hotelThe Hotel Inspector · Season 10, Episode 2 · Aired February 13, 2014
The Vidella Hotel
Blackpool, England
Still open. It kept its doors open after the show.
What happened after
Budget hotel on Dickson Road, North Shore; reopened after a 2014 closure and brief 'Niagra'/'Viagra' rebrand controversy, evidence via aggregator mirrors only.
What happened on the show
Alex Polizzi's series 10 visit to the Vidella in Blackpool introduced owners Neil and John, best friends who had taken the hotel on together over a decade earlier and shared a taste for practical jokes. Guests had been met with fireworks planted in wardrobes, plastic bugs dropped into their breakfasts and a coin glued to the reception floor, gags that suggested a pair enjoying themselves more than their struggling business could afford. Polizzi's task was to get two jokers to take the operation seriously enough to fix a failing seaside hotel, channelling their evident camaraderie into running the place properly rather than entertaining themselves at the guests' expense. The humour, in her reading, was a symptom of a wider lack of commercial focus.
After the cameras left
The Vidella is still trading, a budget hotel on Dickson Road on Blackpool's North Shore, having reopened after a 2014 closure and a brief, much-mocked rebrand. The evidence is aggregator-based with no official domain found, and a user comment suggests it reopened under new management, so the open status is held at medium confidence. The prank-loving partnership Polizzi tried to focus seems to have given way, through a closure and reopening, to a plainer continued operation of the seaside hotel.
Sources
Confidence: medium. Last checked 2026-07-19.