I couldn’t do it every day,” says Hazel Wright, a sales executive for BBC Worldwide. “The commute takes about two hours if I’m lucky. I have stayed with friends, or booked a room in a Travelodge, but that was £60 a night and, well, pretty seedy really.”

You may be one of the many people who work in London but live outside the capital, and need to stay overnight for more than one night a week. If you are in this position, there are better options than the sofa at your friend’s house (again); a room in a B&B or hotel; renting a flat or buying and furnishing a second home in London.

Wright, 50, and her husband, Max Sammann, moved to the country a year ago. With the £250,000 they got for their two-bedroom flat in Brentford, west London, they bought a four-bedroom house by the sea in East Sussex. “The quality of life is so much better,” Wright says, “but I still need somewhere to stay in London.”

Now Wright stays in Richmond, southwest London, during the week, cutting her journey time to 40 minutes. She rents a room from Monday to Friday at £80 a week.

An estimated 750,000 people commute into London every day from outside the M25. The average journey time is 45 minutes, with some people commuting four hours a day, according to a study by the RAC Foundation. “Drivers would rather sit in their cars twice as long than change jobs, move house or change their work base,” says Edmund King, the foundation’s executive director.

The latest figures from the Land Registry show the average property in Greater London now costs more than £260,000 — compared with the national average of £163,000. John Wriglesworth, an economist with Hometrack, the estate agents’ price index, sees the idea of a Monday-to-Friday rental as the “missing link” in the capital’s accommodation options.

“The steep rise in property prices over the past five years means the cost of buying a pied-à-terre is increasingly prohibitive,” he says. “People don’t want the fixed cost of buying a property that isn’t used at weekends.”

Serviced apartments — your own room or suite with hotel facilities — have proliferated over the past five years, but cater to the top end of the market. A flat in the City starts at £850 per week with City Apartments.

Other firms are also trying to cash in on commuters. A new website, Mondaytofriday, introduces landlords to lodgers for a fee of £10 a month each. Its founder, Judy Niner, came up with the idea after she moved to a village north of Oxford, and found herself commuting into London to her job at the Science Museum.

“I would have had to leave by 6am,” she says. “I rented a room in London, and placed an ad in The Oxford Times to let a room in my own house to help cover the cost.”

Niner recommends that landlords who are renting out a room for weeknights should charge 60% to 70% of the cost of a full-time rental in their area. Lower rents have their benefits: under the government’s Rent a Room scheme, landlords can earn rental income of up to £4,250 a year (or £81.70 a week) tax-free.

“I once had a tenant for seven days a week, but I couldn’t cope,” says Ellie Scott, a freelance script supervisor, who lets her spare room to Wright. “The tenant burnt incense and draped her clothes over the radiators to dry. It didn’t feel like my home any more. I wanted an older, more self-contained professional,” she says. “I now have the house to myself at weekends and can have family and friends to stay.”

When using a website such as Mondaytofriday, a work noticeboard or newsagent’s window, you will need to do basic checks yourself. Meet prospective tenants face-to-face and set rules. David Fleming, head of property litigation at the solicitors’ firm William Heath & Co, advises drawing up a tenancy agreement “stating the notice period and payment details, and clarifying what is to be let and what is expected”. A solicitor can draw up a bespoke contract for about £235, while a legal website such as Desktop Lawyer can provide a cheaper standard contract.

“I have a comfortable double bed with clean sheets. I only have to carry my laptop and a small suitcase,” says Wright. “However, I have had to invest in two hairdryers and have make-up in two places.”

MondaytoFriday, 020 8973 1977, www.mondaytofriday.com; City Apartments, 020 7265 0389, www.cityaparts.com; William Heath & Co, 020 7402 3151; Desktop Lawyer, www.desktoplawyer.co.uk

How costs compare

Renting a room for Monday to Friday starts at about £80 a week.

Average prices for other options:

Rent for a flat in Greater London: £180 a week

House price in London: £260,000. Payment on a 90% mortgage: £202 a week

Flat on short let in central London: £280 a week

A hotel room in inner London, at £85 per night for four nights: £340

Serviced apartment in the City: £875 a week

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