A NORTHUMBERLAND guest house has been inundated with bookings, following its television appearance on Channel 4’s Four in a Bed.

Crackin View Guest House and Holiday Cottages, in Lanehead, Tarset, appeared on Channel 4’s popular reality programme on Monday, February 21, and has since received countless bookings, from people as far as the south coast.

Maria, 50, and Steve Mark Turnbull, 51, said: “It’s been absolute pandemonium since the show aired.

“We’ve had more than 40 bookings in the last week. Our website has hit 5,000 page views since last Monday,” Steve added.

The guest house owners came second in Channel 4’s show, behind contestants Helen and Lauren’s North Kingsfield Cottages in Fraisthorpe,Yorkshire.

Since the show was filmed, Steve and Maria have completed the installation of a pool and sauna and are working on a stargazing shed to house a telescope, so guests can admire Northumberland’s gold tier dark skies in closer detail.

Steve and Maria won a full round of 10s for their hosting abilities, but lost a few points on the facilities of their rooms.

Contestants stated this was due to the absence of full length hanging space in the wardrobe and a full length mirror, which Steve and Maria have already made adjustments to.

“I’ve made adjustments to the wardrobe so it has full-length hanging space now, and we’ve moved things around to fix the mirror positioning. We are restricted on room size so we couldn’t fit in bigger beds, and I’ve also just ordered four mini-fridges for the rooms.”

All contestants said they would stay at Crackin View Guest House again, which is what matters to Steve and Maria.

“It was not about winning. People don’t remember the winners, they remember the nice people on the show.

“People want to come and meet the Geordies,” Steve said. “We’ve had phone calls asking where we get our sausages from, where I got the jumper that I was wearing in one of the episodes from, and where we got the sofa that’s in the cottage from.”

Steve thinks they will be fully booked this year, and has had to turn people away because their rooms are already full. “But if we had any more rooms it would be too much for us to do.

“The majority are wanting to meet me and Maria, and think the place is really nice. I’ve been stopped in Bellingham and asked for selfies. The locals think we’ve done amazing,” Steve said.

Their busiest time of year is usually from Easter until the end of September, but after prolonged periods of lockdown where people had to cancel holidays, the business was busy once people could travel around the country.

“Twenty years ago there was little to do in Northumberland on a holiday, but we’ve got people coming up for fishing, hiking, and for the dark skies so holidays are round the clock up here now.”