Von Essen

A colourful enigma

Andrew Davis, the owner of Von Essen hotels, is an interesting character. Over the past decade he has persuaded Lloyds and other banks,to lend him hundreds of millions of pounds. This has allowed him to snap up many of the finest country house hotels in Britain, among them Cliveden, Amberley Castle and Sharrow Bay. He continues to look for more luxury hotels to add to his collection, including Inverlochy Castle and the European division of Orient-Express.

Mr Davis may be an avid collector of new hotels, but he appears to be less keen on paying some of his suppliers. Bishopstrow House, part of Von Essen’s country house collection, was blockaded by a builder's van following a row over £40,000 of unpaid bills. The director of Roots Landscaping, John Marshall, who ordered the blockade, said it was a last resort to secure payment. The tactic worked. Twenty-four hours later the bill was paid in full.

Charles Steevenson, a wine merchant in Tavistock, took a simpler course when he became angry at "the slow and reluctant paynment" of his bills. He refused to continue to supply Llewtrenchard Manor, another Von Essen hotel. “A potential order of £4,000 every month is a big one for us but I wanted to be able to sleep at night,.” he told me. Some years ago, there were a handful of county court judgments against Von Essen hotels which were explained to be a result of the group’s rapid expansion. But administrative problems appear not to have gone away.

Mr Davis may be a clever businessman, but I have never thought of him as a born hotelier. He arrived one day in his personal helicopter over one of his country house hotels, and radioed that he and his guests intended to land on the lawn and have lunch. That put the hotel manager in a panic. He rang Premiair, Mr Davis's helicopter company, to say that a wedding party was engaged in clay pigeon shooting on the lawn, and that it had hired the hotel exclusively for the day. A terse reply came back from the helicopter: “Tell them to move or I’ll fucking land on them and throw them out of my hotel.”  The shooting party was moved off the lawn to its disgruntlement amid much protest. No doubt, I am old fashioned but I thought the definition of a good hotel was where the guest comes first.

Adam Raphael

Special offers

Spring in the Lakes

Swinside Lodge in Cumbria, a five-minute stroll from Derwentwater, is offering a spring walking break from £108 per person per night. This includes a four-course dinner preceded by the chef’s canapés, full Cumbrian breakfast and a complimentary pair of walking poles, a book of guided walks around Keswick and a hearty picnic lunch each day. Stay five nights and the hotel will throw in a copy of Wainrights walking book and a bottle of champagne.

Glenfinnan House, a handsome Victorian mansion, just across the water from where Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his standard, is offering a three-night stay from £45.00 per person per night including bed and full Scottish breakfast during March and April (Friday and Saturday nights excluded). It also offers a spring break in the Highlands which includes three nights bed and full Scottish breakfast, packed lunches for two days, survey map of the area and homemade shortbread on arrival. Rates start at £370 based on two people sharing"

Another bargain is on offer from the Redesdale Arms in Moreton-in-Marsh for mid-week bookings. Dinner, bed and breakfast starts at just £99 per night and includes a three-course a la carte dinner. The offer is based on two people sharing, and is valid Sunday to Friday until the end of March.

Have dinner for two at Langshott Manor’s Mulberry Restaurant, and the hotel, close to Gatwick Airport, will reduce the room charge by half. Rooms with breakfast including the discount start at £115.

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)

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How about a totally free night, dinner and breakfast for two at one of the Guide’s smartest hotels?  A night in a beautiful  room with dinner and breakfast for two. Is being offered by Lime Wood, a Regency Manor house in the New Forest which has recently had a £30 million make-over complete with spa.

All you have to do to win this luxurious prize is to submit a review which catches the eye of our editorial team for its wit and insight. The winners of last month's prize, a free night, dinner and breakfast at Combe House in Devon are Richard and Sheila Owen from Hertfordshire..

Hotel Tales

Basil Fawlty

1. 'There were only five clothes hangers in the squeaky- doored wardrobe, so we had to ask for more. The loo seat in the shower room was loose, and the shower was incredibly complicated to work. Throughout the hotel, the paintwork had large chips going back to bare wood. At breakfast we had to ask twice for several things, and once to be served at all. Apparently it ‘was the chef’s fault because he was Polish and could only manage one thing at a time’. During a three-night stay the dinner menu did not change, and it was very limited. Our room was large and attractively furnished, but was over the kitchen area. An extractor fan was switched off in the late evening but other noise from hotel equipment kept my wife away for most of the night: without my hearing aid, I slept.'

2. 'The staff are delightful but do not listen to their guests. The hotel is full of other people’s ‘wedding albums’ and overpriced wedding packages are pushed to the hilt at the expense of the bread-and-butter guests. When we arrived, the bedroom key was missing and we were given a spare. I found a dirty pair of knickers stuffed behind a cushion in our room but was too embarrassed to mention it. My husband did, when we checked out, and the responds was: " will mention it to housekeeping." And they seem to think that piped music is acceptable, and will not turn it down if you request this.'

3. 'Last Friday I had a meeting with a colleague in a hotel bar. At 11 in the morning we were the only customers. We asked for the background music to be turned down and were told that it was at its lowest setting. It was more than the lady’s job was worth to turn it off. Management insisted it be played so that people wouldn’t hear others’ conversations.'
   
   
4. 'The room that was allocated to us was obviously in the middle of a refurbishment programme. There was carpet missing from the floor. Shelving had been removed. Differing patches of wallpaper had been left on the walls and there was no headboard to the bed. Piles of rubbish were jumped around the back. When we complained, the manager looked at us as though she could not understand what the problem was. We were moved to the hotel next door which was not much better.'
   
   

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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.