Our Story

In March 2020, lockdown was a new concept. Fast forward to now and lockdown, home schooling, travel bans and masks are all too familiar. However, there are people who need to travel for work purposes, or other essential reasons. With many hotels closed and travellers now more conscious than ever about social distancing, hygiene and public transport, homestays have become a more popular option for accommodation. But how can you be sure of the quality, safety and consistency of a home? That’s why TrustedStays is here! While it works perfectly during the pandemic to help our amazing NHS staff and all key workers in general, it is also a great solution for any worker needing to stay away from home for work purposes. At TrustedStays, we are really proud of our story, so we thought you’d like to see how it all started!

It all started with the Homes for NHS scheme, which launched back in March 2020, successfully accommodated thousands of key workers during the height of the coronavirus crisis. The initiative involved more than 30 partners donating accommodation with a value of more than £20m, providing over 10,000 nights’ free accommodation in total. And demand has not slowed. Indeed, as the pandemic has continued to take hold, it’s become increasingly clear that safe accommodation is still a vital requirement for many government employees (demand on the Homes for NHS website was consistently high, with a spike in demand just before the transition into TrustedStays). The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a downturn in bookings for the short-term rentals industry so some property partners have switched their attention to opening up homes that might otherwise sit empty over this period to NHS Key Workers, who want to stay close to their place of work or away from the rest of their families to reduce possible infection.

Knowing this we decided that the platform will still be beneficial going forward and so created TrustedStays! Via this site, the UK Short Term Accommodation Association will provide the government with one single, consolidated platform through which to book accommodation (at discounted rates) in quality homes across the UK. The scheme is only open to STAA members who have accreditation from Quality in Tourism’s Safe, Clean and Legal scheme. This is so that you always have peace of mind that the homes are top quality! Major players in the short-term accommodation industry - such as UnderTheDoormat (who provide luxury homestays across London) and Sykes (who represent thousands of properties around the UK) – flocked to take part.

Merilee Karr, Chair of the STAA, said, “The huge success we saw with the NHS Homes scheme showed that the authorities needed our support in housing their staff as they worked through the pandemic. Indeed, only last week one of the property owners who donated their property came forward with the same offer for this lockdown!

“The learnings we took from running that scheme enabled us to launch TrustedStays. We already had the infrastructure, cleaning protocols and accreditation in place to enable the Government and NHS workers to trust us to provide the appropriate accommodation. We recognised the need went beyond NHS workers and we were challenged to produce a more sustainable version.

“As the situation with COVID-19 has worsened dramatically in recent weeks, we recognised that NHS workers would again be in real need of our help so we will be offering special, heavily discounted rates for their bookings for the duration of the lockdown.”

“By staying in safe and clean accommodation, key workers won’t have the worry of a daily commute on public transport and will be able to protect vulnerable family members by staying in a separate, self-contained property.”

When establishing TrustedStays we really wanted to make sure that it was a platform that could be used by many and had the longevity to be fit for future purpose. So with that in mind we have made it accessible, not only to key workers and government staff but also any work relocations whether they are short, mid or long stays! There are many options available when booking with us so, if you’re unsure of whether it will work for you please get in touch with a member of our team and we are more than happy to have a chat with you!