Search for bed and breakfast accommodation on the travel website TripAdvisor, and you are somewhat spoiled for choice: there are almost one million worldwide. “It’s actually 869,687,” says Sue Burrell. “I mean, roughly speaking.”
It is a figure she and husband Andrew have good reason to know well – because, for 12 months, their own little lodging in the North Yorkshire market town of Masham was officially the best of the lot.
Their guesthouse, Millgate, was named No 1 on the planet in the website’s Travellers’ Choice awards in 2015. Not bad for a place set up only three years earlier because the kids had moved out and the house – a former munitions store built around 1580 – felt empty. And certainly not bad when you consider the competition.
“There were places with infinity pools, private butlers, views on to the Pacific,” muses Sue. “But, then, in fairness, I do bake a nice scone for everyone who comes.”
Now what are the couple, aged 63 and 60, doing? They are quitting at the top and going to live on a narrowboat. News of the honour went live at 5am on 21 January. By 5.08am, the first booking had come in. Then the phone never stopped. “I wanted to call my mum to tell her,” remembers Sue. “But literally every time I put the phone down, it rang again. Eventually, we had to unplug it, just so we could cook breakfast.”
Within 24 hours, the couple – him a former country clothing wholesaler, her a one-time mental health nurse – had received 1,457 email enquiries from across the world. Within four days, they were booked up for the year.
“We had CNN call, wanting to feature us in a show,” recalls Sue. “They said: ‘We have 240 million viewers.’ I said: ‘That’s lovely, but we only have three bedrooms.’ We didn’t do it.”
They also got a mention on Chris Evans’s Radio 2 breakfast radio show. “He didn’t come and stay, though,” notes Sue.
The secret to their success – should you have a room spare you fancy converting – seems to depend on who you ask.
Reviewers on TripAdvisor mention vintage beds and powerful showers; foodies rave about the breakfast trout, fished fresh by Andrew; and Americans … well, they just like the fireplace. “It’s 16th century,” explains Sue. “The wooden beams make their day, too.”
As for the couple themselves, they put their achievement down to something slightly more obscure: sixth-century Benedictine monks. Their monasteries had a philosophy that arriving strangers were to be treated like Jesus himself, as though they were the most important person in the world. “And that’s what we do,” explains Andrew. “It sounds simple, but you’d be surprised how many places don’t.”
Oh, and their other secret is not to worry too much about profits. Most of the money Millgate has made has gone on renovations. “And cushions,” says Sue. “Andrew gets annoyed because I’ll go to town and arrive home with more. But soft furnishings, they’re an investment, aren’t they?”
