A one-line accommodation enquiry gets a list of questions back. The requirement was in the sender’s head the whole time. It just never made it into the email.
A useful brief is not long. It is specific about seven things, honest about the ones that are not fixed yet, and quiet about everything else. Written that way, the first reply is options rather than questions, and the whole arrangement starts sooner.
If you have not yet worked out what the requirement is, the project-team guide covers that: start from the programme rather than the postcode, and get the four numbers down first. This page is about what to send once you have.
What a useful brief contains
Seven parts. The first three cover the same four questions our own enquiry form asks, because they are the ones that decide everything: where, when, how many people, how long for. The other four are the ones that get left out.
Where, from the site outwards
The site postcode or the nearest landmark, not the town. Then how far is acceptable, in minutes at the time people will actually travel. "Near Peterborough" covers a lot of ground; "within twenty minutes of the north of the city at six in the morning" is a question with an answer.
When, and how long for, honestly
The real start date, or the week if the day is not fixed, and the duration including the overrun everybody privately expects. A stay briefed as four weeks that runs to nine is a familiar way for a good arrangement to turn into a scramble, and the person reading the brief can plan for nine only if you say nine.
Who, and how they work
How many people, whether they arrive together or in waves, the shift pattern, and whether anybody is on nights. Numbers alone describe very little: six people who have worked together for years and six strangers from three subcontractors are the same headcount and a different requirement.
Sharing: decided, or open
Say whether the crew will share a property, take separate rooms, or whether you want that advised. If they are sharing, say how many need their own bedroom. This one line changes which properties are suitable more than any other.
The vehicles, described as what they are
"We will need parking" describes almost nothing. Two vans with roof racks and a car, tools staying in the vans overnight, one driver in a Luton on the first day: that is a parking question somebody can solve.
Who decides, and how it is paid
One named contact on your side, and whether the accommodation is invoiced to the company, needs a purchase order number, or goes on somebody's expenses. Settling this in the brief avoids the week-three argument that sours a stay that was otherwise going fine.
What would rule a place out
The short list of things that make an option a non-starter for this crew specifically: no off-street parking, more than one flight of stairs for somebody, a bathroom count that does not work with the start time, no desk for the one person doing paperwork every evening.
An example brief
This is a made-up example, not a real enquiry, and it is deliberately short. It would take about five minutes to write and it answers every question a first reply would otherwise have to ask.
Where: the site is on an industrial estate on the north side of Peterborough. Anything within twenty minutes at six in the morning works; further than that and people will start driving home.
When and how long: starting in the first week of the spring shutdown, about ten weeks, and it could run to fourteen. We would rather plan for fourteen and finish early.
Who: six trades, all our own people, who have worked together before. Four arrive in week one, two more in week three. Everyone is on days, five-day pattern, home at weekends.
Sharing: happy to share one house with their own bedrooms. One of the six has asked for his own room and we would like to accommodate that, so five in the house and one separate would be ideal.
Vehicles: two vans with roof racks, tools stay in them overnight so we need off-street parking, plus one car. Nothing over a normal height barrier.
Decisions and invoicing: I am the contact for anything about the stay. Invoice the company; we will raise a purchase order once we have agreed the option.
Would rule a place out: no off-street parking for the vans, or fewer than two bathrooms for the five sharing.
Notice what is not in it: no budget, no link to a property, no history. It says what is fixed, what is likely, and what would not work. That is the whole job of a brief.
What to leave out
A brief gets worse as it gets longer past a certain point, and the things that make it worse are predictable.
- A budget figure before you have seen an option. It anchors the conversation on the number rather than the requirement, and the requirement is what decides whether the number is right.
- Every preference the crew has ever mentioned. Put the ones that rule a place out in the brief; keep the rest for the conversation that follows.
- The story of the last stay that went wrong, unless it explains a specific requirement. "Last time the vans were on the street" is useful; the rest of that story is not.
- A property you have already found online. If you want it checked, say so, but a brief that starts with a link tends to get an answer about that link rather than about the job.
- Anything you are not sure of yet, presented as if you were. "About ten weeks, could run longer" is more useful than a confident number that changes next week.
How to read the first reply
The first reply tells you more about who you are dealing with than anything on their website does. It is worth reading for shape as well as content.
A reply worth having
- It comes back with questions that show the brief was read: about the shift pattern, the vans, the bathrooms, the overrun.
- It talks about the requirement before it talks about a property.
- It says plainly what cannot be done, rather than only what can.
- It names one person you will be dealing with, and how to reach them.
- It asks who the people are, not just how many.
Think again when the reply is
- A price before the requirement has been understood.
- A promise that something suitable is sitting empty and waiting, before anyone has asked what suitable means.
- A list of places that exist, with no view on which of them would work for this crew.
- A reply that ignores the thing you said would rule a place out.
- No questions at all.
Questions in a first reply are not a failure of the brief. They are the sign that somebody read it and is now thinking about your crew rather than their spreadsheet. The reply to worry about is the one that needs nothing from you.
Common questions
How much detail does an accommodation brief actually need?
Less than people fear and more than they usually send. The four questions on our enquiry form, where, when, how many people and how long for, are enough for us to come back with real options. The other four parts of the brief on this page, sharing, vehicles, who decides and what would rule a place out, are what turn the first reply from a set of questions into a set of options. Everything beyond that is refinement and can wait for the conversation.
What if we do not know the dates yet?
Send the brief anyway, with the dates you have. "Likely to start in the spring, roughly ten weeks, could run longer" is a real brief and it is far more useful early than a precise one is late. The person arranging the accommodation can look while there are still options, and you commit to nothing by asking. Our guide on what to do when the dates move covers the other end of the same problem.
Should we send the brief to more than one supplier?
That is your call and your procurement policy. What matters more than how many you send it to is that each of them gets the same brief, so that the replies are comparable. A brief that grows a detail with every email produces answers to five different questions.
Who should write the brief?
Whoever knows the job, with ten minutes from whoever knows the people. The programme, the site and the vehicles come from the project side; who gets on with whom, who is on nights and who would rather not share come from the people going or their manager. A brief written entirely by procurement tends to be right about the money and wrong about the crew.
Which sites do you take briefs for?
Sites across the UK. Put the site postcode at the top of the brief, with the dates and the time people will actually travel, and we will look for accommodation near it, or tell you plainly if we cannot find something suitable.
In short
Say where from the site outwards, when and honestly how long, who and how they work, whether they are sharing, what the vehicles are, who decides and how it is paid, and what would rule a place out. Leave out the budget, the link and the history. Then read the first reply for its questions, because they are the useful part.
If the crew is sharing, how to set that up so it works is the next thing to read. And if the dates are the part you are least sure of, what to do when they move is written for exactly that. How it works covers what happens after the brief lands with us.
Got a brief ready?
Our enquiry form asks the same four questions this page starts with. A rough version is fine; the questions in our reply are how the rest gets settled.
If we cannot cover it, you will get a straight answer rather than a holding email.