hotelThe Hotel Inspector · Season 8, Episode 6 · Aired November 7, 2011
Who'd A Thought It Guest House
Kent
This one survived. It remains in business.
On the show
Season 8, Episode 6 · November 7, 2011 · guest house
revisited in The Hotel Inspector Returns (2013)
What happened after
Now trades as 'Who'd A Thought It' champagne & oyster bar with boutique rooms; official site live with booking.
What happened on the show
Self-styled showman Joe had spent twenty-three years popping champagne corks at his family's eight-bedroom Kent venue, a champagne and oyster bar with rooms, aiming to bring four-star city luxury to the quiet countryside. His unique taste in decor, though, was not to everyone's liking, and Alex Polizzi had her hands full in series 8 trying to persuade him to make the place a little more female-friendly. A night in the so-called Champagne and Shoes room, complete with mirrored ceilings above the bed and a dance pole, made clear that Joe's naked ambition had overreached. The case was a battle between a proprietor's flamboyant vision and the broader appeal a viable hotel needs, with Polizzi pushing for restraint. Joe's flamboyant champagne-bar concept aired in November 2011, and the show returned in 2013 to a property that has since leaned further into his showmanship.
After the cameras left
Who'd A Thought It is still trading and, tellingly, has leaned into exactly the identity Joe cherished. It now operates as a champagne and oyster bar with boutique rooms, its official site live with a functioning booking system and current promotions as of 2026, in Maidstone, Kent, where Joe has run the eight-bedroom property for over two decades. The show returned for a 2013 revisit. Rather than sanding off Joe's flamboyance, the business seems to have found a market that embraces it, and it endures.
Sources
Confidence: high. Last checked 2026-07-19.
More from Alex Polizzi
These are Amazon search links. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you. We take nothing from the businesses on this site and never link them, so a commercial link can never influence an open-or-closed verdict.