If you love history and tradition, you want this: Heritage Rated Accommodation

We love the history and heritage of Britain. You may have read our 'slogan': "The UK travel and heritage guide". We thought we should do a little something extra to help people who share our interests to find accommodation that offers something special in terms of heritage interest.

A castle hotel

You are no doubt familiar with accommodation rating systems. These ratings, such as the star rating for hotels, take into account the level of services offered, the quality of decor and amenities, and the level of service offered to arrive at a standardized system of comparing the accommodation. These ratings are offered by a variety of accrediting bodies such as the Automobile Association, the Royal Automobile Club, and the various Tourist Boards across the UK.

We have a new rating to offer - the Britain Express Heritage Rating.

Wouldn't it be fun, we said to ourselves, if there was a way to set apart those hotels that were especially historic, or offered a little something extra in the way of value to those who, like us, value Britain's heritage.

Our solution

So we set to work and began the task of evaluating all of the hotels in our accommodation directory in terms of their historic interest. Every hotel is manually checked and awarded a heritage score, ranging from 1 to 3. So without further ado, here's the breakdown of our ratings:

1 H Heritage Rated Accommodation   1. Little heritage interest
2 H Heritage Rated Accommodation   2. Some heritage interest
3 H Heritage Rated Accommodation   3. Good heritage interest
4 H Heritage Rated Accommodation   4. Very good heritage interest
5 H Heritage Rated Accommodation   3. Exceptional heritage interest

How ratings are assigned

We examine each hotel and assign points for:

  • Historic Association (e.g. "King Charles I slept here", or a famous person lived in the house before it became a hotel)
  • Location: Quintessentially British setting, or proximity to historic properties (for example, if the hotel is directly across the street from Windsor Castle)
  • Age: A 15th-century manor has more heritage appeal than a modern airport hotel.
  • "Character": We admit, this is a judgement call, and is open to interpretation, but some hotels just exude a certain something that evokes a sense of heritage!

The heritage rating is NOT a reflection of the quality of the accommodation! For example, our system of heritage ratings would assign a low score to modern city-centre or airport hotels. Those hotels may offer terrific accommodation which is perfect for your needs. Traditional star ratings should be used to determine the quality of the accommodation on offer for these hotels. Use the heritage rating score as a tool to help you find those properties which have that little something extra that makes travelling around the UK especially fascinating.

Best of Britain Express Art Prints