A great night's sleep

A Freedom of Information response shows, I think, that the BBC is doing a reasonable job through its central hotel booking system. The average rate paid by the BBC for a hotel is £100 per night in London and £63 per night in the regions.

Deals done individually and claimed back on expenses are not covered in this. I suspect the papers will have more fun with the other statistics revealed. In calendar year 2011, there were central bookings for rooms worth a total of £8.4m; in 2012, £8.8m, and in 2013, £11.6m (this includes prepayements for the World Cup in Brazil and the Commonwealth Games). Taking 2012 as a more typical figure, and using an average of £100, that's still 88,000 nights in hotels, for a staff of less than 20,000.

The other figures show the most expensive rooms booked each year - all abroad, and apparently related to "production". £306.49 in 2011, £632.67 in 2012 and £414.98 in 2013. Mmmm.