Owner of hotel ‘not fit for rats’ blames reality TV expectations
A HOTEL owner has blamed reality television shows for inflating guests’ expectations after he was fined £7,000 for inventing a fourstar rating for his “horrific” guesthouse.
Dozens of guests left stinging reviews of Beverley Guest House in East Yorkshire after finding blood on the walls, unsecured chandeliers and slugs in towels.
But John Dixon Hart said programmes like The Hotel Inspector and Four in a Bed, where bed-and-breakfast owners judge one another’s establishments, had encouraged people to look for fault in his guesthouse.
The establishment had its four-star status revoked six years ago but Mr Hart faked a certificate and continued to claim the rating.
Before magistrates in Bev- erly, he pleaded guilty to a charge of advertising and running a guesthouse below minimum standards and to using misleading adverts.
Mr Hart, 53, told the court: “Most of the guests who stay here come with an open mind. There’s just a few who come who’ve watched Four
in a Bed and The Hotel Inspector and they go round the place with a fine-tooth comb.”
He told the court: “People sometimes think all their Christmasses have come at once when they book – I don’t know what they imagine they’re going to get.
One reviewer said the hotel was “not fit for rats”, while another wrote: “Welcome to Hell”.