Owston Hall Hotel

Owston Hall is a Georgian country house hotel set in the middle of its own golf course near Doncaster, a few minutes off the A1, and it treats a dog's arrival as an event. Guests travelling with one describe finding a dog bed or blanket, bowls and biscuits waiting in the room without having asked for any of it, and reception staff who greet the dog before they greet the luggage.

The practical terms are firm and worth planning around. Dogs stay in selected rooms only, subject to availability, at 25 pounds per dog per night, and only one dog is allowed per room, so a two-dog household needs two rooms and an early booking. Dogs are welcome in the bar and the lounge areas, which is where you will be eating if the dog is with you, but not in the restaurant itself.

The setting is the other half of the appeal: quiet, green and properly rural, with the adjacent village, which has been beautifully restored, and the surrounding countryside making for good walking. The catch is that the golf course wraps around the hotel and is not available for exercising a dog, so a walk starts by heading away from the grounds rather than around them. Guests raise this often enough that it is worth knowing before arriving expecting acres.

Two further caveats. The hotel takes weddings, and guests have arrived to a foyer in full reception mode, with a long wait at the desk and slow bar service that evening, so it is worth asking whether one is booked. And the building shows its age on close inspection, with tired carpets that would not suit an allergy sufferer, while opinions on the restaurant food range from delighted to distinctly unimpressed. Owston Hall earns a 4.6 out of 5 paw rating, and suits one dog, one room, and a stay built around the countryside rather than the grounds.