Four in a Bed

Four in a Bed (also known as Three in a Bed from 2010–11 and 2015–16) is a British reality television game show that has been airing on Channel 4 since 21 April 2010. The show involves B&B owners, who take turns to stay with one another and pay what they consider fair for their stay after giving feedback. The winner is the establishment named best value for money. Each group consists of four B&Bs visiting each other and thus a winner is declared every five episodes.

Four in a Bed
Also known as	Three in a Bed (2010–11, 2015–16)
Genre	Reality
Voices of	Mike Adams Duncan Wibsey (Four in a Bed) Stephen Mangan (Three in a Bed)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	4 (Three in a Bed) 9 (Four in a Bed)
No. of episodes	55 (Three in a Bed) 400 (Four in a Bed)
Production
Running time	60 minutes (inc. adverts) (Three in a Bed) 30 minutes (inc. adverts) (Four in a Bed)
Production company(s)	Studio Lambert
Distributor	All3Media
Release
Original network	Channel 4
Picture format	16:9
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	21 April 2010 (2010-04-21) – present

Format

Each pair of B&B owners (or single owner, in some cases) visits each other's B&B. At the start of their visit, they are told how much their room costs and if there are any separate charges for breakfast. The owners then inspect the room, picking up on anything untidy or out of place. Afterwards, they take turns in some sort of entertainment activity where there is usually a mini-competition. The host then takes the guests to dinner where the guests usually get to know the backstory of how the host entered into their business in the first place. Everyone then goes to bed. Upon waking up in the morning, they then have breakfast, usually all together. Finally, they each fill in an anonymous feedback form rating and commenting on five aspects of the B&B - Hosting (eg friendliness, professionalism); Cleanliness; Facilities (eg room layout, furnishings, decoration, shared/private bathroom, room extras like snacks); Sleep quality (eg bed size and comfort, noise, temperature); and Breakfast (quality, choice, service etc), before saying if they'd stay there again. The B&B owners get to see their feedback once the guests have gone and it can leave them feeling slightly revengeful if they feel aggrieved by the comments. The guests also pay an amount of money based on their perceived value of the B&B – if a guest believes it wasn't worth the money, they underpay. If they think it was worth the money, they pay exactly. And on rare occasions, guests have paid more than the stated cost of the B&B, particularly if they felt the establishment was very good. The payment amounts are all kept secret until the last episode of the week.

After all four B&Bs have been visited, the hosts get together to confront each other about the comments and the payments they have received. The winner is revealed at the end, being the B&B that has received the highest percentage of what they charged. So a B&B charging £80 and receiving payment in full from each of the others, would win over one charging £130 that received £125 from each of the others.

On occasion, one of the teams may drop out midway through the competition (e.g. due to illness). In such cases where they are unable to finish the competition, they will not receive their payments from other hosts (if they hosted before leaving) and vice versa (if they visited other hosts before leaving). For hosts with two members, the absence of one will allow the other to continue in the competition as normal.

Three In a Bed differences

The format for Three in A Bed slightly differs from Four in a Bed in certain aspects. First, all three B&Bs are visited in one episode. Consequently, each episode lasts for one hour, including advertisements. The order of the entertainment and dinner (occasionally lunch) meal were interchangeable. Third, for series 1 and 2, the feedback was orally given to hosts immediately at the end of each stay. In series 3, the feedback was written in a guestbook and was more free-flowing compared to Four In A Bed's anonymous feedback forms where the rivals had to focus on several areas. Additionally, for series 1, the payments were also revealed at the end of each stay.

Transmissions

Three in a Bed

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	21 April 2010	17 June 2010	8[1]
2	31 March 2011	2 June 2011	10[1]
3	18 March 2015	30 March 2015	10[1]

Four in a Bed

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	22 November 2010	17 December 2010	20[1]
2	30 May 2011	2 December 2011	60[1]
3	12 March 2012	27 July 2012	60[1]
4	7 January 2013	1 March 2013	40[1]
5	30 September 2013	20 December 2013	60[1]
6	10 March 2014	30 May 2014	40[1]
7	29 September 2014	10 April 2015	60[1]
8	21 September 2015	20 November 2015	45[1]
9	4 April 2016	10 June 2016	50[1]
10	3 October 2016	9 December 2016	50[1]
11	1 May 2017	7 July 2017	50[1]
12	9 October 2017	23 February 2018	75[1]

International versions

A French version of the series, called Bienvenue chez nous, began airing on France's TF1 on 30 January 2012.[2][3]

A Dutch version, called Bed & Breakfast, began airing on NPO 1 on 4 June 2015.[4]

Controversies

In February 2013, business owners who participated in Four in a Bed sought legal help after receiving abuse from the public. In the most extreme case police were called in to investigate abuse that included the sending of excrement through the post addressed to dirty Barry, dirty protests and threats of physical violence. Other businesses and owners claim to have suffered abuse via the placing of alleged fake reviews on TripAdvisor, e-mails, phone calls and letters.[5]

References

1. "Four in a Bed". All3Media. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
2. "Bienvenue chez nous de TF1 : Tout ce qu'il faut savoir". nouveautes-tele.com.
3. ""Bienvenue chez nous" premiere". coyote.fr. Archived from the original on 6 February 2012. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
4. "Bed & Breakfast - Omroep MAX". MAX Vandaag (in Dutch). Retrieved 6 February 2020.
5. Harmer, Janet (21 February 2013). "Police called in to investigate abuse aimed at participants of Channel4 programme Four in a Bed". The Caterer. Retrieved 15 February 2017.

External links

• Four in a Bed at Channel 4
• Four in a Bed at UKGameshows.com