Worse things happen at sea but strange things occur at Travelodge, or so it would seem.

With Hallowe'en upon us, it appears the things that go bump in the night at the budget hotel chain are in fact its customers, prompting Travelodge’s management to provide training for staff to deal with sleepwalking guests.

Sleepwalking to disaster the Government this week announced a cut in funding for tourism marketing body VisitBritain despite the impending London Olympics in 2012.

No doubt the money saved will be pumped into the beleaguered school meals system…

Another popular Government decision – namely to raise the rate of capital gains tax – could lead to panic selling within the hospitality sector ahead of its enforcement next April, the British Hospitality Association warned this week.

So a good time to be looking to buy a hotel, just don’t expect any international tourists to show around the Games unless VisitBritian’s revised budget and advertising campaign - free paper flyers and pin badges by the sounds of things – reaches overseas.

Being green can help bring in the business, according to a comprehensive survey by JD Power and Associates, but too many European hotel operators are doing all the running without trumpeting their environmentally friendly credentials.

That’s something to shout about.

Something to cough awkwardly over and change the subject quickly is the assertion from the European Tour Operators Association that hotels could be breaking competition law by signing "no-undercutting" agreements with third parties selling their rooms. Ooops.

Moving swiftly on, Surrey Cricket Club has failed to get planning permission for a hotel at its ground, the Brit Oval. Howzat?

But Coffee Republic is far from stumped having signed a master franchise deal for Scotland, which will see the opening of the coffee-bar chain’s largest UK store to date.

Holiday Inn is to have a $1b global brand overhaul as pub company Admiral Taverns looks to growing its food business to build its profits.

And The Restaurant winners Jeremy and Jane Hooper promised their new business, launched off the back of the BBC2 reality TV show with Raymond Blanc, would not be a flash in the pan. Tears before bedtime?

Recycling back to more green talk, pub operator JD Wetherspoon has won the High Street Recycling Champion Award for a scheme that sees delivery lorries returning recyclable waste from pubs to its central distribution centre.

By Chris Druce, online news editor