Original: Sybil and Basil Fawlty are said to have married on 17 April 1958 and started their hotel in 1960. Prunella Scales has said that the reason Sybil married Basil was because his origins were of a higher social class than hers.
Simplified: The owners of the hotel are Basil Fawlty (played by John Cleese) and his wife Sybil (Prunella Scales).