A DARWEN hotel owner will be appearing on television tonight in the Channel 4 programme Four in a Bed.

Neil Bullows, who runs the Whitehall Hotel, off Ross Street, with his wife Tracy, was invited to appear on the show after his 16-bedroom hotel was completely refurbished.

On the programme, four hotel owners throw open their doors and take it in turns to stay at each other’s properties.

The twist is that the hotelliers only pay what they consider fair for their stay and fill in feedback sheets for the owners.

Mr Bullows said he had a great time filming the show.

He said: “We were very excited when we were selected to take part in the programme.

“There is always an element of risk but with the recent improvements we’ve made upgrading the bedrooms, we were confident the other contestants would thoroughly enjoy their stay.”

The group’s first stay was at the King’s Head and Queen’s Jules in Bungay, Suffolk.

Mr Bullows said the 17th century-themed hotel was competely different from what he was used to.

He said: “We were quite critical, but with justification.”

The second hotel was the ‘adult-themed’ Continental, in Harwich, Essex, which Mr Bullows said was ‘tastefully’ decorated with fantastic views of the sea.

The final hotel before the contestants came to stay in Darwen was the luxury Llanerch Vineyard Hotel, near Cardiff in South Wales During the guests’ visit to the Whitehall Hotel, Mr Bullows took the other contestants to the Crown paint factory to teach them about the importance of good design.

He said: “I am a big believer in promoting other businesses but not all of them took it on board and one of them fell asleep.”

But Mr Bullows said he was pleased he had got involved with the programme.

He said: “It was a full on experience.

“We just wanted to be constructive - we have been doing this for 20 years and we intended to give anybody coming into the business advice.

“The good thing about the programme is that it is not about who is the best, it is about the value for money.”

Four in a Bed starts on Channel 4 tonight at 5.30pm and Mr Bullow’s episode will be shown on 12 April.