Mercure Chester Abbots Well Hotel

Mercure Chester Abbots Well sits out at Christleton on the Whitchurch Road, a couple of miles from the middle of Chester, and that bit of distance is exactly why it works for dogs. The hotel backs onto open Cheshire countryside with green space and lanes straight from the car park, so the first walk of the day does not involve a city pavement. Guests travelling with dogs point to the walking as the main reason to choose it over a hotel in the centre.

Dogs stay for £15 per pet per night, one per room, and the hotel asks that you tell them in advance rather than turning up with a dog unannounced. The welcome itself is warmer than the paperwork suggests: water bowls are kept in reception, and dog owners repeatedly describe staff as genuinely pleased to see the dog rather than merely tolerating it. Assistance dogs are welcomed as a matter of course.

The trade-off is that dogs are not allowed in the restaurant, so breakfast and dinner mean either eating in shifts or taking food back to the room. It is worth planning around if you are travelling alone with a dog that will not settle unattended. The one-dog limit also rules the hotel out for anyone with a pair.

The bigger caveat is condition. Reviews across the board describe a hotel that is dated and inconsistently cleaned, and some guests without dogs have complained about a lingering dog smell in rooms - the flip side of a genuinely dog-friendly hotel that does not always deep-clean between stays. If you are sensitive to that, ask for a recently refurbished room. The pool and spa facilities and the free parking, on the other hand, come in for steady praise.

The 4.7/5 paw rating reflects how well the hotel treats dogs and their owners, not the state of the building. Bring a dog that likes a long countryside walk and can be left quietly for an hour, and Abbots Well is a solid, well-priced base for visiting Chester.