New edition

Bedside reading

The 2012 edition of the Guide will be published on October 3rd. It has nearly 900 entries, 455 hotels and B&Bs with a full entry, and 426 with a short entry. Roughly 10% from the previous edition have been omitted. As there are 50,000 hotels and B&Bs in the UK and Ireland, making this selection is not easy. It is achieved only thanks to the help of thousands of readers whose reports on their hotel visits have sustained the Guide since its first edition thirty-five years ago.

Readers’ reports are backed up, when needed, by an anonymous inspection. The inspectors, recruited from the ranks of long-term contributors, are anonymous and ask no favours. They do not get one of the best rooms as would a journalist on a freebie. The Guide pays pay the cost of a double room, dinner for two and a modest bottle of wine; they pay their own travel costs. What do they look for? We don’t ask them to run a finger along a picture frame, looking for dust; they concern themselves with intangibles of welcome and service, as well as quality of the cooking and the surroundings. We take each hotel at its own value, but among the things we dislike are captive coat-hangers, poor bedside lights, muzak, and charges for wifi.

Getting an entry in the Guide is difficult. Maintaining it year after year is even more difficult. Only four hotels have had an entry in every edition since we began publishing. The select ones are Rothay Manor, Lastingham Grange, Currarevagh House,and Ballymaloe, each still under the same family ownership.

Each year we award 10 Césars to outstanding hotels and B&Bs. This year, as in the past decade, the Sunday Times will exclusively preview, on the day before publication, what it describes as “the Oscars of the hotel industry”. The newspaper doesn’t always agree with us, but we have to respect its judgment. It spends thousands of pounds sending one of its top travel writers to spend a night anonymously at each of the César winners. Publicity such as this cannot be bought; it results from the Guide’s reputation for finding and promoting exceptional places to stay.

The César awards, named after the celebrated hotelier, César Ritz, began in 1984. Winners hold their award in perpetuity unless there is a drop of standards. Three hotels have held theirs ever since the beginning of the Guide: the family-friendly Porth Tocyn, Abersoch; Seatoller House, an unpretentious walkers' favourite at Borrowdale, and Ballymaloe, Shanagarry, the Irish country house hotel. Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons joined when it opened the following year. Other veteran César winners still in the Guide include St Tudno, (1987), Jeake’s House, the Lake, Llangammarch Wells, and Plas Bodegroes, Pwhelli (all in 1992)..

Adam Raphael

Special offers

Old favourites

Lastingham Grange, which is only one of only four hotels that have been in every edition of the Guide since it was first published in 1978 (see above), is offering an October break for £225 per night for dinner, bed and breakfast in a twin or double room.  A single room is £130 per night. This traditional hotel on the North Yorkshire moors, is run by Bertie Wood,  helped by his brother, Tom, and mother, Jane. The hotel is also offering a November three-night break for £540 for a double or twin-bedded room; a four-course dinner each night, and a traditional Yorkshire breakfast.

Currarevagh House, another long-time favourite of Guide readers, run by the Hodgson family, is promising the use of one of its clinker boats with a  picnic to explore some of the hundreds of deserted islands in Lough Corrib. This Swallows and Amazons adventure comes with an offer of two nights bed and breakfast, dinner on one night and afternoon tea each day for € 205 per person. If boating is not your sport, mention this on booking and they will substitute a bottle of wine.

The Cross at Kingussie in the Cairngorm National Park has a £105 dinner, bed and breakfast offer excluding Saturdays from now until the end of October.  The hands-on owners, David and Katie Young, promise comfortable accommodation, relaxed hospitality, great food, with a large selection of wine and whiskies. A converted tweed mill, it stands in large wooded riverside grounds with abundant wildlife. Most bedrooms are spacious; some have river views; tea-making facilities on request. Breakfast includes freshly squeezed juices, seasonal fruit salad, home-made bread and jams; the hot dish of the day might be French toast with cinnamon and maple syrup.

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 the Castle at Taunton. 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. It retains the César which it won in 1987.

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 new reports on hotels that have never been in the Guide or have been dropped. The winners of last month's prize: dinner, a free night and breakfast for two at the Gilpin Hotel are Harry and Annette Medcalf from Sutton Coldfield. This elegant Edwardian country house hotel is run as hands-on family affair by John and Christine Cunliffe with son Barney and his wife, Zoë. It has extensive grounds with terrace, pond, waterfall, croquet lawn and llama paddock.

Hotel Tales

Basil Fawlty

1. We booked at this hotel following glowing reports on TripAdvisor, and first impressions were good, Things started to go wrong when we were shown to our suite by a lady who apologised for the bird droppings on the door and windows. These droppings remained throughout our stay. The meals were disappointing. Many of the staff were inadequately trained. At dinner on our last evening, the owner asked if we had enjoyed our stay. We replied that we had a few issues and would like to discuss them with him next day. He was nowhere to be seen when we checked out, and though he had all our contact details he hasn’t been in touch to discover what we were unhappy about.

2. The breakfast room was not swept between Monday and Wednesday. There were napkins under the table, and bits of paper on the floor. I stumbled over a drawer knob while taking a seat, and the waitress remarked that they had been looking at for a while.

3. It describes itself as a country house hotel. That description conjures up a certain style and expectation that is not borne out here.   Both lounges lacked soul and our bedroom, though said to have been refurbished “recently”, was very tired. There were rather too many plastic-looking flower arrangements around the buildling.

4. On arrival we were confronted by a notice telling us to telephone for reception.  A female duly appeared but no greeting was made, just a barked, "follow me – this way", and we were brusquely taken to our room. When we asked for a cup of tea in the lounge (within the time limits given) she informed us that the staff were having a rest and we would have to wait. When we were served, she plonked down the tray without any eye contact or word.  And to crown it all, the tea was tepid and had to be sent back. The crockery was discoloured and sad.

BUY tHE gUIDE

The 2012 Guide

The 2012 print edition of the Good Hotel Guide to Great Britain and Ireland will be published on October 3rd. 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 new 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 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 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 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.