The word ‘boutique’ often gets overused when it comes to hotels, but with a mix of opulence and fashionable design, contemporary gadgetry and history these boutique hotels are a joy to behold. There’s always something to catch your eye in these magic places, from the art to the bespoke furniture. Here are the Good Hotel Guide’s Editor’s Choice selections for best boutique hotels.
2018 Editor's Choice Boutique Hotels
Editor’s Choice Boutique Hotels
No. 1 Pery Square - Two Night 'Hike & Spa' Special Offer
Limerick
The town house hotel, overlooking Limerick’s People’s Park, packs a lot into its Georgian rooms, from a spa and swish restaurant to a choice of period and chic bedrooms.
The Queensberry
Bath
Spread across four honey-stone town houses, this characterful hotel with fine-dining restaurant, themed around the pugilist 9th Marquess of Queensberry, really punches above its weight.
Prestonfield
Edinburgh
‘Neatness and sweetness all around, These at Prestonfield are found’, wrote Benjamin Franklin, after a stay at this 17th-century mansion in parkland under Arthur’s Seat. ‘This hotel was wonderful,’ a trusted reader waxes no less lyrical.
Drakes
Brighton
Two bow-fronted Regency town houses with views of the iconic Palace Pier are home to a boutique hotel that counts Cate Blanchett and Kylie among past guests
Number Thirty Eight Clifton
Bristol
From its high vantage, Adam Dorrien Smith's bay-fronted Georgian town house and boutique B&B has fabulous contrasting views, with Durdham Down parkland to the fore and the roofscape of Bristol behind.
Chapel House
Penzance
Susan Stuart’s welcoming Georgian town house B&B is so beautiful, it might grace the pages of an interiors magazine.
Brocco on the Park
Sheffield
This Edwardian suburban villa, on the Peak District side of the city, surprises with Scandi-chic rooms, a buzzing restaurant and relaxed vibe.
Bank House
King's Lynn
Well placed for visiting the market town, this ‘distinguished’ Georgian bank-turned-town hotel is in a ‘fine waterfront setting’ within strolling distance, along cobbled streets, of historical buildings and handsome squares.
The Zetter Townhouse Clerkenwell
London
Just across the cobbled square from the mothership (previous entry), in an area described by George Gissing in the 1880s as one of ‘abortive streets, of shadowed alleys’, today as hip as you please, a pair of Georgian town houses have been reinvented as a one-off small hotel.
2 Blackburne Terrace
Liverpool
For a bit of cool culture, look no further than Sarah and Glenn Whitter’s chic B&B, in a Georgian town house on a tree-lined carriage drive.
2017 Editor's Choice Boutique Hotels
Editor’s Choice Boutique Hotels
The Queensberry
Bath
Spread across four honey-stone town houses, this characterful hotel with fine-dining restaurant, themed around the pugilist 9th Marquess of Queensberry, really punches above its weight.
The Rookery
London
Everything feels so true to the past at this Georgian property that you half expect Dr Johnson to arrive in a chaise from his house, through the alleys of the City.
Number Thirty Eight Clifton
Bristol
From its high vantage, Adam Dorrien Smith's bay-fronted Georgian town house and boutique B&B has fabulous contrasting views, with Durdham Down parkland to the fore and the roofscape of Bristol behind.
Artist Residence Brighton
Brighton
You are invited to imagine you are visiting a friend’s house when you drop into Charlotte and Justin Salisbury’s bohemian seafront hotel and social hub – albeit a friend with outré tastes in art.
Old Parsonage Hotel
Oxford
Beyond the sturdy oak door of this handsome 17th-century stone dwelling, Jeremy Mogford’s country-house-in-the-city hotel has a more bookish, bohemian, clubby feel than its sister enterprise.
38 St Giles
Norwich
‘Well placed’ for city exploration, this luxury B&B, in a grand 18th-century house, is within walking distance of the Theatre Royale and the central marketplace.
Kings Head Hotel
Cirencester
A man walks into a bar – not the cue for a joke, but a Guide inspector, incognito, to check out this historic coaching inn which has a comedy club in the cellar.
Edgar House
Chester
On the Roman city walls, overlooking the River Dee, this handsome boutique hotel is ‘very well run’ by owners Michael Stephen and Tim Mills.
The Zetter Townhouse Marylebone
London
The absurdist wit and whimsy of the Victorian poet and painter Edward Lear coupled with an imaginary wicked Uncle Seymour inspired the whacky design of these two brick-and-stucco Georgian terrace houses.
Sands Hotel
Margate
A short seafront stroll from the Turner Contemporary gallery, Nick Conington’s ‘smart’, modern hotel is a welcome part of Margate’s renaissance.
2016 Editor's Choice Boutique Hotels
Editor’s Choice Boutique Hotels
Hart’s Hotel
Nottingham
With its light footprint, floor-to-ceiling windows and stainless steel roof, this sustainably built hotel on the castle ramparts chimes with Nottingham’s ambition to be the UK’s first carbon-neutral city.
The Levin
London
The show-stopper at this small hotel is Sharon Marston’s April Light, an 18-metre cascade of polished steel, polymer and glass fibre optics, which hangs in the central stairwell, scattering colours and light.
Old Bank Hotel
Oxford
Oxford alumni get a discount on rooms from Sunday to Thursday at Jeremy Mogford’s smart hotel on the ‘High’, opposite the university church of St Mary’s and the Bodleian Library.
The Zetter
London
In a once run-down neighbourhood of clockmakers and communists, now a hive of creativity, the former home of the Zetters football pools company was reborn in 2004 as a cool, child-friendly, eco-friendly hotel.
Jesmond Dene House
Newcastle upon Tyne
A city hotel with country house style, Jesmond Dene House is a peaceful retreat beside a lush wooded valley, yet only a 10-minute drive from Newcastle centre.
The Grazing Goat
London
The chain stores of Oxford Street are so near and yet (praise be!) so far from this gastropub with a pavement terrace for outdoor drinking and dining.
The Zetter Townhouse Clerkenwell
London
Just across the cobbled square from the mothership (previous entry), in an area described by George Gissing in the 1880s as one of ‘abortive streets, of shadowed alleys’, today as hip as you please, a pair of Georgian town houses have been reinvented as a one-off small hotel.