2012 edition

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Our editorial team is busy researching and writing the next edition of the Guide, which will be published in October. The hotels and B&Bs in that edition will be there solely on merit. No payment is made for an entry in the print edition,, no hospitality is taken, and no hotel advertising is accepted.

As the marketing man, I am rightly kept well away from sensitive editorial decisions. These are taken by our small editorial team. But the key role is played by our 15,000 readers, whose views influence which hotels and B&Bs are selected for inclusion and which are dropped. The readers' opinions are carefully tracked. The GHG's editors know who our correspondents are, where they come from and how sound is their judgment. When there is disagreement or there are too few reports, they send an anonymous inspector to have dinner and spend the night at the hotel at the Guide's expense.

There is obviously a limit to the number of inspections the Guide can afford each year, which is why we encourage readers to write to us about their hotel experiences good and bad. One new initiative is our monthly prize of a dinner and night for two at one of our selected hotels for the reader who has submitted the best report that month. But many readers do it for love. Why do so many take the trouble to write to us? Susan Hanley, an American visitor told us: 'My husband can't understand why I spend so much time writing reports (for you), but your guide is still by far the best way to find a hotel and so I feel an obligation. And it's fun too!’

The other crucial task for the GHG's editors is the picking of our ten premier annual awards named after the famous 19th-century Swiss hotelier, César of the Ritz. The Sunday Times takes these so seriously that for the past ten years, it has paid for one of its travel writers to stay for a night in each of the ten César hotels to see if they make the grade. The result is publicity and bookings worth thousands of pounds for each of the winners.
 
How do we select our ten César winners? The process begins with reviews from readers whose judgment we trust. If a hotel or B&B starts to attract exceptionally good reports, we send an inspector to stay anonymously for a night at our expense. Hotels keep their César as long as they remain in the same ownership and maintain their original quality. Winning a César is difficult, sustaining it over the years is even more so. As always, the crucial test remains tthat laid down by our founding editor, Hilary Rubinstein, thirty five years ago: ‘A good hotel is where the guest comes first.’

Adam Raphael

Special offers

Here comes the bride

How about celebrating the Royal wedding in style? If you are not invited to Westminster Abbey, console yourself with Wilton Court’s wedding celebration at Ross-on-Wye, where you can follow the events on a large-screen TV while downing coffee and pastries, followed by , Bellinis and canapés, and then on to a sumptuous three-course lunch. Prices from £250 for two people sharing includes a three-course a la carte dinner in the hotel’s Mulberry restaurant the night before the nuptials. Sounds fun, and not just for Royalists.

Other Special Offers:

If your tastes run to a log cabin complete with huge hot tubs, Finnish sauna, and double steam shower, Dannah Farm, near Belper, is offering all this at £99 per person including a night in one of its feature rooms and full Derbyshire farmhouse breakfast. The offer is available mid-week from Sunday to Thursday.

Fancy a taste of the finest Lous Roederer champagne? Stay for three nights at Linthwaite House in Cumbria and a complimentary bottle will be yours. Rates start from £118 per person. If you stay two nights and pay the standard bed and breakfast rate, the hotel will throw a four-course dinner with canapés at no extra charge. The offer is valid from April 3rd to June 2nd.

Primrose Valley Hotel in St Ives is offering 25% off for a three night mid-week stay before April 7th. Just above Porthminster beach, this seaside villa has a striking modern interior. You can book anytime in advance.

Soar Mill Cove Hotel, nr Salcome is inviting budding artists to join them for their Easter Egg Rolling championship.  A great British Easter holiday for four nights costs £475 per adult and £160 per child with babies in cots free of charge.

More special offers are below, and there are many more are on our Special Offers page.

Hotels, inns and B&Bs with a special offer (click and see)

Send in a Review

Win a free night!

This month's prize is a free night and breakfast at Millgate House which has just won the Guide's prestigious César award as the B&B of the year.
A stunning early Georgian stone house, near Richmond, Yorkshire, it is run with wit and style by Austin Lynch and Tim Culkin, both former teachers.

All you have to do to win this splendid prize is to submit a review which catches the eye of our editorial team for its wit and insight. The winner of last month's prize, a free night, dinner and breakfast at the luxurious Lime Wood at Lyndhurst is Jim Grover from London.

Hotel Tales

Basil Fawlty

1. 'Our party arrived at different times, from different parts of the country. This seemed to be a problem for the owner when we telephoned him in advance. His attitude did not improve during our stay, and he managed to upset most of our party. Our room was substandard with single-glazed window (stuck shut with mould) overlooking a busy road. Tatty rugs. ‘bed-sit’ furniture. A minuscule bathroom with a tired shower and a handbasin the size of a hamster’s bath. If we hadn’t come so far we would have left.'

2. ' The breakfast was dire. The only person present was a young man of Levantine looks. He was friendly but incompetent. He rustled through a shelf when we asked him whether the breakfast cereals included All Bran. They didn't. There was no menu and for some time we did not know whether the sweet rolls on the counter constituted the main breakfast. The young man eventually re-emerged to offer us white or brown toast and ask whether either of us would like a cooked breakfast. Paying the bill was the final ordeal. There was nobody at the desk and no bell to ring. Another young man eventually came up from the bar to take our money. His manner was, like the hotel's, somewhere between nonchalant and churlish.'
   
   
3. 'We were shown to our room which was a real shocker. The windows had virtually no outlook because of two adjoining buildings which left no more than about two feet of a view.  We asked whether we could see another room, and the owner said, somewhat grumpily, he would see whether there was a better room available, though he must have known that the hotel was nearly empty.  He came back and said that he did have another room, but we would have to pay an extra £23.25.   This second room had a fine view over the landscaped gardens, and was fully equipped and satisfactory.  We noted, however, that the normal accessories in the bathroom were not provided – no shampoos, only liquid soap in plastic containers.'
   

BUY tHE gUIDE

The 2011 Guide

The 2011 print edition of the Good Hotel Guide to Great Britain and Ireland makes a great present. Discount vouchers worth a total of £150 are included with each copy. They enable a 25% saving off the normal B&B price at participating hotels. A copy of the Guide costs £18 (including £3 p&p), compared to a retail price of £20. If you wish to buy a copy, click here or write to: The Good Hotel Guide, 50 Addison Avenue, London W11 4QP.

The new Good Hotel Guide gift voucher scheme, an ideal birthday or wedding present, is attracting lots of interest. For more details, write to: editor@goodhotelguide.com.

The GHG Iphone app is also available from Apple's Itune store. It costs £2.99 in the UK, $4.99 in the USA. An E-book version of the Guide is available on Kindle price at £8 in the Uk or $13 in the USA.

The Good Hotel Guide, founded 32 years ago, is totally independent. It receives no payments, no hospitality and no advertising from hotels selected for an entry in the printed edition. Hotels pay to be on the GHG website, but only those hotels which have an entry in the printed Guide are eligible. Selected hotels are recommended by readers, backed where necessary by an anonymous inspection. The British edition of the Guide is published each autumn. Adam and Caroline Raphael, who edit the Guide, are award-winning journalists. Caroline, a former BBC researcher and a travel writer, is editor-in-chief. She has worked on the Guide for more than 30 years. Adam, who previously worked for the Guardian, the Observer, the BBC and the Economist, is the Guide's marketing director. Desmond Balmer, formerly travel editor of the Observer, is editor of the British guide. The Guide specialises in small owner-managed hotels, inns and B&Bs in England, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands and Ireland. It includes budget B&Bs, good value hotels as well as grand country houses and chic city hotels, all offering value for money in their price.range.