Travel journalism

No need to bribe or twist...

Most readers have no idea that when they read a hotel review in a newspaper that the journalist who wrote the piece will not have paid a penny. The bill for the room, meals, drinks, and often the travel, will be picked up by the hotel.

I have nothing against lubricating the wheels and the throats of the media. I once wrote an article for Punch titled “Confessions of a motoring correspondent”. This listed all the bribes I had been offered and had regrettably accepted on the dubious ground that bribing the Guardian's motoring was an absurd proposition. 

I was promptly summoned by my Scottish editor, who told me through gritted teeth that the paper had a house rule that you could accept gifts only if they could be consumed within 24 hours. As sets of tyres, tape recorders, etc, did not fall within this grace period, that was the end of my days as a motoring hack.

I would therefore accept (before Private Eye points out) that my hands are not entirely clean. But what I do find worrying is how much of what is written about hotels these days is inspired and financed by PR companies. Readers need to read such stuff with more than a pinch of salt. So should the banks which have lost millions lending to dodgy groups (see the Von Essen article below).

This issue is rarely discussed by the media. But Liz Jones in the Daily Mail wrote recently: ‘Never mind about phone hacking, you need to know about travel journalism. All the holidays are freebies, and so the journalist dare not publish a word of dissent.”  This provoked Sally Shalam of the Guardian to write: ‘The great thing about travel writing for a British publication is that we pay for nothing and write what we want.’

Would that were true of all hotel reviewers. Some of the stuff I read makes me wince. Giles Coren in The Times was more accurate about the prevailing culture when he wrote: ‘I never take a freebie from a restaurant, though I have from the odd hotel, because that seems to be how travel writing rolls.’ As newspapers have become impoverished, they claim that they can no longer afford to pay their own way. But how many of their readers know this?

An exception to this freebie culture is the Sunday Times which next Sunday (October 9th) will publish a review of the Guide's latest César award winners. The paper paid the expenses of its travel journalist to stay anonymously at all ten César award winning hotels ( a very expensive exercise) to see if he agrees with our judgments. It certainly keeps us on our toes. More important, it shows that there is much to be said for working for a successful and profitable newspaper.

Adam Raphael

Special offers

Old favourites

This Autumn brings some great deals fromf our selected GHG hotels. The Hambrough at Ventnor, chef/patron Robert Thompson's 'excellent' restaurant-with-rooms, in a cliff-top three-storey Victorian villa on the sheltered side of the Isle of Wight, offers two nights for the price of one. The only condition is that you dine in his Michelin-starred restaurant each evening. That’s no hardship as Mr Thompson is a master chef and there are full à la carte and tasting menus available. Dishes such as steamed fillet of sea bream, pan-roasted Cornish turbot cooked on the bone, and roasted tenderloin of veal have been widely praised. Six of the seven bedrooms have sea views.
                                            
The Black Swan at Ravenstonedale is offering a 25% reduction for all mid-week Autumn stays of two nights or more. From December to February, it has a two nights for the price of one offer. The dinner is taken each night from the table d’hôte menu. It also has a Christmas offer throughout December with £50 dinner bed and breakfast based on two people sharing in a standard or superior room.

The Three Choirs Vineyard at Newent, Gloucestershire, has a 20% discount on all its rates from November 1st until March 31st. This restaurant-with-rooms, sheltered by the Malvern Hills and the Brecon Beacons, has its own micro-climate. This has helped it become one of the largest (and award-winning) vineyards in Britain. It serves modern British food.

Another restaurant-with-rooms, Little Barwick House, an early 19th-century dower house in lovely countryside, is offering a two-night weekend break for two for £400 including afternoon tea, dinner, and breakfast. There are many National Trust houses, gardens and places of interest to visit including the historic town of Sherborne. The Jurassic Dorset coast lies within easy reach if you feel like a bracing sea walk.

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's dinner and breakfast for two at Swinton Park. Featuring on this year’s cover of the Guide, this 19th century Gothic Castle near Ripon, has fine landscaped grounds and elegant rooms. The semi-circular drawing room has huge sofas, newspapers and magazines. Children are welcomed. It won a César award last year as Family Hotel of the Year.

All you have to do to win this splendid prize is submit a review which catches the eye of our editorial team for its wit and insight. 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 winners of last month's prize: dinner, a free night and breakfast for two at the Castle at Taunton is Trevor Lockwood from Helston. A West Country institution, this wisteria-covered, castellated hotel, once a Norman fortress, and an inn since the 12th century, has been in the Chapman family's hands for more than 60 years.

Hotel Tales

Basil Fawlty

1. The bedroom and bathroom had recently been refurbished but the design was poor. The basin was too close to the door, the shaving light shone straight into the eyes of a six-foot shaver who had to do a considerable knees-bend to use the mirror, while a five-foot-nine wife could not fit under the shower head. An overhead light bulb was found on arrival not to be working, and was still not working three days later. In the bedroom ceiling there was a hole with leads but no fitting, whilst on the main staircase the wall fittings were joined by a series of external leads. One of the staff said there was a problem getting an electrician.
   
   
2. We have stayed on a number of occasions and had dinner. On this occasion, the set menu was very restricted, with two main dishes - a rather ordinary fish dish and pot au feu presumably using offside from previous dishes. So the large number of alternative starters, mains and pudding is almost inevitably brought into play which presumably is the intention.  The prices of some of these alternatives are substantial . Scallops (8 tiny circles cut out of the scallop) as a starter £11.95,  main courses turbot £24.50 and beef filet £29.90. Puddings £9.The quality of the food is quite good but at these prices the set menu was poor value and the extra charges too high.
   
   
3. There was no one person in charge. We understand there is an owner and a manager but I have no idea if we met either of these people.  We saw a number of female staff who doubled as waitresses and receptionists.  When we paid our bill prior to departure a gentleman whom we had never seen before asked us who we were – he didn’t identify himself either. A pity really to be so impersonal.

    

BUY tHE gUIDE

The 2012 Guide

The 2012 print edition of the Good Hotel Guide to Great Britain and Ireland is now available. It makes a great Christmas 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 Good Hotel Guide gift voucher scheme is an ideal birthday or wedding present. You can give a gift of any monetary value from £50-£500. For more details, write to: 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 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.