Contractor and tradesmen stays in Birmingham
Contractor accommodation in Birmingham
Whole properties in Birmingham for contractors and trades. Somewhere to park the van, dry your gear and cook a proper meal, at a weekly rate that beats a travelodge for a crew.
Or call reservations on 0333 880 7213
The short answer
Accommodation for contractors and trades working in Birmingham.
We let whole houses and apartments in Birmingham to contractors, trades and site crews. You get the whole property: beds in separate rooms, a kitchen, a washing machine, somewhere to dry work clothes and, where the property has it, somewhere to leave a van. Stays run from a week to several months, the rate drops the longer the job runs, and we invoice the company if that is who is paying. Our Birmingham properties are in the Jewellery Quarter, walking distance from the centre.
Called a few different things
Called a few different things depending on the trade. Contractor accommodation Birmingham, contractors accommodation, workers accommodation Birmingham, worker accommodation, accommodation for workers, accommodation for contractors, tradesmen accommodation, accommodation for tradesmen, contractor housing, rooms for contractors, contractor stays, trade stays. All the same request: somewhere sensible for a crew that is on site at seven.
Why the hotel does not work
Four rooms in a budget hotel, for eleven weeks, with nowhere to dry anything.
That is the arithmetic most people arrive with. Four separate rooms, four breakfasts you are too early for, nowhere to wash a set of work clothes and no kitchen, multiplied across a long job. A whole house costs less for the same crew and is a considerably better place to come back to at six. It suits you if:
Where you would be
Where the work is in Birmingham.
Where the work actually is
Very little of the region's site work sits in the city centre, with one obvious exception. The HS2 works around Curzon Street and Digbeth have kept a long running site right on the edge of town. Otherwise it is spread: Tyseley and Aston for industrial units, Oldbury and Smethwick to the west, Minworth to the north east, and the Black Country towns beyond that.
The Clean Air Zone is a real cost
Birmingham charges older vehicles to drive inside the A4540 Middleway, the ring road that circles the city centre. A diesel van that does not meet the standard pays for every day it enters, and across a long contract that is not small money. If the job itself is outside the ring road, basing yourself outside it too avoids the charge entirely. Check your plate before you assume anything.
Parking a van, honestly
This is what catches people out here. Plenty of central apartment blocks have car parks with height barriers that a Luton or a high top will never clear, and many inner suburbs run residents' permit schemes with nothing spare on the street. Secure off street space that takes a work van is the constraint to solve first, ahead of location and ahead of price.
Early starts and the motorway box
Birmingham sits inside the M5, M6, M42 and M6 Toll, which is why the region works as a base for jobs right across the Midlands. The catch is that the M6 through the middle and the A38(M) into town are slow in the morning peak, so a five o'clock start moves very differently to a seven o'clock one. Around the NEC and the airport, the M42 decides your day.
Breakfast at five in the morning
The centre is not built for a five o'clock start. Cafes there keep office hours, and the late food around the Arcadian is aimed at a completely different crowd. The trade cafes that open properly early sit out on the industrial estates in Tyseley, Aston and across the Black Country, near where the work is, which is one more argument for basing yourself on that side of the city.
The false economy of the centre
A cheap central flat stops being cheap once you add a daily charge for the van, a car park that will not take it, and a crawl out to site against the morning flow. The better maths is to work backwards from the site gate or the depot, take whichever compass point suits, and accept a longer evening run in if you ever fancy a night in town.
The tunnels and the Expressway
Two local quirks are worth knowing before you learn them the hard way. The A38 tunnels under the city close for maintenance for a spell most years, and when they do the surface roads take everything and seize. The Aston Expressway runs a tidal flow system where lanes switch direction by time of day with no central barrier, so read the overhead signs rather than yesterday.
NEC weeks tighten everything up
When a large show is on at the NEC, accommodation anywhere near the airport and Solihull tightens up and prices follow it. If the job is on that side of the city it pays to look at the exhibition calendar before you fix your dates. Taking the whole run in one go, rather than week by week, is what actually protects you from that.
Booking direct
The same property, without the platform's cut.
Our properties are on Airbnb and Booking.com as well, and you are welcome to book there. Booking direct also avoids the guest service fee the big platforms add on top, which on a longer Birmingham stay is not a small number. Booking with us direct also means you are talking to the people who actually run the property rather than a message thread inside an app, which matters when you need an early check-in or an extra week.
For a job running more than a couple of weeks, message us rather than booking online. We will quote a weekly rate for the whole property, hold it across the job, and invoice the company monthly rather than you paying up front every week.
In every property
What is actually there when you arrive.
Birmingham questions
What people ask about staying in Birmingham.
Where in Birmingham would I actually be?
Birmingham's professional district runs from Colmore Row through Snow Hill to Brindleyplace, with the Jewellery Quarter on its north western edge. Our Birmingham properties are in the Jewellery Quarter, which is ten minutes on foot from Colmore Row and considerably nicer to come home to.
Can I park in Birmingham?
The Clean Air Zone covers the city centre inside the A4540 ring road and charges older vehicles daily, which is a real cost if you are driving in every day. Check your vehicle before you book. Outside the zone it is ordinary city parking, tight in the residential streets and paid in the centre.
Which part of Birmingham should I be in?
Most of what you would need day to day sits in the Jewellery Quarter, the city core, Digbeth and Edgbaston. Tell us where you need to be each morning rather than which postcode you fancy, and we will be honest about what is close to it and what only looks close on a map.
How easy is it to get around Birmingham without a car?
New Street puts London inside an hour and twenty, the NEC and the airport are ten minutes on the train, and the tram runs through the centre.
What is there to do in Birmingham on a day off?
The canals, the Jewellery Quarter, Digbeth and the Bullring are all inside a walk of the core, and the Lickey Hills, Cannock Chase and Stratford are inside an hour. Birmingham rewards a bit of exploring on a long stay, because almost none of the good parts are the parts on a postcard.
Questions we get asked
What site managers ask us.
Can you invoice the company?
Yes, and that is the normal arrangement on a long job. One invoice a month with the dates, the address and a purchase order reference if you need one, rather than a folder of hotel receipts.
Is there parking for a van?
At some properties, and it is the first thing to ask. Tell us what you are driving when you enquire and we will put you somewhere it actually fits rather than somewhere the listing photo suggests it might.
How many can stay?
It depends on the property, and most of ours sleep four in separate rooms. For a bigger crew we can often put you in two properties close together. Message reservations rather than trying to make the calendar do it.
What about early starts and late finishes?
Check-in is a code, so there is no reception to reach and nobody to wake up. Leaving at half five is nobody's business but yours.
Check availability
Send us the job dates.
Check availability on the booking site, or message reservations with the dates, the headcount and what you are driving, and we will quote the whole property.
Reservations, seven days a week, on 0333 880 7213