Guest Author - Yvonne Russell

The fictional Fawlty Towers Hotel, from the series of the same name, has an international reputation as one of the worst hotels in the world. Why then, would anyone want to knowingly brand their hotel with the same name?

I know of at least four accommodation places who proudly boast the Fawlty Towers moniker.

Fawlty Towers Options
Perhaps you are going to Livinsgstone, Zambia. You can stay at Fawlty Towers there. Then, there’s the Hotel Fawlty Towers in Rome and the Fawlty Towers Resort in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

In China, you can stay at the Fawlty Towers Hotel in Yangshou, near Guilin. When visiting Yangshou, I was told that the owner now calls himself Basil. Basil Fawlty was the incompetent hotel owner, played by John Cleese. Local lore has it that someone gave this guy some Fawlty Towers videos and he was hooked. He decided to open a hotel and call it Fawlty Towers .

It seems that Fawlty Towers has come full circle – a real hotel being the inspiraton for a TV series – and a TV series being the inspiration for a real hotel.

The Fawlty Towers Brand
At first, I found it both amusing and perverse, that people are drawn to stay at a hotel in any way associated with Basil’s brand of hospitality. I found it equally amusing and perverse that a hotel would want to associate itself with the Fawlty Towers customer service approach.

However, on reflection, when I was wading through the hundreds of hotel listings for a recent trip to Rome, Fawlty Towers Hotel was the only name that leapt out at me. I certainly noticed Fawlty Towers in amongst the ocean of hundreds of unfamiliar names. Maybe that is the secret - the strong recognition factor of the Fawlty Towers brand.

Time to Check in
If you check in, and the experience is bad, you can hardly complain. Maybe it’s like testing yourself on the scary rides at the theme park. You can say you stayed at Fawlty Towers, and lived to tell the tale.

Perhaps that’s part of the appeal. That, and staying at a place where the owners and the guests obviously have a healthy sense of humor, and are ready for anything.

Now where’s Manuel? I have to check in my bags.