No room at the inn
Jason Manford slams hotel chain after overbooking forces him to share a room
Jason Manford has hit out at a hotel chain for reselling a room he’d booked – forcing him to share it with a mate.
The comic had booked into the Village Hotel in Bournemouth on Saturday ahead of his gig thereion Sunday. But when he arrived, he discovered staff had resold one of the two rooms he’d booked, forcing him to share a twin room.
The 44-year-old posted a video of himself in the hotel saying: ‘So we got to our hotel tonight in Bournemouth and it's fully booked. We were like, "Fine, that's good - well done you"
‘They went, 'No, no, as in, like, without you'. So me and Steve, obviously [were booked] in separate rooms. And then we just discovered that basically if it's fully booked it means that, [we have to share]’
He’s heard telling hotel staff not to worry as ‘these things happen’ – but adding ‘and all that bullshit’ once they were out of earshot.
The comic added that another guest after him was also turned away and said ‘there's no rooms anywhere in Bournemouth tonight. Naughty that, naughty. I've heard of aeroplanes doing it [overbooking], but I've never known in 25 years of touring, a hotel doing it. That's not on, that is not on.’
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">What’s your minimum expectation when you book a room at <a href="https://twitter.com/Villagehotelsup?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Villagehotelsup</a>? ???????? staff were lovely but policy stinks! <a href="https://t.co/qitRAgWQfO">pic.twitter.com/qitRAgWQfO</a></p>— Jason Manford (@JasonManford) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonManford/status/1939114079529861542?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 29, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Manford later then posted a follow-up saying the chain had asked him to remove his video - which he declined to do as ‘fundamentally, it’s wrong’ to overbook
He summarised the situation, saying: ‘For people who don't know, I got to the hotel last night and the hotel was overbooked. So it meant because we arrived late - we always arrive late because of the two late shows - our room had been resold to somebody else.
‘Now we dealt with it, it was fine, we kept our humour. What can you do, you know what I mean? It’s nobody's fault in that building, so me and Steve had a laugh and had a shared room and it was fine.’
The stand-up added that it was corporate managers the firm who laid down the ‘ridiculous policy’, not staff on the ground.
‘This is the problem with these big companies,’ he added. ‘That is somebody in an office, making a policy that makes them more money. I didn't kick off, but I can imagine people would. So the staff then have to deal with upset customers and getting vitriol in heightened emotional situations.
‘So I'm not going to take the video down, because I think it's right that people know that's what your company are doing. And I'm going to leave it up as a bit of support for the staff, who aren't being paid as much as the person who made the decision is and how much that person is making out of this ridiculous policy.’
‘It takes a video like this and us talking about it for them, hopefully to have a little look at their policies and think maybe this is not in the best interest of our staff and certainly not of the customer.’
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">And THAT is the last I’ll say on the matter between The People vs The Village Hotel! ???? <a href="https://twitter.com/Village_Hotels?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Village_Hotels</a> <a href="https://t.co/z99qUjXb38">pic.twitter.com/z99qUjXb38</a></p>— Jason Manford (@JasonManford) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonManford/status/1939321745330061751?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 29, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Chortle has approached Village Hotels for comment.
Published: 1 Jul 2025
