Insurance and displaced family stays in Worcester
Insurance accommodation in Worcester
Whole homes in Worcester for families out of their house after a fire, a flood or an escape of water. Pets considered, schools taken into account, and the insurer invoiced directly.
Or call reservations on 0333 880 7213
The short answer
Alternative accommodation in Worcester while your home is unusable.
If a fire, a flood or an escape of water has made your house unliveable, your policy almost certainly pays for somewhere else while it is repaired. That is called alternative accommodation, and it is what we provide in Worcester: a whole furnished house or apartment, for as long as the works take, with the bills included and the invoice going to the insurer or the loss adjuster rather than to you. We deal with adjusters regularly and we know what they need in writing. Worcester is small, so the difference between the right street and the wrong one is larger here than it looks on a map, and worth a conversation before you book.
Called a few different things
You will see this called several things and they all mean the same. Insurance accommodation Worcester, alternative accommodation, displaced family accommodation, emergency accommodation, temporary accommodation after a flood or fire, loss of use accommodation, or simply what the policy calls alternative accommodation. If a loss adjuster has asked you to find somewhere, this is the page.
What the first week is actually like
Two hotel rooms, a microwave and the school run, for four months.
That is what usually happens first, and it is nobody's fault: the insurer needs somewhere immediately and a hotel is what is available at nine at night. It stops working within about a fortnight. A family needs a kitchen, separate bedrooms, somewhere to put the things that were salvaged and a school run that has not doubled. It suits you if:
Where you would be
Staying near your own life in Worcester.
The Severn, and what it closes
Worcester floods. Most winters the Severn comes up and the riverside goes under: Hylton Road, New Road, the cricket ground and the low land by the quay. Roads close, traffic reroutes over whatever crossing is still open, and the city carries on around it. If water is the reason you are out of your own house, it is worth knowing which streets sit low and which sit well above the river.
Staying inside the same school run
The thing families most want to protect is the school run, and in a city this size the wrong side of the river can turn a five minute walk into a half hour drive with a queue at each end. Catchments here are tight. Being a mile from home in the right direction is usually worth more than somewhere larger and smarter a few miles out.
The residential areas, plainly
St Johns is west of the river, walkable to the centre over the bridge and with its own high street. Barbourne runs north from town and is mostly Victorian terraces and avenues. Battenhall and the Bath Road side are leafier and nearer the hospital. Warndon Villages is newer, further out and easier for the motorway. Diglis is modern and riverside, south of the cathedral.
A claim that runs for months
Fire and escape of water claims tend to run long, and what grates at week ten is rarely what you looked at on day one. Room for two cars, a garden or a park for the children, somewhere to put whatever was salvaged, a kitchen you can properly cook in. Choose for month four rather than for the first fortnight and the rest of it gets easier.
Parks, dogs and getting outside
Families out of their own house end up outdoors more than they expected. Gheluvelt Park up in Barbourne and Cripplegate Park on the west bank are proper parks rather than scraps of green, with room to run a dog and somewhere for children to be after school. If there is a dog in the household, that counts for more than the extra square footage does.
When a street floods, not a house
A river flood does not displace one household, it displaces a run of streets in the same week, and the whole city knows it has happened. That changes the shape of a claim here. You are unlikely to be the only family out of their home that month, drying and repair work queues, and trades get stretched. Better to expect that in February than to be surprised by it.
Post, deliveries and the small admin
None of this appears on a schedule of loss. Redirecting the post, the parcel that goes to the damaged house regardless, bin collections falling on a different day, a new address for the school and the surgery. In a city this compact the practical version is manageable, because you are rarely more than a couple of miles from your own street and can still call past it.
Cold snaps and the claim calendar
There is a seasonal pattern to it. Pipes go in the first proper freeze and the river does its work through the wet months, so winter is when Worcester households find themselves out of their homes, which is also the term time you least want disturbed. Summer tends to be fire or a single leak. Knowing which side of that you are on shapes how long to plan for.
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 Worcester 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.
Message reservations rather than booking online, and tell us the postcode you have come out of and which school or work you need to stay near. We will tell you honestly what we have close to it and what we do not, and we will deal with the adjuster directly from there.
In every property
What is actually there when you arrive.
Worcester questions
What people ask about staying in Worcester.
Which part of Worcester should I be in?
Most of what you would need day to day sits in the city centre, the Cathedral end, Diglis and St Johns. 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.
Can I park in Worcester?
Worcester is small enough to walk but the hospital and the business parks are off the ring road, so most people here drive. Centre parking is paid, the riverside car parks flood in winter, and residential parking varies street by street. Worth asking before you arrive rather than circling.
How easy is it to get around Worcester without a car?
Foregate Street and Shrub Hill reach Birmingham in under an hour, and the Malverns and the southern Cotswolds are inside half an hour by car.
What is there to do in Worcester on a day off?
The Cathedral, the Severn path, New Road and the racecourse are all a walk from the centre, and the Malvern Hills and the southern Cotswolds are inside half an hour by car. It is a small city with a lot immediately outside it.
Questions we get asked
What families and adjusters ask us.
Will the insurer pay you directly?
In almost every case, yes. We invoice the insurer or the loss adjuster on their terms, with the dates, the address and the claim reference, so you are not putting months of accommodation on a credit card and waiting to be reimbursed. Give us the adjuster's details and we will take it from there.
How long can we stay?
As long as the works take. Claims like this commonly run three to nine months and we would rather book you for the realistic length than move you twice. If the schedule slips, which it usually does, extending is a message.
Can we bring the dog?
Some properties take pets and some do not, so ask early rather than at the end. It is one of the most common reasons a hotel stops working for a family and one of the easiest things for us to solve if we know at the start.
We need to stay in the same school catchment.
Tell us the school and the postcode rather than the city. That is the constraint that actually decides this, and we would rather say we have nothing close enough than put you somewhere that adds forty minutes to every morning.
Check availability
Tell us the postcode you have come out of.
Message reservations with the postcode, how many of you there are and whether there is a pet, and we will tell you straight away what we have near you.
Reservations, seven days a week, on 0333 880 7213