The Good Hotel Guide 2015: Great Britain and Ireland was launched on 6 October and, once again, sets out to celebrate the very best of Britain’s booming hotel industry.
The benchmarks for a good hotel
Co-edited by Adam Raphael and Desmond Balmer, reports are painstakingly scrutinised, unbiased, impartial, with visits paid for and re-written each year to ensure they are current. Hotels are visited anonymously by a team of inspectors and editors who have notched up thousands of bed nights and are therefore never swayed by fads, favours or freebies. Careful monitoring also filters out both collusive praise and malicious complaints.
So what are the benchmarks for a good hotel? According to Adam Raphael and Desmond Balmer, “Hotels should be better than home. A good manager will have slept in every bedroom to ensure it’s up to scratch. Breakfast is also a very good benchmark; it’s the guest’s last meal before check out, so good-quality coffee, freshly-squeezed orange juice and free-range eggs should be a given. Finally, the guest may not always be right, but they should always come first.
“Our choices reflect the changing face of hospitality: pubs – and restaurants with rooms – are listed alongside simple B&Bs, as well as many full-service hotels.”
The César Awards for 2015
Each year ten César awards are presented to the Guide’s most celebrated hoteliers. Named after César Ritz, these are known as the Oscars of the hotel industry. Here are the Good Hotel Guide’s winners for 2015:
Family Hotel of the Year: Fowey Hall, Fowey, Cornwall – The inspiration for Toad’s stately home in The Wind in the Willows, Fowey Hall overlooks its namesake estuary and the sea. Part of Nigel Chapman’s Luxury Family Hotels group, it manages to balance the tricky quest of being an indulgent treat for parents and a hit with the kids. In the Four Bears Den, kids cook and make music; in the drawing room, parents read the papers. There’s an indoor pool, two trampolines, a zip wire and Bramble – the resident spaniel – to walk. Adults dress for dinner, leaving children to play Wii and watch a movie (there’s baby listening for little ones).
Dog-friendly Hotel of the Year: Overwater Hall, Ireby, Cumbria – A third generation family-owned Georgian mansion, Overwater Hall is set in the Lake District’s quieter northern stretch. Dogs are treated like people – they’re allowed in the bedrooms and in one of the hotel’s lounges and bars (but not on the chairs) and bed down free of charge with their owner. Dog-sitting is available and four-legged friends have the run of the 18-acre grounds.
Small Hotel of the Year: Yalbury Cottage, Lower Bockhampton, near Dorchester, Dorset – Set in the heart of Thomas Hardy’s Wessex, just two miles from Dorchester, Yalbury Cottage consists of a pretty row of 350-year-old thatched cottages with just eight immaculate bedrooms. Chef Jamie Jones serves a “superb” dinner in the oak-beamed restaurant and a top-notch full-English breakfast includes black and white pudding and free-range eggs cooked any way you wish.
Country House Hotel of the Year: Lords of the Manor, Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire – Unstuffy and impeccable, Lords of the Manor is a former rectory and now a luxury Cotswolds haven. Service is slick and friendly and the interiors are spacious yet cosy. Traditional British dishes and locally-sourced ingredients guide the menu and head chef Richard Edwards rightfully deserves his Michelin star.
Pub-With-Rooms of the Year: The Talbot Inn, Mells, Somerset – Set in a Domesday village close to Frome and Bath, The Talbot Inn is a traditional yet stylish former coaching inn run with cheerful informality and has proved a hit since it opened. Bedrooms are highly praised and the food always hits the spot, with the Coach House Grill Room serving fish and meat grilled on an open fire at weekends.
Country Hotel of the Year: The Pear Tree at Purton, Purton, Wiltshire – Set in gardens with its own wildflower meadow and managed by a dynamic mother-and-daughter duo, The Pear Tree at Purton is a well-run establishment serving superb cuisine in its spacious conservatory. Head Chef Alan Postill specialises in modern English cooking with much local produce on the menu, including honey from the resident bees and wine from the hotel’s vineyard.
Newcomer of the Year: Moor of Rannoch Hotel, Rannoch Station, Perth and Kinross – Blissfully isolated, the Moor of Rannoch Hotel has no TV, no radio, no Wi-Fi and patchy mobile reception, making up for it with board games, books and wood burning stoves. The helpful new owners, Scott Meikle and Stephanie Graham, provide plenty of information on local activities – from walking routes to local Munros (much-“collected” mountains) – and dinner is a treat, with views across the moor.
Scottish Hotel of the Year: The Green Park, Pitlochry, Scotland – Chosen for its remarkable attention to detail and an impressive level of personal service, the McMenemie family’s traditional hotel on the banks of the River Tummel is faultless. Chef Chris Tamblin’s daily-changing menu includes plenty of fresh seafood and a complimentary buffet of tea, coffee, biscuits and cakes is laid out on the dining room sideboard daily from 11am – 5pm.
Welsh Hotel of the Year: Milebrook House, Knighton, Powys, Wales – Milebrook House in the Teme Valley is a family affair: grandmother Beryl Marsden is ably assisted by her daughter Joanne and her granddaughter, chef Katie. Located just two miles from Knighton, from where Offa’s Dyke footpath stretches some 170 miles, the restaurant’s seasonal menu is “well-varied”, including dishes such as slow-roast pork belly and coarse duck and pistachio terrine.
Irish Guest House of the Year: Newforge House, Magheralin, Craigavon, County Armagh – Owned by the Mathers family for six generations, this Georgian gem is peppered with fresh flowers, antique furniture and fine paintings. Well placed for touring Northern Ireland or further south, guests are greeted with tea and cake; a daily-changing menu of simple Irish country house dishes may include roast saddle of venison or butternut squash risotto.
400 main entries – plus 400 additional
The Guide has over 400 main entries – hotels that are considered to be the best of their type in Great Britain and Ireland, with most skilfully combining a relaxed, unstuffy and personally-run approach. Hotels are listed alphabetically by location with a full review, plus a photograph and contact details. A quirky but often much-appreciated note is on the topic of background music – does it feature, what genre is it and where/when is it played? A Shortlist section with an additional 400 establishments includes untested new entries of a noteworthy standard, often in parts of the country where there is more limited choice.
Editor’s Choice
The much-coveted Editor’s Choice section highlights the top 10 hotels in 15 designated categories – Discoveries, Value, Family-friendly, Seaside, Country House, Boutique City, Gourmet, Gastropubs, Dog-friendly, Walking, Weddings, Gardens, Spas, Golf and Rooms with a View. Hotels with swimming pools, tennis courts and, usefully, disabled facilities, are also listed separately. Some 11 pages of maps, clear and easy to follow, assist in locating precisely each hotel. Indexes by hotel name and by county are another useful tool.
Hotels do not pay to be included; the editors select entries on merit alone, making judgements based on visits by a team of inspectors as well as reports from well-informed and trusted readers. All reader reports are vigilantly monitored and graded by the editorial team based on the number of reports submitted and their accuracy.
The Good Hotel Guide 2015 is also available online; hotels are asked to make a modest payment for a website listing. There are a further five online-only hotel categories: Romantic, B&Bs, Fishing, Historic and Green.
The Good Hotel Guide 2015: Great Britain & Ireland is available priced at £19 (including p&p) from The Good Hotel Guide, 50 Addison Avenue, London W11 4QP (www.goodhotelguide.com) or priced £20 from all good bookshops.
Vouchers worth a total of £150 are included in each copy of the Good Hotel Guide, enabling a 25% saving off the normal B&B price at participating hotels. Good Hotel Guide gift vouchers are also available, from £50 to £500. Free Good Hotel Guide apps for iPhones, Android and Windows can be downloaded.
For up-to-the-minute comment, visit the Good Hotel Guide’s Twitter feed @GoodHotelGuide and Facebook page.
Pictured top: Lords of the Manor, Fowey Hall, Milebrook House