Hotels do not pay to be selected by the Guide. However, if they want a full entry on the Guide’s website, then they pay the Guide an annual fee. Otherwise they have a basic listing. 

The entries cover the best hotels, most of them owner-managed, in the UK and Ireland. 

Jane Knight and Kate Quill edit the British Guide. 

Entries are based primarily on comments from readers who write to us about their good and bad experiences at hotels and B&Bs. We also get reports from our team of inspectors who stay anonymously at the Guide’s expense. We also receive info from a questionnaire filled out by hotels annually, and at times use trusted secondary sources as well.

The entries are updated continuously on this website. The Guide is officially updated annually in October/November. Each year there is a considerable turnover.

Every year the Guide gives awards, called Césars, to 12 hotels in various categories, and plaques are presented to the winning hoteliers at a publication launch party. There are also bimonthly prizes for those readers who submit the best reports.

Yes, please email us. Readers’ reviews are the lifeblood of the Guide. There are many blank areas on our maps. We are particularly glad to receive reports on hotels in a city, a town or a region that is poorly represented.

We track our readers opinions and have been doing so for more than 40 years. The fact that we are independent mean that we can call it like it is. No hotel can buy an entry in the printed Guide or on the website.

“We have long regarded the Guide as the bible of the industry”
Christopher Davy, the Rose and Crown Inn, Romaldkirk.

For more testimonials go here.

“It’s about as honest as a hotel guide can be”
The Sunday Times.

For more testimonials from the media go here.

“No one in their right mind would go near a hotel without your advice.”
David Taylor

For more comments go here.

The Guide has two types of entry, Full and Shortlist. The Shortlist complements our main section by including interesting new entrants and a selection of appropriate places in areas where we have limited choice.

All hotels appear on the website, however, only those that are those that are willing to pay an annual fee receive a full entry. Those that don’t, receive a basic entry.

They are recommended by readers whose opinions are carefully tracked to exclude collusive reports. If a hotel or B&B appears promising, it will also often be anonymously inspected by one of our editors who will dine and stay at the Guide’s expense

Contact us and tell us about your hotel and its ethos and why it would belong in the Guide. We are always looking for new discoveries. We might send inspectors, but we won’t tell you they are coming. See: https://legacy.goodhotelguide.com/for-hoteliers/