Honest Lawyer Hotel, Durham

The practical case for the Honest Lawyer is its layout. The rooms sit around the edge of a courtyard car park behind the pub, most of them on the ground floor, so you can park a car directly outside your own door and walk the dog straight out onto grass without crossing a lobby or waiting for a lift. Dog owners raise this more than anything else, and it is the difference between a relaxed arrival and a fraught one when you are unloading bags and a dog at the same time.

Beyond the door there is a small green area on the site for early-morning use, and walks running out behind the hotel into open countryside, some of them with dog bins along the way. Durham itself is a short drive, with riverside and woodland walking on the city's edge. Dogs are also allowed in the bar, and guests have had theirs sitting with them while they ate breakfast, which is more than many pubs with rooms actually permit in practice.

It is worth being clear about the trade-offs, because they are real and they are not all about the dogs. The building is dated - guests describe flaking paint, tired fittings and a hotel in need of refurbishment - and the soundproofing between rooms is thin. There are karaoke nights that run to around eleven, and breakfast draws mixed reports.

The dog-specific caveats follow from the same openness that makes it useful. One guest found their room carried a strong smell of wet dog that airing did not shift. Others, who had not brought a dog themselves and had not realised the hotel took them, were kept awake or disturbed at breakfast by other people's - barking in the dining room in one case, and a late-night commotion over a dog that got loose in another. If your own dog is noisy, that cuts both ways.

A pet fee applies, and the amount is not published, so confirm it with the hotel when you book. Best suited to dog owners who want cheap, convenient, ground-floor access near Durham and are not expecting a smart hotel. On that basis it earns a 4.5/5 paw rating.