The owners of the hotel are Basil Fawlty ( played by John Cleese ) and his wife Sybil ( Prunella Scales ) . 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 .