Hotel awards

Gulling the gullible

Everyone loves a prize so it is no surprise that hotel awards are ripe to be exploited. Most of these so-called prize ceremonies are marketing exercises designed to enrich their sponsor. Why any hotelier, however desperate for recognition, falls for these bogus events beats me.

The latest wheeze comes from a company, called Open Eye, which has sent an email to a number of British hotels telling them they are on a shortlist for the UK Hotels Award ceremony to be held at Central Hall, Westminster on June 14th, 2012. 'These key awards represent the pinnacle of performance', it boasts. 'They are the only business-oriented awards in the UK hotel sector.' It goes on to claim that over 900 entries have been received and that an additional 220 nominations have been made by third parties. 'After a thousand hours of research and evaluation', guess what?  'We are considering making one of the pinnacle awards to yourself but before doing so, need to know if you are willing to participate in contributing to the gravitas of the day.' Finally, the sting: 'We will ask you to make a contribution of £496 towards the event.'

If you telephone Open Eye, you get a message saying that all its operators are busy. Strangely, they always are. Eventually I reached the company’s secretary and asked why there was no booking at Central Hall for the prize ceremony. I did not get much of an answer, but she did tell me that the judge of the awards was Bevin Crowley of 9am GM News, described as the editor of two hotel journals, and 'the most widely travelled observer on the world stage'. Perhaps he was on his travels but I could not trace either Mr Crowley or 9am GM News.

Since 1984, the Good Hotel Guide has also staged an annual award ceremony in which ten Césars (named after a famous Swiss hotelier) are given to hotels and B&Bs which are outstanding in their particular category. The awards are based on detailed research. No money passes hands. There is no shortlist. The Sunday Times has reviewed our selections for the past 10 years.

How do we select our Césars? The process begins with reports from readers whose judgment we trust. If a hotel or B&B starts to attract exceptionally good reviews, we send an inspector to stay anonymously for a night at our expense to see if the hotel or B&B is a candidate for an award. Winning a Césa, described as the Oscars of the hotel industry, is difficult, sustaining it over the years no less so. Hotels keep their César so long as they remain in the same ownership and maintain their original quality. As always, the crucial test remains that set by our founding editor, Hilary Rubinstein, thirty five years ago: ‘A good hotel is where the guest comes first.’

Adam Raphael

Special offers

New Year deals

Times may be tough but there are some excellent deals on offer from GHG hotels in the New Year.

THE SUN INN at Dedham is celebrating the opening of two new guest rooms with a 15% discount for a stay of two nights or more which includes a bar lunch or tea.

HOLBECK GHYLL near Windermere is offering a third night dinner bed and breakfast at a 50% discount. All you have to do is to book two night’s accommodation including a Michelin-star dinner, and you get half off the third night.

THE KENNARD in Bath has a special three-for-two-nights January mid-week offer. Stay three nights between Sunday and Thursday in January, and you get the third night free.

LANGSHOTT MANOR, near Gatwick, has a 'dapper dining' special offer until Feb 13th, which includes dinner to the value of £30, a luxurious bedroom and breakfast from £89 per person.

LINTHWAITE HOUSE in Cumbria has a January sale offering a 50% reduction. Dinner bed and breakfast from £82.50 per person per night. The offer is available until Feb 23rd, but excludes Feb 10th, 11th and 14th.

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 us a Review

Win a free night!

This month's prize is a free night's dinner, bed and breakfast for two at the BEECH HOUSE AND OLIVE BRANCH at Clipsham which won a César award this year as the 'Restaurant-with-Rooms of the year'. 'Superb meals' are served in the restaurant, a series of linked rooms with stained beams, warm terracotta walls, log fires. 'Ben Jones, the considerate manager, takes orders and supervises the knowledgeable young staff.' Sean Hope has a Michelin star for his modern cooking.

All you have to do to win this handsome prize is submit a review which catches the eye of our editorial team. We welcome reports on hotels that have never been in the Guide or have been dropped as well as those that have a current entry. The winner of last month's prize: a free night and breakfast for two at THE HORSE AND GROOM, Bourton-on-the-Water are Jill and Mike Bennett from St Albans. This year's César award-winner as Pub with rooms of the year, it was praised by the Guide’s inspectors for its pleasantly informal feel, excellent food and hands-on owner/managers.

GHG's post bag

Captivating the punters

From Hugh Macdonald, Viewfield
To GHG

'Captive coat hangers are a necessary evil if one is to maintain a grading with the Scottish tourist Board. The cost of replacing the assorted wire and plastic coat hangers that appear almost on a daily basis is immaterial but the management time and staff cost of ensuring that there are a minimum of four decent quality coat hangers per person present each day in every room is considerable.  It is not a question of “treating guests as thieves” but a question of daily logistics.  It is quite astonishing how quickly you end up with an assortment of cheap hangers that probably came from the dry cleaner, invariably the worst selection is there when the tourist board inspector appears.  I could not care less what type of hangers are in the cupboard but VisitScotland is not so easy to please and they recommend and practically insist that you have captive coat hangers. I used to buy 5 or 6 dozen coat hangers every year before we put the horrid captive ones in, but my goodness the captive ones do work.'

From GHG
To Hugh Macdonald

'The AA and the Scottish Tourist Board need, in my view, to be brought kicking and screaming into the 21st century.  To insist on captive coat hangers which annoy many people, particularly the elderly with poor eyesight, is folly. I take your point that captive coat hangers are more convenient for the hotelier, but I think you have to balance that advantage against the irritation they cause. As always, the GHG is on the side of the guests.'

From Hugh Macdonald
To GHG

'Elderly with poor eyesight is a good point. I will review my practice re hangers and see what answer “VisitScotland” is able to give to the idea of discrimination against the elderly and the partially sighted.'

BUY tHE gUIDE

The 2012 Guide

The 2012 print edition of the Good Hotel Guide to Great Britain and Ireland is a great buy. Discount vouchers worth a total of £150 are included in 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. To buy it, CLICK HERE or email: editor@goodhotelguide.com or write to: The Good Hotel Guide, 50 Addison Avenue, London W11 4QP.

A Good Hotel Guide gift voucher makes an ideal birthday or wedding present. You can give a gift certificate of any monetary value from £50-£500. For more details, email: editor@goodhotelguide.com.

The GHG iPhone app is available from Apple's iTune store. It costs £2.99 ($4.99). An E-book version of the Guide is available on Kindle priced at £8 ($13).

The Good Hotel Guide, founded 34 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 33 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/Irish 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.