Responsible Tourism at Friars House

Staying well in Stafford

Friars House sits in the centre of Stafford, a short walk from the railway station. That single fact shapes most of how we think about our impact.

Arriving without a car

Stafford station has direct services from London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool. Guests staying with us can arrive, stay a week and leave again without driving at any point.

The town centre, its independent shops, its restaurants and pubs, and the Gatehouse Theatre are all within walking distance. So is the Isabel Trail for walking and running.

Where guests do drive, eight of our nine apartments come with an allocated parking space, so almost nobody circles the town looking for a bay. Apartment 9 has no allocated space.

A derelict building brought back into use

Friars House was derelict when we took it on in 2017. It was a building in poor condition, with exposed pipework and standards well below what anyone should accept. It reopened in 2018 as self-catering apartments.

We restored a building that already existed, on a site already served by roads, drainage and utilities, in a town centre that needed it. We did not build on open land, and we insulated the walls, roof and ceilings as part of the conversion.

Spending that stays in Stafford

Self-catering means our guests shop and eat where our neighbours do. Every apartment has a full kitchen, so guests use Stafford's supermarkets, market and independent food shops and cook for themselves, rather than eating in chain restaurants attached to a hotel.

Nine apartments in the town centre place a meaningful number of visitor nights within walking distance of independent businesses.

Our linen and laundry is handled by Posh Wash, an independent Stafford laundrette a mile and a half away, rather than through a national linen hire contract. The money stays in the town and the journey is short.

Housekeeping that doesn't run for the sake of it

We do not provide daily housekeeping or daily linen changes as standard. Guests staying longer are offered a scheduled housekeeping service, and additional visits or linen changes are available on request.

That single decision removes a large amount of laundry, hot water, energy and cleaning chemical use across nine apartments over a year, without affecting how clean the apartment is when you arrive. A hotel changes towels daily whether or not anyone has used them. We would rather not.

Waste and energy

Our bin store provides separate cardboard and general waste collection, and we ask guests to separate their recycling during their stay.

Communal lighting is motion-activated, and we ask guests to switch off lights and appliances when they leave the apartment. Our welcome information explains where the controls are.

Because every apartment has a kitchen, guests buy what they need rather than what a menu dictates, and use leftovers the following day rather than leaving them behind.

Furniture and equipment still in good condition is donated to Women's Aid rather than skipped. Energy efficiency is considered whenever fittings and appliances are replaced, and leaks are repaired promptly rather than left. Our full sustainability policy sets out how we approach this across all our properties.

Employing local people

Four people are employed directly to run Friars House, handling housekeeping, maintenance and guest support. All are paid above the national minimum wage.

Over the past year we have built up on-site stock of common spares and trained our team to carry out general maintenance themselves, so most issues are resolved within hours rather than waiting on an external contractor to travel across town.

A home when it is needed most

Alongside visitor stays, we provide temporary accommodation for households displaced by fire, flood and other emergencies, working with insurers and agencies across the region.

These are people who have lost their home, often arriving at very short notice and staying for months. A proper apartment with a kitchen and room for a family to hold together is not the same as a hotel room. Keeping that capacity available year-round is part of how we understand our role in Stafford, not a sideline to it.

What we are working on

We are honest about where we are. We have not yet completed a formal environmental accreditation, and we are working on it.

Over the coming year we plan to:

Complete an independent sustainability assessment

Publish a full access guide covering every apartment

Review energy use across the building and identify where we can reduce it

Talk to us

If there is something you would like us to do differently during your stay, tell us.

Call +44 (0) 1785 291203 or email bookings@bellapartments.co.uk