Every year a Visit England Assessor comes to check on our performance, sometimes they stay overnight, and, other times it’s just a knock on the door. There is no notice!

They measure us under a variety of headings:-
standard of the exterior – garden, frontage, car parking, paintwork
standard of public areas – decoration, lighting, space, comfort, public toilets
standard of the dining room – decoration, table appointment, space, comfort
standard of the bedroom – beds, bedding, accessories, furniture, decoration
standard of the bathroom – towels, toiletries, sanitary ware, flooring, ventilation
cleanliness of the property – public areas, bedrooms, bathrooms, dining room
quality of the hospitality – booking, arrival, departure, over breakfast
quality of the service and efficiency – booking, breakfast, departure
quality of the food – choice, presentation, range, culinary skills

This year the assessor increased that marks that we received as we had improved the lighting in many areas, changing to LED bulbs were possible.

In addition in the last year we have updated most of the bedrooms changing from blankets to duvets, this meant that in some rooms the walls need to be repainted as the old colours did not match the new curtains, runners etc.

We also improved the WiFi offering. It is particularly difficult in this house as some of the walls are two feet thick, not helpful to radio waves!

A new mobile friendly website has been developed in the last year, with updated images and text. We also changed the range of towels, moving from a bath towel to a bath sheet, much, much larger!

So, we gained a 5* grade, the highest star rating possible which means top quality in all areas and all the services expected of that classification of accommodation.

A Gold Award, the highest that is available given to an organisation which offers the ‘best of the best’ in that grade.

In addition we also received a Breakfast Award, recognising breakfasts which exceed guest expectations at each star rating rewarding excellent range, presentation, quality of ingredients and service.