Fair Wether's just fine

A trip to Canterbury made more affordable, all courtesy of Wetherspoons.

- By MILO BOYD

LOVE it or loathe it, Wetherspoons is a British institution.

The mega-chain has around 800 joints across the UK and raked in £2billion last year. Everything from its unique 70s-inspired carpets to its weirdly cheap drinks, from its very outspoken CEO Tim Martin to its ability to buy up grand Victorian buildings and turn them into drinking dens, is etched into the British psyche.

But what you might not know - and I didn't - is that Wetherspoons also runs hotels, and has been doing so since 1998. Its first venue, in Shrewsbury, had 22 rooms for customers as well as the better-known drinking side of the business. Since then, 54 other Spoons Hotels have opened.

Recently, the hotel chain was judged to be the most affordable in the country by Which? so I decided to put it to the test. On a cold Wednesday in November, I turned up at Thomas Ingoldsby in Canterbury, freezing and bedraggled following a long bike ride from Broadstairs. What I experienced warmed my chilly cockles and turned my view of Spoons on its head.

The offering is, quite simply, incredible. Here's the breakdown...

Price

Clearly price is a strong point in Spoons pubs, and the same is true in its hotels. A double room at the Thomas Ingoldsby came in at £55 for the night. According to the Which? research, the average room rate across all of its hotels comes in at £70 a night.