Four In A Bed's Saban reveals why he decided to cheat with huge overpayment in moment of 'absolute cinema'

Four in a Bed has had its first truly viral moment after 16 years, and it’s had fans comparing an iconic scene in the latest run of episodes to Come Dine With Me’s ‘What a Sad Little Life Jane’ moment.

The TV show sees hosts of four Bed and Breakfasts competing against each other by rating aspects of their stay out of ten and then deciding how much they’d pay for a night in the property.

In a new episode a host Saban accused another pair of hosts of cheating, accusing them of purposely underpaying in a tactical move to try and win the show. The series does not come with prize money but winning does lead to a bump in online traffic and visitors.

Saban accused Emma-Louise and a couple Ami and Mark of underpaying, with Emma-Louise having underpaid the rate on all three properties.

He responded by 'cheating' and overpaying a couple Mark and Anne by £220, telling them that he did it because ‘there was no way’ he could allow the others to win, adding: “It was a game play from the start, the way I see it I cheated to stop the other cheaters winning.”

According to Saban however in an exclusive interview with LADbible, he originally wanted to overpay by even more but was stopped by Channel 4 producers.

Saban wanted to pay £500 out of pocket but was stopped by producers according to the host

Speaking to LADbible about the incident, which has gone viral on X with almost 2 million views on one clip, he said he decided the night before to massively overpay Mark and Anne to cost Emma-Louise the win.

He explained that, after staying at Mark and Anne’s house, he made the decision because ‘knew then something was not right’. Whilst he added he didn’t know how much Emma-Louise and Mark and Ami were going to underpay, he accused Emma-Louise of being ‘prickly’ throughout production.

He explained: “I just thought, look, you're not really taking this seriously. You know, you've got to be in a position where when you do go to places like this, what did you expect?

“Emma Louise had cigarette burns on the carpet. She had no smoke alarms. in the room … but it was 75 pounds a night and you can't complain much about that but I just thought ‘that's not a reason to knock someone who's actually trying to put some effort’.”

He added that the ‘cameras don’t see how much I pay’ but that he’d told the director he was going to pay £500, something that required ‘clearance from head office’.

The B&B host claims he was ‘not happy’ but that this was blocked, stating it would be ‘blatant cheating’. He continued: “I was like ‘well it’s not because you’re not seeing what’s going on.’”

He explained that the production ‘float you the money’ but you return it, and so his overpay of £220 was out of his own pocket.

Saban wasn’t overly happy to be compared to ‘What a Sad Little Life Jane’, but stated the reaction has been great

The host runs the Stone Court House Hotel in Maidstone, a luxury grade II listed Georgian townhouse.

He claims that after the episode aired they received calls from ‘all over the world’ but that it hasn’t led to a noticeable uptick in bookings. The clip was compared to Come Dine With Me with the initial post calling it ‘absolute cinema’ and another viewer replying: “Omg this decade’s come dine with me worthy viral moment.”

A third fan said: “Saw the whole episode, he was completely justified in doing so. The others were massively underpaying for the smallest of issues. He read them like a book. Absolute certified geezer.”

Saban had never seen the Come Dine With Me clip, but after watching it post-interview sent a text via WhatsApp saying: “Just watched it. What a sore loser. Hope they don't compare me to him but I get it it's an iconic moment!”

When asked about whether he had been in touch with Emma-Louise or Mark and Ami after the show ended, after causing them to lose with his overpay, he simply replied: “What do you think?”