WINNER BRACED FOR ‘TSUNAMI OF CALLS’

THE day before The 25 was named as the best in the world, owners Andy and Julian Banner-Price received a telephone call from Lisa Orchard, who won the award in 2014 and 2017 for Bindon Bottom B&B in Lulworth, Dorset, which she run with her Australian husband Clive.

“I told them to be ready for some early starts, long nights and to pull the phone out of the wall,” says Lisa, who knew they were about to be inundated with calls from the media and would-be guests desperate to stay at the best B&B on the planet. “And I advised investing in an email template, making it very clear to guests what you are and, more to the point, what you are not.”

This was particularly important when it came to guests in America who understood from a misdescription in an article published in USA Today that Bindon Bottom, a Victorian semi, was a sprawling gothic castle in extensive grounds.

“It was quite funny but they clearly expected staff and facilities and all the trimmings – I had to make it clear that this is a five-bed house run by me and my husband.

“Winning an award like this doesn’t make any difference financially because you are a B&B, you can only ever be a B&B, but what it does give you is the security of future bookings and the comfort of knowing that you will always be full, which is not nothing.”

Despite their two wins they are sticking to their 10-year plan to move on and have put the B&B on the market. So anyone who fancies escaping the rat race, hotfoot it down to Savills in Wimborne.