Best B&B in the world is simply smiles better
A warm welcome is secret of TripAdvisor favourite’s success
As far as good publicity goes, it doesn’t get much better than this.
Millgate B& B in the small Yorkshire town of Masham has just been revealed as the top B& B in the world by online travel review site TripAdvisor.
Not Yorkshire. Not the UK. Not Europe. The. World. That must be worth a visit. I knock on the grey front door. A few moments later a slightly flustered middle-aged man in a red jumper, grey hair mildly askew, answers. This is Andrew Burrell, one half of the husband and wife team who own and run Millgate.
“Come in, come in!” he says, ushering me through the low doorway. “You’ll have to excuse us, we have This Morning in filming.”
Right enough, in the front room a crew is setting up a camera and lights ready for a day of recording.
There are three things that hit me straight away when I step into the house. The warmth of the welcome from Andrew and Sue, the welcome warmth (as in temperature on this freezing day) and the smell. The beautiful homemade lavender scent Andrew makes himself must linger long in nostrils and minds.
I duck out of the TV camera’s firing line and make for a table as Sue appears with a plate bearing the finest scones I’ve ever clapped eyes on.
Sue, 59, is a vision in a smart blue shawl, neat blonde hair and perfect make up – as immaculate as 62- year- old Andrew is comfortably rumpled. Together they match their B& B – stylish but homely, impeccably spotless but cosy, classy but unpretentious.
I chat with Sue as I eye up a scone impatiently. How on earth, I ask, did a three-bedroom place in Yorkshire trump swanky pads in Italy, the USA and New Zealand? The two of them must have been working on this for decades to achieve such greatness.
“Not at all! We’ve only been open two years and 10 months,” laughs Sue. “Before that we were doing childminding. I’ve been everything from a trainer in the fire service to a mental health nurse in a prison, although Andrew has run several pubs.”
So in less than three years they’ve gone from zilch to being the best in the world? Not too shabby.
But what makes the place so special? Are guests carried to silken beds on velvet cushions, hand- fed specially pee led grapes and bathed in fine champagne? Not a bit of it. “We’re not posh,” says Andrew. “We’re definitely not that. We’re not looking for that market. We’re homely and cosy.”
You can say that again. After my scone – which is literally the best I’ve ever had in my life, and I’ve had a few scones in my time I can tell you – I climb the narrow staircase to the en-suite room. The oatmeal carpet is thick and the walls painted Farrow and Ball “Elephant’s Breath” white with a tasteful muted blue-green round the windows. The ceilings throughout are low and many have wooden beams.
And the bed, ooooh the bed. When I lift the gold foil- wrapped choc from the pillow and clamber in, pulling the crisp white linen bed covers up to my chin, I immediately start making plans to barricade myself in the room so I will never be parted from this sinkin-and-sleep mattress.
But it can’t last. My time at Millgate is limited, for many others must come and swoon at the scones, hoover up the magnificent breakfast ( all locally sourced sausages, bacon, black pudding and the like), sleep in MY bed and relax in these sublime surroundings.
Of course, the publicity from the TripAdvisor ranking has already seen the phone ring off the hook and the email bookings pile high, so it’s unlikely there will be much room at the inn from now on.
But what future guests will find, as I have, is that being named the best B& B on the planet has less to do with the building and the furnishings (though both are stunning) and much more to do with the people who run it.
Millgate echoes to the sound of Sue and Andrew’s laughter. They are funny, warm, welcoming and helpful. Sue has a mischievous sense of humour and a twinkle in her eye while Andrew is quieter but has a gentle ease about him that instantly relaxes you.
I’d happily stay in a ragged tent if Sue and Andrew were in charge. And if they were I’d bet my salary it would be named “Best Ragged Tent in theWorld”.
What is the secret of their success? Simple. Them.
Oh, and those scones . . .