Set for success

In january 1996, to coincide with the centenary of the cinema industry, the British Tourist Authority brought out a movie map showing more than 180 film and TV locations in Britain.

So great was the public interest in it that the 250,000 copies printed by the BTA last year were snapped up within seven weeks. Last November, the authority launched an Internet site based on the map, augmented by pictures, road maps and clips from the films and TV series.

The listed locations include geographical areas, places and individual buildings, including hotels. Given the popularity of the map, the conclusion must be that association with a film or TV series automatically raises the profile of a hotel. But before you tout your hotel as a potential film location, it's as well to remember a few salient points.

The first is to bear in mind that, when a movie is shot, there is no way of knowing whether it is going to be a success or box-office poison. Undoubtedly, if it is the former, anyone associated with it can bask in its reflected glory.

For example, Carol Adams, public relations manager of the St James Court Hotel in London, estimates that her hotel had £1m-worth of free publicity as a result of its courtyard being used in the multi-Oscar-winning film Howard's End, starring Emma Thompson, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Vanessa Redgrave.

Similarly, a Forte Heritage property, the Crown Hotel in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, was inundated by bookings for its Queen Elizabeth I suite after it was used for a bedroom scene between Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell in 1994's Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Andrea Potter, the hotel's rooms manager, estimates that, at the height of Four Weddings fever, the hotel was receiving 10-15 telephone calls a day from people wanting to book the suite. "Some days you just didn't want to answer the phone," she says. Particularly popular with honeymooners, the suite has been booked out every Saturday since the film was released. Current rates are £111-£140 per night.

A word of warning, though: benefiting from association with a film largely depends on getting a film credit, something which the Crown and St James Court demanded and received. On the other hand David Cooper, owner of Bolebroke Mill in East Sussex, an upmarket B&B used in the film Carrington (again starring Emma Thompson), did not ask for a credit and so didn't get one. He estimates that it has won him only three or four bookings since its release in 1995.

The second point to remember is that a film crew usually consists of 60-70 people plus equipment. This includes lighting, cables, cameras and camera tracking, and probably a number of HGVs housing generators, catering facilities, and make-up and wardrobe departments. In other words, there is a possibility of considerable disruption to your guests for the duration of the filming.

Disruption

When Howard's End and Four Weddings were filmed, disruption was minimal because the hotel areas used were away from the main parts of the premises. The Crown's main lounge was used briefly, but filming took place during a quiet spell over a weekend. At both hotels, regular guests were intrigued rather than put out. "Nobody complained," says Adams. "The Americans were filming the filming."

Sometimes, when a hotel needs to be redecorated or refurnished to fit in with production design, it may have to close. This happened at Hollington House hotel, near Newbury, Berkshire, whose grand hall, restaurant and grounds were used over two days last September for A Dance to the Music of Time, to be screened on Channel 4 later this year. Furniture, a chandelier and a piano were removed, panels were inserted and a tennis court was marked out over the croquet lawn.

But customer goodwill was not lost. "It's no different from a corporate booking asking for exclusive use," says manager Simon Numphud. "And we took advantage of the closure to take the staff on a team-building exercise, hold meetings and clean rooms that weren't being used."

So apart from the cachet of being linked to a prestigious production, what did Hollington House get out of allowing itself to be invaded by a film crew? "Between £2,500 and £3,000 each day, and we negotiated special rates for having exclusivity at the hotel," says Numphud.

This fee compares with the £1,000 per day which the St James Court received for Howard's End and the £5,000 for a three-day shoot earned by Forte Heritage property the Randolph hotel, Oxford, for allowing two public rooms to be completely remodelled for use in Shadowlands, starring Sir Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger. Bolebroke Mill received £10,000 for closing down for a month's filming of Carrington, but the Crown received just £200 per day in fees for Four Weddings.

In other words, the daily rate really depends on the amount of disruption to the hotel, the budget of the production company (Four Weddings, for instance, was made on a shoestring) and the amount of business lost.

The cardinal rule is to sort out your fee and every other detail of the agreement before letting a film crew loose on your hotel - and put it in a contract. "Don't take anything for granted," says Andrew Buchanan, general manager of the Randolph. If you have been approached, as Hollington House was, via a location agency (such as the Strutt & Farmer Film Location Agency, which takes 10%-15% of a contract fee), all negotiations will be done for you and oversights are less likely to occur.

Anything that lessens the gamble of being a film site should be in the contract because making a movie for all concerned is a gamble - one that sometimes pays dividends, but often does not.