After a number of years without this guide, I invested again last year and am very pleased I did. This really is the very best hotel guide you can buy so you can forget about the others.So, what make its so good? All entries are recommended by readers and these are followed up by an inspection if the editors feel this in necessary. Inspections are unannounced and anonymous. No payment is made for inclusion in the guide. No hospitality or incentives is accepted by the inspectors. The majority of hotels in this guide are small, family-run hotels and very few chains get a mention. If readers do not comment on existing entries they will tend to drop out of the guide. This keeps the guide up-to-date and standards high.
How is the guide organised? After a short introduction there is a small section titled Special Hotels. This is a summary of some of the main entries and the editors make some suggestions of hotels for gourmets, for walkers, child-friendly, for fishing, home from home hotels, modern hotels, for that romantic retreat etc. 18 categories in all. All the suggested hotels are covered in full within the main body of the guide.
Next we come to the main entries. The first chapter is on London hotels alone. This is followed by chapters for England, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands and Ireland. Within each chapter the hotels are listed by town, apart from the chapter on London where they are listed alphabetically by the hotels name.
Finding a hotel is a case of turning to the relevant chapter and seeing if there is a listing in the place of interest. The other way is to turn to the small coloured maps towards the centre of the book, find the town or area you wish to visit and then see if the map has any entries marked nearby. This is the method I normally use first. A final way is to look through the Shortlist entries at the rear of the book. This is a list of readers recommendations that the inspectors have not had time to visit. Some of these may become full-entries so is worth a look.
When a hotel gets a main listing, the entry will give you a very good idea of what to expect. Excerpts of reader’s recommendations are used throughout and the entries make great reading. At the end of an entry will be details of number of rooms, facilities, terms, restrictions, credit cards taken etc. All fax/phone numbers are listed and website addresses and e-mail. There are no pictures bar the occasional pencil sketch. If a hotel’s entry finishes with a ‘*V*’ it means that visitors can claim a 25 per cent reduction on the normal bed a breakfast terms by using one of the vouchers that come included in the guide; not to be sniffed at!
So thats about it. A great guide. The best hotel guide to plan that weekend away. Its 597 pages are invaluable if you are the kind of person who likes to stay somewhere a cut above the rest. Just remember to contribute your report by using one of the supplied report forms.
