hotelThe Hotel Inspector · Season 12, Episode 4 · Aired June 22, 2016
The Black Bear Hotel
Wareham, Dorset
Still going, now under a new name. It now goes by The Bear.
What happened after
18th-century former coaching inn, now trades simply as 'The Bear'; official site live with current promotions.
What happened on the show
Alex Polizzi visited the Black Bear in Wareham, Dorset, during series 12, an eighteenth-century former coaching inn that first-time hotelier Lynda Maytum ran with her family. The combination of a historic building and owners new to the trade is a familiar setup for the show, one where enthusiasm outruns experience and the inspector's job is to supply the commercial rigour the family lacks. The episode summary is brief on the specific problems, so the honest frame is verifiable rather than reconstructed: a historic Dorset coaching inn run by inexperienced first-time hoteliers that sought Polizzi's help in her twelfth series. The heritage of the building gave her something to build on if the operation could be professionalised. First-timers Lynda Maytum and her family took on the coaching inn ahead of the June 2016 episode, and it continues under the shortened name The Bear.
After the cameras left
The Black Bear survives and has rebranded, now trading simply as The Bear at 14 South Street in Wareham. Its official site is live with current opening hours and a room-discount promotion as of 2026, and a Kayak badge on the site itself references the former Black Bear name, confirming the match. Lynda Maytum's family took on the eighteenth-century coaching inn as first-timers, and the property kept going under a shortened name, one of the series 12 cases that turned cleanly into a stable, continuing operation.
Sources
Confidence: high. Last checked 2026-07-19.
What is there now
Street imagery via Google Maps. Location approximate.