Worker accommodation or hotel for long jobs
Last reviewed
If you send a crew to Germany for several weeks, you pay for every night. For one or two nights the difference between a hotel and a worker apartment hardly shows. Over a month it is large.
What it costs
A hotel room in Germany cost an average of 109 euros net per night in 2025. The German Hotel Association (Hotelverband Deutschland, IHA) published this average net room rate in May 2026, averaged across all hotels. At kwatera24 the price depends on the town and the apartment and is usually between 16 and 30 euros per person per night, also net. At just over half of our accommodations it is 20 euros or less.
A worked example: four fitters stay four weeks, that is 28 nights.
- Hotel, four single rooms at the average rate: 4 × 28 × 109 euros = 12,208 euros net.
- Hotel, two double rooms at the same rate: 2 × 28 × 109 euros = 6,104 euros net.
- Worker apartment for four, 20 euros per person per night: 4 × 28 × 20 euros = 2,240 euros net. Depending on the accommodation, a final cleaning fee is added.
German VAT of 7% is added to all three. The hotel figure is an average for all of Germany; a hotel near your site can be above or below it. So calculate with the offers for your town and dates. The formula stays the same: people × nights × price.
For employers in Germany: the kitchen counts too
For employers based in Germany, the Income Tax Act sets a meal allowance of 28 euros for each full day away and 14 euros each for the day of arrival and departure, for the first three months at the same place of work (Section 9 (4a) EStG). If the employer provides breakfast, for example because it is included in the booked hotel rate, the allowance is reduced by 20 percent of a full day, that is 5.60 euros. In a worker apartment the crew buys its own food and cooks. Every one of our accommodations has a kitchen.
What a worker apartment does differently
- Cooking: Every accommodation with us has a kitchen. A hotel room usually does not.
- Laundry: Almost all have a washing machine, so work clothes are washed on site.
- Living together: Most apartments are set up for four to six people, almost all with separate beds. The crew lives together, everyone sleeps in their own bed.
- Parking: Almost all have a car parking space, many also one for the van.
- Arrival: Most accommodations have self check-in. Anyone arriving late in the evening does not have to wait for anyone.
- Invoicing: The invoice goes to the company, monthly for longer stays.
An example from this year shows how long such a job can last: a fibre-optic crew of six fitters stayed in Bingen am Rhein from June to October and extended month by month.
When a hotel fits better
A hotel is the better choice if
- someone stays only one or two nights. An apartment with a final cleaning fee rarely pays off for that.
- breakfast and daily cleaning should be included. A worker apartment offers neither.
- a 24-hour reception is needed.
- there is no suitable apartment at the site.
For anything longer than a few nights, the comparison is worth it. How we house companies with a framework agreement and monthly invoicing is described on Worker accommodation for companies.
