   Until 2003 The Belfry Country Hotel was rated as an AA Two star hotel. When Paul and Katie decided to buy The Belfry it was always on their minds to run it as a high-quality guest house and restaurant with its own unique character. They had spent many years in previous jobs travelling and staying in hotels around the world and those that they most admired were the smaller operations that didn't adhere rigidly to the same format as the big chains. We so agree and difference, being thought of as very much a virtue.
With that in mind when it came to pursuing official ratings from the likes of The English Tourism Council (now VisitBritain) and The AA they were somewhat disheartened to learn that whatever they did, however hard they worked to make The Belfry a great place to stay, it would never be rated as anything other than a two-star hotel. This was because the criteria which are used to grade hotels relied very much on things like trouser presses in guest rooms, permanently-manned front desks, lifts and room service and fax machines in guest rooms. Not really how good the service is, how relaxing a stay the guest has or how good the food is.
Given that Paul and Katie had plans to dramatically improve The Belfry and aimed to make it one of the finest places of its type, it seemed crazy to them that this could never be reflected in the grading. They decided, therefore to join the schemes as a "guest house" as they could show a measurable improvement from what would have been rated as three-diamond when they took over. Their aim was to achieve the full five and hopefully an additional award. In 2003, 2004 and 2005 they were graded by ETC as a Five-diamond guest house with an additional award for service excellence.
In 2004 they joined the AA scheme and were awarded the same number of diamonds. However that is when the fun started.
The whole reason for us joining the AA's scheme as well as VisitBritain's was to take advantage of the fact that the AA runs an award scheme for food as well as for accomodation (VisitBritain do not). Many of our previous guests suggested they should have some awards for the evening meals and so having spoken to the AA (they visited and read through the menu and we told them all about what we do) and having handed over our membership fee (a not insignificant sum) they eagerly awaited the "mystery shopper" inspection, which when it happened all went well until...
"Well, the food was very good but we couldn't possibly offer you an award because your requirement that guests order in advance means that we at The AA wouldn't consider you a proper restaurant".
You can imagine what they thought of that. Not only is it barking mad but if it's a policy it would have been nice to have been told that before shelling out hundreds of pounds in membership fees.
Not only that but the inspector went on to say how the whole ratings scheme was being updated and that come 2006 guest houses would start to be assessed in the same way as hotels and as a result we would face the prospect of no longer being recognised as one of the best small places but lumped in again with all the other larger, lower quality establishments.
So in 2005 offical notification was forwarded from The AA, that as of 2006, any establishment with the word "Hotel" in its title can no longer be graded as a guest house.
The eight hundred or so "guest houses with hotel in their name" in England now face the prospect of either losing their rating or undergoing the phenomenally expensive and time-consuming project of rebranding an entire business. For what?
The likes of VB and the AA would probably say its about consumer service and quality assurance and that somehow you as a potential guest are unable to grasp the concept of there being many different types of hotel.
Looking at the new quality assurance standards that VB, AA and RAC have come up with makes the heart sink. In a day and age where customers have access to such information and choice and have such freedom of movement it is such a huge retrograde step for these organisations to try and shoe horn everyone into the same bland, unexciting service.
So, for now we are awaiting our revised classification due to recently taking over the hotel and are in the dilema of deciding whether to classify ourselves as a hotel...or a guest house. If any of you reading this have any thoughts - we would welcome them as it is you we wish to please, not some hotel inspector.
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