It isn’t entirely true that you get what you pay for. From a city centre stay to cheap countryside B&Bs, these are the places where you really get your money’s worth. Manor houses with spacious bedrooms, morning greetings from resident chickens or cleverly designed compact rooms in the city. Here are the Good Hotel Guide’s Editor’s Choice selections for best budget hotels.
2021 Editor's Choice Value Hotels
Editor’s Choice Budget Hotels (formerly Value Hotels)
Cnapan
Newport
The Coopers settle you into their B&B with tea and Welsh cakes, before showing you to a bright and immaculate bedroom. Munch on kippers or Glamorgan sausages at breakfast, and read in the sunny garden.
Ees Wyke Country House
Ambleside
Beatrix Potter holidayed here, and no wonder. This country hotel overlooks Esthwaite Water, and most rooms enjoy views across the lake to the fells of the Old Man of Coniston, the Langdale Pikes and Grizedale Forest.
Mornington House
Multyfarnham
Enjoy the pleasures of a grand, family- owned Irish country manor house – enormous, high-ceilinged rooms, Victorian wallpapers, antiques, slouchy sofas,
flower-filled gardens – but without the eye-watering bill.
flower-filled gardens – but without the eye-watering bill.
Yalbury Cottage
Dorchester
Deep in Thomas Hardy country, this charming former shepherd’s cottage has cosy bedrooms with bucolic views, a garden with comfortable seating, and an excellent restaurant working wonders with West Country produce.
Britannia House
Lymington
Tobias Feilke is your genial host at this double-fronted Victorian house overlooking a marina. Rooms are lavishly decorated with swags, drapes and plump sofas, and Tobias cooks up a mean breakfast in the morning.
The Beckford Arms
Tisbury
There’s plenty to like about this Wiltshire pub-with-rooms: down-to-earth food (Ploughman’s, Beckford beef burger), local ales, and sophisticated rooms with oak floors and fine Welsh blankets.
Grasshoppers
Glasgow
The perfect city-centre bolt-hole – it’s right next to the station – with bright, design- conscious bedrooms. Big breakfasts include a full Scottish. There is a bar and the option of a simple meal in the evening.
Newbegin House
Beverley
Walter and Nuala Sweeney will welcome you like trusted regulars to their atmospheric Georgian house, with its shuttered sash windows, fine antique furniture, family heirlooms, books, paintings and walled garden.
Trereife
Penzance
This Cornish Queen Anne house delights Guide regulars. Charming, higgledy- piggledy interiors, with lots of antiques, are complemented by bedrooms with views of the parkland and gardens, and hearty breakfasts.
Riverwood
Pitlochry
This Arts and Crafts-style house with sleek, modern interiors (shoes off when you enter), is set in secluded gardens beside the River Tay. Rooms are spacious and well-equipped; four have patios or terraces.
2020 Editor's Choice Value Hotels
Editor’s Choice Budget Hotels (formerly Value Hotels)
Jura Hotel
Isle of Jura
You could pitch your tent in the field in front of the McCallum family’s hotel overlooking the Sound of Jura and pay as little as £5, but for £100 more you can have a snug double room, a comfy bed and your own bathroom. A bar meal won’t break the bank.
The Old Rectory
Boscastle
It’s the little things that mean so much at Sally and Chris Searle’s B&B – free laundry, a morning paper, fresh flowers and produce from the beautiful organic garden, eggs from the hens, a lift into Boscastle for dinner. Doubles from £75, single £60.
The Rock Inn
Newton Abbot
With double rooms from as little as £110, a small charge for an extra bed for a child, a three-course dinner for £24.95, and Dartmoor on the doorstep, the Graves family’s friendly inn offers bargain breaks at any time of year.
Thistleyhaugh Farm
Morpeth
If you could put a price on the warmth of welcome from Enid Nelless at this family- run Georgian farmhouse B&B, it would certainly be far higher than the £110 they charge for a double room (single £70).
Great breakfasts, home-made shortbread and hugs.
Great breakfasts, home-made shortbread and hugs.
Trelaske Hotel & Restaurant
Looe
Hazel Billington and Ross Lewin, hands- on hosts at this small hotel, have priced their rooms to be affordable; eschewing the word ‘luxury’, they offer a delightful home-from-home. Doubles start at £110 – and, at £30–£35, dinner is value indeed.
Newbegin House
Beverley
Georgian elegance, a walled garden, rooms filled with antiques, generous extras (fresh milk, biscuits, chocolate), and an award- winning breakfast are all yours at Nuala and Walter Sweeney’s lovely home for a modest £90–£100 (single £60).
No. 33
Hunstanton
B&B starts at £95 a room (add £10 for an infant’s bed, deduct £10 if staying solo) at Jeanne Whittome’s stylish seaside B&B. A cream tea is served on arrival, and guests are presented with a discount voucher to spend at the owner’s deli.
The Roseleigh
Buxton
In a lovely situation overlooking the Pavilion Gardens lake, Gerard and Maggi Heelan’s Victorian B&B is a veritable snip. Traditionally furnished rooms cost
£35–£56 per person. The opera house is nearby. Readers sing the praises.
£35–£56 per person. The opera house is nearby. Readers sing the praises.
The Old Vicarage
Newtown
Double rooms at Helen and Tim Withers’s eco-friendly Victorian vicarage in the Cambrian mountains start at £95 (£70 for a single guest). A family can stay for
£150, and an imaginative mezze platter is just £12. The warm hospitality is free.
£150, and an imaginative mezze platter is just £12. The warm hospitality is free.
Brownber Hall
Kirkby Stephen
When Amanda and Peter Jaques-Walker left London in 2016 to take over this Dales country house, they clearly left behind London notions of pricing. With singles from £70, doubles from £100, they run this smart B&B in a spirit of real generosity.
2019 Editor's Choice Value Hotels
Editor’s Choice Budget Hotels (formerly Value Hotels)
The Black Swan
Kirkby Stephen
Double rooms start from £95 at Louise Dinnes’s Victorian pub-with-rooms in an Eden Valley conservation village. It’s ideal for fell walkers and ramblers, with a comfy lounge and superior pub food; fish and chips for £12.
Aynsome Manor
Grange-over-Sands
Hosts Chris and Andrea Varley’s take great care of guests at their Lake District manor house. Comfortable rooms start at under £100, and at night the daily changing menu of locally sourced fare costs from £23.95.
The Ceilidh Place
Ullapool
A night in the bunkhouse, fish and chips in the café and a glass of Chilean Sauvignon will set you back £42.15 at Jean Urquhart’s fun music venue and bookshop-with-rooms. A good bedroom won’t break the bank either.
Thistleyhaugh Farm
Morpeth
An ideal base for exploring the Northumberland coast, the Nelless family’s Georgian farmhouse B&B sits amid their organic livestock farm. Doubles cost £100, singles from £70, including a hearty breakfast (Craster kippers, local sausages, free-range eggs).
Dolffanog Fawr
Tywyn
There are views of lake and mountain from Alex Yorke and Lorraine Hinkins’s Snowdonia B&B. Rooms (from £90 single, £110 double) are supplied with smart toiletries. Breakfast, and a four-course dinner four nights a week, win plaudits.
No. 33
Hunstanton
Guests arriving at Jeanne Whittome’s stylish B&B are offered afternoon tea and a discount voucher for sister business Thornham Deli, which supplies breakfast bagels, smoked salmon and cream cheese. Doubles priced from £95, £85 for single occupancy.
Killiane Castle Country House and Farm
Drinagh
A 17th-century farmhouse grafted on to a 15th-century castle, in lovely grounds, is run by the Mernagh family as a wonderful guest house. Newcomers are welcomed with home-baked biscuits. Doubles start at just €120; breakfasts are a treat.
The Old Rectory at Stewton
LOUTH
Linda and Alan Palmer are perfect hosts at their Georgian-style Victorian B&B swaddled by lawns and mature trees. Rooms start at £50 for single occupancy, doubles from £75. A generous breakfast is served ‘within reason, as late as you like’.
Trereife
Penzance
The Le Grice family’s ancestral home in parkland is filled with antiques and portraits but the atmosphere is welcoming. Each bedroom is named after a romantic poet; a double can be had for a mere £80.
Brooks Country House
Ross-on-Wye
Doubles at £59, a four-poster room from £99, a three-course dinner for £29… Gracious country house living is nowhere more affordable and fun than at Carla and Andrew Brooks’s welcoming Georgian mansion. All this and wines from the vineyard.
2018 Editor's Choice Value Hotels
Editor’s Choice Budget Hotels (formerly Value Hotels)
The Black Swan
Kirkby Stephen
In this small conservation village, with views to the Howgill fells, this large country pub is as much a locals’ favourite as an inn with smart food and bedrooms.
Lake Isle
Uppingham
Satisfied diners have been coming for years to this restaurant-with-rooms in the heart of the pretty market town.
Cnapan
Newport
‘How could a simple family home on a narrow, bustling high street possibly work as a popular guest house? Step inside Cnapan and you quickly find out.
The Ceilidh Place
Ullapool
With bookshop and bar, coffee shop, restaurant and events space, the Urquhart family’s hotel in a fishing village on Loch Broom hums with activity.
Thistleyhaugh Farm
Morpeth
Sadly we have just heard that this fine example of a traditional farmhouse B&B: huge and comfortable bedrooms and generous hospitality has closed its doors and is no longer welcoming guests.
Trelaske Hotel & Restaurant
Looe
‘We have stayed at this hotel for many years; it is still brilliant.’ High praise in 2019 for Hazel Billington and Ross Lewin’s ‘small, beautiful’ hotel, between the historic fishing ports of Looe and Polperro.
Dalshian House
Pitlochry
Martin and Heather Walls’s ‘blissfully remote’, good-value B&B is in a white-painted Georgian house, in gardens and woodland on the outskirts of town.
Frog Street Farmhouse
HATCH BEAUCHAMP
‘Such a peaceful, quiet place to stay. The log fire was lit ready for our arrival.’ A new endorsement this year for ‘perfect hosts’ David and Louise Farrance’s wisteria-festooned B&B.
The Nag’s Head
PICKHILL
Janet and Edward Boynton’s 19th-century coaching inn between moors and dales is roundly endorsed by Guide readers, who praise its ‘hospitable, interesting owners’, ‘enjoyable dinners’, ‘relaxing atmosphere’ and ‘excellent value’.
Inch House
THURLES
‘Warm and charming in its small-scale grandeur’, the Egan family’s Georgian mansion sits amid a cereals farm in Tipperary countryside.
2017 Editors Choice Value
Editor’s Choice Budget Hotels (formerly Value Hotels)
Cnapan
Newport
‘How could a simple family home on a narrow, bustling high street possibly work as a popular guest house? Step inside Cnapan and you quickly find out.
The Carpenters Arms
Pensford
A dazzling array of hanging baskets bedecks this friendly pub-with-rooms, occupying three former miners’ cottages in a Chew valley hamlet.
The Old Rectory
Boscastle
The old rector was none other than the great-grandfather of Sally Searle, who, with husband Chris, welcomes guests to their loved and lived-in Victorian home.
Sea Mist House
Clifden
Just off the scenic Connemara Loop, this B&B has been in the same family for three generations, giving it a rich, lived-in patina and making guests feel it is ‘like staying with friends’.
Grasshoppers
Glasgow
A recent guest describes this modern, style-conscious and budget-friendly penthouse hotel, next to Glasgow Central Station, as a ‘great find’.
Newbegin House
Beverley
In a ‘wonderful’ walled garden, yet just minutes from the centre of Beverley, this classic Georgian town house is brimful of family treasures accumulated by owners Walter and Nuala Sweeney, who ‘treat their guests as friends’.
The Manor Coach House
Worcester
Within easy reach of the city centre and Worcester cathedral, this ‘spotless’ B&B is in a ‘peaceful’ rural hamlet, just right for ‘a good night’s sleep’.
Bealach House
DUROR
Along a rough track ‘with not a sign of habitation’, Jim and Hilary McFadyen have posted encouraging notices (‘You’re on the right road!’) to arriving guests. ‘You wonder if there’s anything at the end; what you find is a lovely white house in a very pretty garden,’ say Guide inspectors in 2016.
Eight Clarendon Crescent
LEAMINGTON SPA
‘Lively hosts’ Christine and David Lawson ‘delight in sharing their space’, a ‘peaceful’ Regency villa near the town centre.
The Silverton
SHREWSBURY
Just over the Welsh Bridge from the historic town centre, David Cheshire and Donna Miles’s ‘excellent-value’ restaurant-with-rooms is liked for its ‘great, friendly service’ and ‘modern, almost minimalist’ rooms.
2016 Editor's Choice Value Hotels
Editor’s Choice Budget Hotels (formerly Value Hotels)
The Black Swan
Kirkby Stephen
In this small conservation village, with views to the Howgill fells, this large country pub is as much a locals’ favourite as an inn with smart food and bedrooms.
The Nobody Inn
Exeter
Down narrow, winding country lanes, Sue Burdge’s inn is so much the model of an olde-worlde Devon pub that it ‘could have been created by a set designer’.
Castleman
Blandford Forum
Change is afoot at this former dower house, which opened as a hotel in 1996 under Barbara Garnsworthy, in an estate village of thatched limestone cottages amid the rolling chalk downs of Cranborne Chase.
The Old Store
Chichester
It may have lost its old store, but a pretty village on Goodwood’s doorstep has an excellent B&B instead.
Thistleyhaugh Farm
Morpeth
Sadly we have just heard that this fine example of a traditional farmhouse B&B: huge and comfortable bedrooms and generous hospitality has closed its doors and is no longer welcoming guests.
Ael y Bryn
Crymych
Year after year we receive rave reviews from readers extolling both house and hosts at Robert Smith and Arwel Hughes’s modern, single-storey B&B with beautifully tended gardens, gazing out to the Preseli hills.
The Nag’s Head
PICKHILL
Janet and Edward Boynton’s 19th-century coaching inn between moors and dales is roundly endorsed by Guide readers, who praise its ‘hospitable, interesting owners’, ‘enjoyable dinners’, ‘relaxing atmosphere’ and ‘excellent value’.
The Abbey House
ABBOTSBURY
In a ‘glorious position’ on the fringes of a historic coastal Dorset village, this traditional B&B has long been run by the ‘most welcoming’ Jonathan and Maureen Cooke.
