone, according to the government's implementation roadmap. Hosts who take long contractor stays need to be sure they are still running short-stay accommodation and have not drifted into creating a tenancy.
Several points help keep a crew booking on the right side of the line:
Holiday and short-stay lettings are outside the assured tenancy regime. Paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 to the Housing Act 1988 excludes lettings genuinely made for holiday purposes; solicitors Freeths warn that repeat or long-term occupation by the same person can blur that line.
The occupier must be living there as their only or principal home for an assured tenancy to arise under section 1 of the Housing Act 1988. A worker who keeps a home elsewhere and returns to it at weekends is generally in a different position from someone who has moved in.
A letting to a company is not an assured tenancy, because an assured tenant must be an individual. Where an employer books and pays, make the booking in the company's name.
Keep it serviced. Regular cleaning, linen changes and your retained access to the property are features of serviced accommodation rather than a home let.
This is general information, not legal advice. For bookings over a few months, or where a single worker wants to stay indefinitely, take advice from a property solicitor before you agree terms.
In Scotland, short-term lets have needed a licence from the local council since 1 October 2023. In England, the government has said a national short-term lets register will be fully operational by March 2027, as reported by Propertymark in September 2026, so expect to register any property you let on short stays.
Tax and VAT points that changed
The furnished holiday lettings tax regime was abolished from 6 April 2025 for income tax and capital gains tax (1 April 2025 for companies). Since then, mortgage interest on short-stay properties has been restricted to a basic-rate tax credit, new spending on furniture and equipment falls under replacement of domestic items relief rather than capital allowances, and the capital gains reliefs that applied to qualifying holiday lets have gone. Contractor and holiday income are now taxed the same way.
For business rates in England, a self-catering property must be available to let for at least 140 nights and actually let for at least 70 nights in a year to be rated as a business rather than paying council tax. Long crew bookings can help meet the 70 nights. In Wales the thresholds are 252 and 182 nights.
VAT registration is required once taxable turnover passes £90,000 in a rolling 12-month period across all your lettings. Holiday and serviced accommodation is standard-rated, but HMRC's reduced value rule means that for stays over 28 days, VAT on the accommodation element stops from day 29 where the conditions are met. If you are close to the threshold, a contractor contract of several months can tip you over it, so speak to an accountant before you accept one.
Finding crews
List in the contractor category with honest bed counts, name the nearest major sites and travel times in your description, and reply quickly, since site managers often need beds for the following Monday. Hosts can list on Offer2Stay alongside the channels they already use and see live crew enquiries in their area at /find/contractor-accommodation.
How much should I charge contractors per night in the UK?+
It depends on the area and the property, but crews compare per person per night against local hotels and budget chains, then agree a weekly total. Set your weekly floor first, divide it by the number of separate beds and nights, and check the result against the 2026 price guide.
Do contractors need separate beds?+
Yes, almost always. Adult co-workers will not share a double bed, so list your capacity by the number of separate sleeping spaces, not by how many people the property technically sleeps.
Can a long contractor stay become a tenancy?+
It can if the arrangement looks like a home let rather than serviced short-stay accommodation. Booking through the employing company, keeping regular cleans and access, and the worker keeping a home elsewhere all help. Take legal advice for stays of several months.
Should I take a damage deposit from a work crew?+
A deposit held through the booking platform, or a written guarantee from the employing company, is sensible for any stay over a week. Photograph the property at check-in and agree a mid-stay inspection as part of the weekly clean.
Will my holiday let insurance cover contractors?+
Not always. Some policies exclude lets to workers or stays over a set length. Tell your insurer you are taking contractor bookings and get confirmation in writing before the first crew arrives.
Can I let a static caravan on a holiday park to contractors?+
Sometimes. Many parks have rules on who may stay, how long and whether vans are allowed, and some close over winter. Ask the park office in writing before you list.