Bristol students are being housed in posh four-star hotels as new halls aren’t ready yet

Dozens of Bristol Uni students who were set to move into new city-centre accommodation St Thomas Street will instead start university life in a four-star Marriott hotel.

This comes after the university was told by developers last week that St Thomas Street would not be ready to open for the start of term due to “unexpected delays” that could push opening by up to three weeks.

The result has been costly for developers who are now paying for students to stay in hotels such as the Marriott City Centre where prices begin at £139 per night*.

Students can expect to stay in bedrooms such as these. Image via Marriott

The delays to the St Thomas Street building has left the university working extremely hard to house 350 students for the start of Welcome Week this weekend. Students found out yesterday afternoon, just three days before their original move in date, where they were set to stay.

Alongside Marriott City Centre, students will also be housed in Leonardo Hotel Bristol Glassfields, a number of Ibis hotels and a nearby Travelodge.

The current state of St Thomas Street which developers have said could be delayed by up to three weeks

Students were supposed to move into the new city centre accommodation this Saturday

While the majority have been housed in city centre hotels, others have been provided with alternative university halls accommodation. The university confirmed that every student who applied for accommodation was offered a place in residences before these halls were offered to St Thomas Street residents.

This comes after concern last month when the university announced that non-guaranteed applicants may not receive uni accommodation and would instead potentially have to live in Bath.

All students will be offered breakfast, an evening meal, access to a laundry service as well as Wi-Fi. For the students staying in hotels, the university has block booked to “ensure affected students are housed together, where possible, based on their existing St Thomas Street flat allocation”.

Despite their unusual lodgings, St Thomas Street students will still have access to all the events taking place throughout Freshers’ Week and the pastoral support that is provided to all students in university-allocated accommodation.

A spokesperson for the university said they are “disappointed” by the delays to St Thomas Street and “are sorry for the inconvenience and disruption this will cause”.

They went on to say: “St Thomas Street is being developed, built and managed by a third-party accommodation provider, with the University taking a lease for the bedrooms once the build is complete.

“We are working closely with the provider to push the developers to get the property ready as soon as possible to minimise the impact to our students.”

Featured Image Credit: Marriott 

* Prices correct as of 15/09/21 based on a one night stay between 18-19th September

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