How to Write a Contractor Accommodation RFP: The Complete UK Guide

What Is a Contractor Accommodation RFP and Why You Need One

An RFP, or Request for Proposal, is a formal document you send to potential accommodation suppliers. It sets out your project's requirements and invites providers to submit a proposal against them. A contractor accommodation RFP covers everything a supplier needs to quote accurately: team size, locations, duration, amenities, health and safety expectations, billing preferences, and how you will evaluate their submission.

Why bother with a formal process? Because ad-hoc accommodation booking, where someone calls a few landlords or searches a listings site, consistently produces worse outcomes. You end up with inconsistent quality across your team, no leverage on pricing, no visibility of total spend, and no mechanism for holding suppliers to account if standards slip.

A well-structured accommodation RFP gives you comparable quotes from multiple providers, forces you to define your requirements clearly before something goes wrong, and creates a documented baseline that protects both parties throughout the contract. For any project involving 10 or more workers, it is worth the hour it takes to write.

When to Issue an Accommodation RFP

You do not need a formal RFP for every accommodation booking. For a single worker on a two-week job, a phone call is fine. But when any of the following apply, a structured RFP will save you time and money.

Your project team is 10 or more people. At this scale, small differences in per-person-per-night rates become significant. A £5 saving per person per night across 15 workers over 8 weeks is £4,200. That is worth a structured process.

Your project runs for a month or longer. Short bookings rarely justify the overhead of an RFP. Month-plus projects do, because quality problems compound over time and rate negotiations become meaningful.

You need accommodation across multiple locations. Multi-site projects benefit from a provider with national coverage who can quote consistently across all locations under a single contract.

Your current provider is not performing. Poor quality, slow responses, billing errors, or repeated maintenance issues are all signals that a competitive tender will produce a better outcome.

You are approaching a budget review cycle. Procurement teams often use end-of-year or project-start points to refresh supplier arrangements. An accommodation RFP is straightforward to bundle into that process.

Essential Elements of a Contractor Accommodation RFP

A contractor accommodation RFP needs to be specific enough that suppliers can quote accurately, but not so prescriptive that you eliminate qualified providers unnecessarily. Here is what to include in each section.

Project Overview. Include the project name, reference number, client name if relevant, a brief description of the work, the primary site location or locations, and the expected programme dates. Providers use this to assess local property availability before committing to a quote. Without it, they are guessing.

Number of Workers and Rotation Schedule. Give your peak headcount and your average headcount separately, because the difference matters for pricing. Also specify whether workers stay Monday to Friday and return home at weekends, or whether they need accommodation seven days a week. Rotation patterns, for example fortnightly rotations, affect how beds are allocated and whether a retained-bed arrangement makes sense.

Accommodation Specifications. State whether you prefer private rooms or are open to workers sharing. Specify the minimum bedroom standard: single beds, double beds, or either. Indicate the level of furnishing you require. If any workers have specific requirements such as accessibility, single-occupancy only, or additional storage needs, include that here.

Location Requirements. Specify proximity to site. For most construction projects, 20 to 30 minutes by road is workable. Anything over 45 minutes adds fatigue and cost. State whether public transport links matter and whether access at non-standard hours, such as 4am or 5am starts, is a factor.

Duration and Flexibility. Give your firm start and end dates, then specify your flexibility requirements. How much notice will you give for early exit? How far in advance do you need to confirm extensions? What is your expectation around crew changes, where individual workers rotate in and out mid-contract? These terms are negotiated at RFP stage, not afterwards.

Budget Parameters. You do not have to give a fixed maximum, but indicating your target range helps. Providers who cannot deliver within your range should say so at proposal stage rather than quoting low and compensating with add-ons. Specify whether your budget is per person per night, per property per week, or monthly, so all quotes come back in the same format.

Amenities Required. List what is non-negotiable and what is preferred. Non-negotiable for most construction projects: WiFi, parking for work vehicles, laundry facilities (washing machine and dryer), a fully equipped kitchen, heating, and secure access. Preferred but not essential: outdoor space, dishwasher, dedicated workspace, and storage for tools and equipment.

Health and Safety Requirements. Any accommodation used for contractor workers must meet UK safety standards as a minimum. Include in your RFP: current gas safety certificate, electrical installation condition report (EICR within the last 5 years), working smoke alarms, working carbon monoxide detectors, and evidence of public liability insurance. If your contract requires IPRAC certification, say so explicitly. IPRAC, the Inspection Panel for Recruitment and Accommodation Compliance, is the leading quality and safety standard for contractor worker accommodation in the UK.

Billing and Invoicing Requirements. This section is worth spending time on. Specify whether you require consolidated invoicing, meaning one invoice per period covering all properties and all personnel. Include your purchase order requirements, VAT invoice format, payment terms (net-14 or net-30 are standard), and whether you need spend allocated by cost centre or project code. If you need to pay by bank transfer rather than card, state that. Clear billing requirements upfront prevent months of invoice disputes later.

24/7 Support Expectations. Construction work does not follow office hours. Boiler breakdowns, lock-outs, maintenance emergencies, and late arrivals all happen outside 9 to 5. Ask providers to confirm whether they offer out-of-hours support, and how it operates. A provider who cannot answer this question clearly is a risk on any long project.

Quality Standards. Beyond the health and safety basics, set out your cleanliness and presentation standards. How frequently do you expect properties to be cleaned? What is the linen change schedule? If IPRAC certification is your baseline, state that clearly.

Reporting Requirements. For larger contracts, you may need monthly occupancy reports, spend tracking by team or project, and documentation for audit purposes. Specify exactly what you need so providers can confirm they can deliver it. Suppliers who cannot provide basic spend reporting will create accounting problems for you later in the contract.

Evaluation Criteria and Weighting. Tell suppliers how you will assess their proposals. A typical weighting for contractor accommodation: total cost (40%), location and proximity to site (25%), quality and facilities (20%), flexibility of terms (10%), health and safety compliance and accreditation (5%). Adjust the weighting to match your priorities. Transparent criteria produce better proposals and make your final decision easier to justify internally.

Contractor Accommodation RFP Template

Below is a ready-to-use template. Copy it, replace the text in [square brackets] with your specific details, and send it to prospective providers. Every field is included for a reason. Resist the temptation to skip sections.

Common Mistakes in Accommodation RFPs

Vague location requirements. Writing 'near the site' is not a specification. A supplier unfamiliar with the area may propose something 40 minutes away and consider it perfectly reasonable. Always give a maximum journey time or a radius from a specific postcode.

No cancellation or exit terms. This is the single most expensive omission in accommodation RFPs. If your project finishes early or your crew reduces mid-contract, you need defined notice periods. Without them, you may owe payment for beds your team is no longer using.

Forgetting about parking. It sounds obvious, but it is missing from a surprising number of accommodation briefs. For a team arriving in vans, a property without off-street parking is essentially unusable. Confirm parking for each vehicle type in the brief, including van heights if relevant.

Not asking about out-of-hours support. Many accommodation providers are 9-to-5 operations. On a construction project with early starts and shift workers, that is not adequate. Ask the question explicitly and require a specific answer in every proposal.

Ignoring IPRAC certification. IPRAC certification is not legally mandatory in the UK, but it is a meaningful quality signal. Providers who have achieved it have had their properties and management processes independently inspected. Excluding it from your evaluation removes a useful quality filter at no cost to you.

Skipping references. Contractor accommodation quality varies widely. The best indicator of future performance is past performance with similar clients. Ask for two or three references from comparable projects, and follow them up. A 10-minute phone call before you commit can save weeks of problems later.

How Overnightly Can Help

Zero sourcing fees. We do not charge a fee to find or source accommodation. The rate you pay is the all-in accommodation cost, nothing added on top.

IPRAC certified. Our properties meet the safety and quality standards set by the Inspection Panel for Recruitment and Accommodation Compliance, so you do not have to verify this separately.

24/7 support. Our team is available around the clock for emergencies, check-in issues, and maintenance problems. Your workers are not left waiting until Monday morning.

Consolidated billing. One invoice per month covering all properties and all team members, with your cost codes if needed. No chasing receipts or processing individual expense claims.

From £25 per person per night, all bills included.