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 value for money hotels.
2020 Editor's Choice Value Hotels
Editor’s Choice Value Hotels
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.
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.
Jura Hotel
Craighouse
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 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.
2019 Editor's Choice Value Hotels
Editor’s Choice Value Hotels
The Black Swan - Three Nights for the Price of Two Special Offer
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 Value Hotels
The Black Swan - Three Nights for the Price of Two Special Offer
Kirkby Stephen
‘Our very special place, where we love to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the countryside,’ writes a reader this year, signing off with a smiley emoji.
Lake Isle
Uppingham
‘The real break we had hoped for.’ ‘We haven’t had a bad meal here in over 30 years.’ High praise from readers in 2019, suggesting this small restaurant-with-rooms was right to name itself after Yeats’s ode to tranquillity and relaxation.
Cnapan
Newport
‘Hospitality of the highest quality lies behind the front door of this outstanding B&B.’ A Guide inspector had ‘a most rewarding stay’ at this pink-washed, Grade II listed Georgian house.
The Ceilidh Place
Ullapool
‘As ever, very enjoyable, and three minutes from the ferry terminal.’ The Urquhart family’s ‘busy, buzzy' café/bar, bookshop, hotel and cultural hub hits all the right notes.
Thistleyhaugh Farm
Morpeth
‘A twisty road’ leads to this ‘beautiful’ Georgian farmhouse B&B in ‘a wonderful location’ on an organic livestock farm on the River Coquet.
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
You can tour the Edradour distillery in bustling Pitlochry – but why bother? Guests staying at Martin and Heather Walls’s ‘blissfully remote’ Georgian house can start the day with a nip of the whisky in their porridge, or sip a tot while relaxing with a book by the wood-burning stove.
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 Value Hotels
Cnapan
Newport
‘Hospitality of the highest quality lies behind the front door of this outstanding B&B.’ A Guide inspector had ‘a most rewarding stay’ at this pink-washed, Grade II listed Georgian house.
The Carpenters Arms
Pensford
Flower decked without, welcoming within, this ‘excellent’ village pub, contrived from three former miners’ cottages, is liked by readers flying out of nearby Bristol Airport.
The Old Rectory
Boscastle
‘A super place. The real deal.’ Praise from Guide insiders for Chris and Sally Searle’s B&B, in the rectory where Thomas Hardy courted Emma Gifford.
Sea Mist House
Clifden
Sheila Griffin is the innately welcoming hostess at this Georgian house near the foot of the Sky Road, ‘a gorgeous route around the coast and up the Wild Atlantic Way’.
Grasshoppers
Glasgow
Just a hop from Glasgow’s cultural attractions, with views across the glass roof of Central Station, Barrie Munn’s budget hotel occupies the penthouse floor of a 1905 office building.
Newbegin House
Beverley
A stay at the Georgian family home of Nuala and Walter Sweeney, he a former MP, is ‘memorable for all the right reasons’.
The Manor Coach House
Worcester
In a ‘unique and peaceful’ location, yet within easy reach of the town centre and Worcester cathedral, Chrissie Mitchell’s ‘spotless’ and ‘very reasonable’ B&B is ‘surrounded by delight’.
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 Value Hotels
The Black Swan - Three Nights for the Price of Two Special Offer
Kirkby Stephen
‘Our very special place, where we love to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the countryside,’ writes a reader this year, signing off with a smiley emoji.
Castleman - Midweek Special Offer
Blandford Forum
If you’re in search of ‘a comfortable and homely experience’, look no further than Barbara Garnsworthy’s former dower house in an ‘unspoilt’ estate village within the former royal hunting ground of Cranborne Chase.
The Nobody Inn
Exeter
Buried deep in the countryside, 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’.
The Old Store
Chichester
There are treats in store for guests behind the chequerboard facade of this B&B, in a ‘pretty’ South Downs village close to Chichester.
Thistleyhaugh Farm
Morpeth
‘A twisty road’ leads to this ‘beautiful’ Georgian farmhouse B&B in ‘a wonderful location’ on an organic livestock farm on the River Coquet.
Ael y Bryn
Crymych
‘From the moment we arrived, we knew this was special’; ‘the hospitality is outstanding’; ‘Robert and Arwel are perfect hosts’. Another year, another trove of praise for Robert Smith and Arwel Hughes’s ‘delightful 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’.
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.
