Hoteliers helpless as BSkyB hikes prices

British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) has angered hoteliers by withdrawing discounts and hiking its subscriptions, resulting in some hotels incurring a rise in costs of almost 50% within six months.

Best Western and Consort Hotels, the merged consortium of 400 hotels, has been told by BSkyB that it will no longer be offered a 23% discount. This follows a 25% increase in subscription fees earlier this year.

"A lot of members are extremely angry," said Karen Packham, director of purchasing for Best Western and Consort Hotels.

Packham has already taken the matter to the Office of Fair Trading but was told that the company had no case to answer.

Prices for hotels are based on the number of rooms, and BSkyB offers various discounts for hotel groups, but it has decided it will no longer categorise consortiums as groups.

A spokesman from BSkyB said it was losing out when new members joined the consortium that had previously been subscribers without a discount. "We were not increasing the distribution of our product," he said.

Nick Swinscoe, managing partner of the 30-bedroom Appleby Manor hotel in Appleby, Cumbria, and president of Best Western, said that hotels had no choice but to swallow the increases because of the strong marketing position held by BSkyB.

"We have no alternative. The guests demand to watch Sky and [BSkyB] knows it," he said.

by Christina Golding

l See Letters, page 22