Four in a Bed (also known as Three in a Bed) is a British reality television game show that has been airing on Channel 4 since 21 April 2010. The show involves bed and breakfast (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 the best value for money. Each group consists of four B&B owners visiting each other, and thus a winner is declared every five episodes in an episode called 'Payment Day'.

Format Each pair of bed and breakfast (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 or drinks, 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 (e.g. friendliness, professionalism); Cleanliness; Facilities (e.g. room layout, furnishings, decoration, shared/private bathroom, room extras like snacks); Sleep quality (e.g. bed size and comfort, noise, temperature); and Breakfast (quality, choice, service etc.), before saying if they would stay there again. The B&B owners get to see their feedback once the guests have gone, which can leave them feeling slightly vengeful 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 was not worth the money, they underpay. If they think it was worth the money, they pay exactly. 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: a B&B charging £80 and receiving payment in full from each of the others would win over one charging £130 which 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 Beds 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 2 31 March 2011 2 June 2011 10 3 18 March 2015 18 March 2016 14

Four in a Bed Series Start date End date Episodes 1 22 November 2010 17 December 2010 20 2 30 May 2011 8 July 2011 60 24 October 2011 2 December 2011 3 12 March 2012 20 April 2012 60 18 June 2012 27 July 2012 4 7 January 2013 1 March 2013 40 5 30 September 2013 20 December 2013 60 6 10 March 2014 4 April 2014 40 5 May 2014 30 May 2014 7 29 September 2014 24 October 2014 60 16 February 2015 10 April 2015 8 21 September 2015 20 November 2015 50 11 April 2016 15 April 2016 9 4 April 2016 8 April 2016 50 18 April 2016 24 June 2016 10 3 October 2016 9 December 2016 100 1 May 2017 7 July 2017 11 9 October 2017 1 December 2017 75 15 January 2018 2 March 2018 12 17 September 2018 9 November 2018 75 11 March 2019 26 April 2019 13 30 September 2019 1 November 2019 45 9 March 2020 3 April 2020 14 6 April 2020 17 April 2020 45 15 June 2020 10 July 2020 12 October 2020 30 October 2020 15 2 November 2020 13 November 2020 90 1 March 2021 23 April 2021 13 September 2021 5 November 2021 16 8 November 2021 19 November 2021 90 31 January 2022 1 April 2022 7 May 2022 3 October 2022 28 October 2022 6 February 2023 17 February 2023 17 20 February 2023 7 April 2023 80 25 September 2023 10 November 2023 15 April 2024 26 April 2024 18 29 April 2024 7 June 2024 75 21 October 2024 20 December 2024 19 5 February 2025 28 March 2025 80 15 September 2025 24 October 2025 23 March 2026 27 March 2026 TBD TBD 20 23 February 2026 20 March 2026 TBD 30 March 2026 3 April 2026 TBD TBD

International versions A French version of the series, called Bienvenue chez nous, began airing on France's TF1 on 30 January 2012.

A Dutch version of Three in a Bed, called Bed & Breakfast, began airing on NPO 1 on 27 April 2012.

Controversies In February 2013, some 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 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.

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External links