AA

Snap, crackle and stars

The minister for tourism, John Penrose, likes to claim that the government has no more reason to rate hotels than corn flakes. The hotel star rating system, he says, can safely be left to commercial interests.

But can it?  Hotels and their owners continue to bend my ear with complaints about how the AA operates its star rating scheme.  “Lost its way"…."lost its credibility"…"run for short term profit"..."it's simply a mafia ” are some of the more printable comments.

The fortunes of the AA and the way it runs its business are inextricably linked to its troubled financial history. In 1999 the AA was demutualised and bought by Centrica, the gas company, for £1.1 billion. In 2004, Centrica decided to sell the business for £1.75 billion to two private equity firms, CVC and Permira. Three years later, a holding company was created called Acromas which brought the AA together with Saga, the travel and insurance business. It has not been a happy union. Saddled with huge debt, it announced annual losses of £529 million last year forcing the AA to get rid of nearly a third of its staff.

Given this background, it is not surprising that the AA’s private equity owners are keen to maximise short term profits. They almost certainly want to get out as soon as they can. From the viewpoint of hoteliers, none of this is good news. Peter Hauser of Stock Hill House told me he had said goodbye to the AA after many years because it had lost all credibility. "I have no regard at all for them", he said. Under the new ownership, he said, hotels were just a number, a potential source of profit. Another hotelier, a veteran of the trade, who insisted on remaining anonymous, said he was spending nearly £1,200 annually with the AA for little or no return. “It is about time that hoteliers realised they are being ripped off by a public relations company owned by venture capitalists that cares little for the industry and brings it very little benefit.”

One area of particular concern is the way that the AA mixes consultancy offers with its rating schemes. Hotels are told that to achieve a certain star level, they need to spend money on an AA consultant. This clear conflict of interest has not only led to a loss of independence, it has made the job of being an AA inspector, whose numbers having been reduced by two thirds, even more difficult.  David Young, owner of The Cross at Kingussie, formerly chief inspector at the AA, says he has a lot of respect for his former colleagues but adds that they work under considerable pressures. “I believe the balance has gone too far in favour of consultancy”.

Star ratings, whether in Britain or Continental Europe, have obvious problems. But the idea that they will be swept away, as the minister imagines, by TripAdvisor and other social networking sites is almost certainly wrong. I believe that a trusted guidebook such as the GHG or Michelin is a much safer bet than either stars or Trip Advisor.. Am I partial? Yes, of course. But one can be self-interested and right. The tourism minister, meanwhile, has yet to grant me an audience. I look forward to putting him straight.

Adam Raphael

Special offers

Champagne package

A bottle of champagne and a box of chocolates are an excellent start to exploring the Yorkshire moors.

The White Swan at Pickering, a 16th- century coaching inn on the High Street of an old market town is offering a one-night Champagne Package for £285. Stay for two nights and the cost is £495. You get complimentary tea and coffee on arrival, a bottle of champagne in your room, with flowers and home-made chocolates. There is also a glass of champagne before dining in its candle-lit restaurant. The next morning, there is a full Yorkshire breakfast and daily newspaper.

Another North Yorkshire champagne package comes from Judges at Yarm, which is offering a “bubbly bygone package” for £210 per person to include champagne and chocolates in your room, two nights' accommodation, dinner, full English breakfast, and afternoon tea on one day. You can stay an additional night for £75 per person, which includes dinner and breakfast.

The Prince’s House in Glenfinnan, a traditional white-painted coaching inn which dates back to 1658, has a special two-night offer for £155 per person (standard room), £175 (superior room) or £195 (four poster room). The offer includes a three-course gourmet dinner and full Scottish breakfast each morning. Stay a third night and you will be given a bottle of champagne.

Excellent value at Rose in Vale, a Georgian manor at St Agnes on the North Cornwall coast. It has a special offer from only £85 per person for dinner, bed and breakfast. The offer is available until July 31st, and is based on two people sharing a double or twin room.

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 dinner and breakfast for two at the César-winning, Killiecrankie House, Perth and Kinross, our Scottish hotel of the year, owned and run by Henrietta Fergusson. A white dower house in 'enchanting' gardens, it stands at the entrance to the Pass of Killiecrankie. 'It was a joy to stay here' was the comment of a fellow Guide hotelier.

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. We welcome new reports on hotels that have never been in the Guide or have been dropped. The winner of last month's prize, dinner, a free night and breakfast for two at Farlam Hall is Mary Woods, Midhurst. An elegant Victorian house with ornamental lake, the hotel has been run with humour and style by the Quinion family for the past 35 years.

Hotel Tales

Basil Fawlty

1. 'We had the worst reception ever. Not a word of greeting but an immediate request for my credit card so they could charge the balance. The accommodation is not in the same building: I was taken to the corner of the street and pointed in the approximate direction. When I failed to find the rooms by car, I parked the car and looked on foot. I still failed to find the rooms, and saw no signs.  I walked back to the restaurant and demanded to be taken to our room. This was done with bad grace. Wouldn’t it have been simple to give me the name of the street and the house number? Our room was nice, but they need to give some attention to the stains on the carpet.'

2. 'The food was patchy; better on starters than main courses. The waiters can only be described as ‘quirky’. They did not possess the social niceties you would be expect from a Michelin-starred restaurant. Food arrived at the about the right pace but the delivery was rushed. The waiter would practically run to the table, place the plates, and rush off. Breakfast was OK but you wonder who they think they are catering for when the full English breakfast included baked beans, and the papers available were The Sun, The Mirror and The Mail but not The Times, Guardian or Telegraph. Also I don’t think many followers of the Good Hotel Guide would appreciate the local radio station being relayed to all areas at all times including dinner. At breakfast on our second day we asked for it to be turned down, which was done.'

3. 'We checked in to this self-styled ‘luxury’ hotel with expectations of five-star service. These were slightly dented when we had to ask twice for our luggage to be delivered to our room, twice for an extra chair. Drinks took an hour before they arrived in the room. The lighting can only be described as eccentric as was the shower, bits of which fell off in mid-performance. The coup de grace came when, having paid a bill of £350, we asked for our bags to be brought down. The factotum did this, but instead of taking them to our car, he dumped them at our feet in Reception, leaving us to cart them a hundred yards across the graveled car park.'

         

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.