‘Comfortable, pretty and very English’, the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire’s smart hotel on the Chatsworth Estate delighted readers this year.

'I find it difficult to make any original comments,’ writes a Guide regular after this year’s visit to Tim and Stefa Hart’s much-loved hotel (Relais & Châteaux) with celebrated grounds reaching down to Rutland Water. ‘All the superlatives have been used by other guests.'

A ‘wonderful hotel’ with that ‘special feel’ of family ownership, Sue and James Murray’s manor house delights with its 'history, beauty and style’.

‘We enjoyed our very expensive one-night stay,’ writes a reader who pushed the boat out at Jeremy Goring’s grand Edwardian hotel, the last of its kind in London to be run by the founding family.

‘My four-year-old loves Chewton as much as I do, it’s always a struggle to leave.’ ‘We stayed to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary, and it exceeded expectations.’

A cinematic street of cobblestone and gently listing cross-beamed houses hosts this ‘beautiful, comfortable and relaxing' B&B, once a haunt of Malcolm Lowry and Radclyffe Hall.

With 'epic' views across to Tresco and Bryher, the Francis family’s ‘really good hotel’ combines ‘a great setting’ with ‘fabulous historic features’.

Handy for the racecourse, this William and Mary mansion, built for Sheffield cutler Thomas Barlow ‘in the Italian mode’, operates as a hotel and spa, ‘ideal for those seeking individual attention and pampering’.

‘An amazing mansion set in equally amazing gardens.’ Praise from Guide readers this year, for this former Victorian vicar's house high above the River Usk.

‘Wonderful as ever,’ writes a reader this year, a regular returnee to Elizabeth Perrée’s 16th-century, whitewashed stone farmhouse in a beautiful part of this car-free island.

A golden stone Carolean manor house-turned-rectory in an ‘idyllic setting’ is run as a 'welcoming, comfortable and relaxing' hotel, under highly experienced manager Michael Obray.

Meghan Markle spent the night before her wedding at this 'magnificent' Italianate mansion in 'glorious' National Trust grounds on a bluff above the Thames.

‘A place for relaxing weekends and special occasions’, a country house hotel in a 'beautifully' proportioned Queen Anne mansion.

‘Our third visit. Most of the other guests were also returners. It isn’t surprising.’ Readers are drawn back time and again to this stone rectory in ‘immaculate gardens’, overlooking the Welsh hills.

‘The place abounds with creative uses of old, mainly farm, paraphernalia.’ Guide inspectors enjoyed Nick Dent’s diverting Georgian farmhouse turned dog-friendly hotel with most rooms in converted outbuildings.

In one of the most dramatic settings of any UK hotel, Jane MacFarlane's 18th-century-cum-Victorian mansion stands against a backdrop of woodland and mountain, overlooking Loch Shiel.

‘One of the nicest locations we’ve stayed at.’ Trusted readers enjoyed a night's stay at Andy and Gayle Shearer’s boutique hotel on the seafront.

Readers ‘felt they had done their very best to look after us', after a week-long stay at this Georgian mansion.

'An example of what a British seaside hotel can do.' Trusted readers were impressed by Lindsey and Andrew Evans's coastal property, created with an 'ambition, vision and style one might associate with California or Australia'.

‘A true gem in the Lake District.’ Readers this year had a 'thoroughly enjoyable‘ stay at Caroline and Jonathan Kaye’s 'fabulous‘ small hotel.

Shhh! It’s adults only at this ‘truly special’ cliff-top hotel, which, say readers this year, ‘achieves a wonderful balance of chic luxury, tranquillity and culinary delight’.

‘The lodging-houses at Bablicome are magnificent to be seen, And the accommodation there would suit either king or queen.’ William Topaz McGonagall extols the beauties of Babbacombe, where Lana de Savary’s hotel sits just above the beach, at the foot of a wooded corniche road.

‘Fabulous views’ over the cathedral and the Vale of Avalon to Glastonbury Tor await at Frances and Tim Meeres Young’s 18th-century coach house, run as a ‘faultless’ B&B.

In a grove, indeed, surrounded by flower gardens, kitchen garden and meadows, with views to the Preseli hills, Neil and Zoë Kedward’s hotel is ‘a real haven’.