Join us 2017

Join Us Taking all the hard work out of finding a truly fabulous place to stay Luxury Bed and Breakfasts, Exclusive Homestays, Fabulous Restaurants with Rooms

How it all began Looking desperately to find a website that has carefully sorted the wheat from the chaff, Nicola decided to create her own.

Recently renamed and relaunched, Quintessential Bed and Breakfast (now Quintessential Europe) was launched in 2010 and has carefully and deliberately curated a collection of truly fabulous places to stay.

With a deep-felt dislike of the vast, monolithic listing sites which market any type, size and quality of accommodation, Quintessential has successfully marketed some of the UK’s most luxurious private bed and breakfasts. From all over the world, guests seek out our Quintessential Members since they have grown to know just what our expectations are.

We love unique properties in fabulous locations – a combination of style, comfort and more than a hint of luxury. www.quintessentialeurope.com

“In a time-poor world, travellers love the fact that they can trust our judgement and are never disappointed.”

Becoming a Member Unlike any other site We give our Members more space and more visibility than other sites. More than 20 images illustrate each of our Members.

But we are very different. We have created an unique web experience where guests and potential guests can find that truly fabulous place to stay and, at the same time, plan their holiday with suggestions of all the wonderful places to go and events to attend in proximity to their accommodation. No other website does this.

From festivals to country fairs, from Quintessential towns and villages to wonderful abbeys, cathedrals and churches, we have created a fabulous resource for travellers to discover some of Europe’s most beautiful places.

There is no membership fee to join Quintessential Europe.

Members only pay Commission on the bookings made through the website.

Join us, it’s a fabulous idea

Live Bookings and Direct Payment

Why join us? Our properties speak for themselves. Our growing band of ardent followers has grown accustomed to the standards we set and they return to Quintessential to seek yet another truly fabulous place to stay.

Our website allows Guests to book your rooms immediately, paying a 50% deposit by credit or debit card for their stay. These funds, less commission, are then deposited into your bank account within seven working days. You can then take the balance of their booking when the Guest comes to stay. You will be notified immediately a new booking is made.

Each time a new Member joins us, they will benefit from our hard earned reputation for curating an exclusive collection of truly fabulous places to stay. We have worked hard to create that reputation and we will continue to work hard to maintain it for the benefit of all of our Members.

From the feedback we receive from guests, we have taken all of the hard work out of finding the quintessence of luxury in fabulous locations. Our guest/customer following is testament to that.

“I would happily recommend Quintessential Bed and Breakfast/ Europe as a website that really communicates a luxury bed and breakfast experience. It is particularly useful in attracting foreign visitors who are likely to book a longer stay and provide us with good business that we would otherwise not get. ” Patrick, The Coach House, Denton

Property Dashboard and Financial Records There’s a simple and informative Property Dashboard to help you manage your rooms and bookings on the website. Logging in with your secure username and password allows you to see your current and past bookings and the finances relating to the funds received and transferred each week.

Easy Availability and Room Rate Management You can easily add in pre-existing bookings to your availability calendars for your rooms, or block out times when you’re closed.

You can also set different rates for each room at different times of the year, or change the minimum booking duration for your rooms.

Payment Security We have partnered with Stripe.com to provide secure payment services to QE, with full PCI compliance, and funds-dispersal at source to deliver earnings directly to our Members.

PR and Marketing As your marketing partner, we frequently present our Members with new opportunities to engage with the luxury travel press, both print and online.

Our partnership with Luxury Travel Diary, one of the world’s leading luxury travel blogs, is testament to that engagement. Their readership is global and highly engaged.

Food and Drink oxfordtimes.co.uk

FEATuRE janice botterill STylinG jill shearer PHoToGRAPHS nicolas yarsley

Denise Barkley looks at a new breed of luxury bed and breakfasts

Most importantly, it works.

Our bedroom at Seymour House B&B, Chipping Campden

A fairy-tale

ending

An enchanting and much-loved family home in Gloucestershire boasts a fascinating history that includes a remarkable literary legacy

B&B — but not as you know it B ed and breakfast owner Sarah Taylor was asked for her granola recipe so often that she decided to print it out for guests to take away in return for a small donation to charity.

Having sampled her deliciously sticky, oaty, nutty concoction while staying at her Seymour House B&B in the honey-coloured Cotswold village of Chipping Campden, I can vouch for the fact it is absolutely delicious — and my husband is now firmly hooked. Each weekend he makes up a new batch from Sarah’s recipe!

Gorgeous granola, with a big blob of thick yoghurt on top, is just one of the attractions of Seymour House, one of the exclusive breed of B&Bs featured on the Quintessential Bed & Breakfast (QB&B) website, brainchild of Nicola Crewe-Read, whose home, The Old Post Office at Adlestrop, near Stow-on-the-Wold, was the first thoroughbred member of her elite stable of B&Bs. After a career in investment banking and public relations, Nicola and her husband, Chris, started their Cotswolds B&B business.

A search for a website dedicated only to the marketing of the very best of luxury, boutique bed and breakfast drew a blank — so Nicola decided to create her own. Quintessential Bed and Breakfast was born, and is expanding fast. it has been voted the best website for bed and breakfast by The Good Web Guide.

Nicola said: “At launch two years ago QBandB had just three members — two years’ on, we are proud to have grown to 22 unique and luxurious bed and breakfast homes, ranging in style from quintessential Cotswold stone cottages to a glamorous Georgian hall with views to die for.

“You do not have to go to a hotel to get a wonderful, unique and personal accommodation experience. Our owners have very exacting ideas as to what constitutes luxury and go way beyond that to ensure their guests have it — no formulas here.

“Moreover, some of our properties are places that you would otherwise never get to experience unless you were a friend of the family, such as Easby Hall in Yorkshire and Capheaton Hall in Northumberland.”

There are a number of Cotswolds properties

including Home Farm, Little Barrington, near Burford; The Old Manor House, Halford, near Shipston-on-Stour; Uplands House, Upton, near Banbury, and Belstone, Guiting Power, near Cheltenham.

Sarah Taylor at Seymour House is one of Nicola’s very satisfied clients, and her truly fantastic B&B handily located on Chipping Campden’s high street offers a luxurious place to lay your head at probably half what a hotel of similar stature might charge.

The charm lies in the fact that this is very much a family home — Sarah runs the B&B while her husband Peter works in London, and they have twin girls Ellie and Daisy, aged 12.

There is also a friendly black labrador called Inky who is very well behaved and happy to go for walks with guests.

While the bedrooms are charming, cosy and

T at home

Melissa and Mark Hargreaves live at Pauntley Court in Gloucestershire with their children Sorrel, 16, Mungo, 14, and Clemmie, 9, along with Christine, Melissa’s mother. Dating back to the fourteenth century, the house has a fascinating history. The couple now welcomes guests to their recently launched luxury bed and breakfast business.

hose who believe dick Whittington to be a fictional character of folk tales and children’s story books are about to get a shock. Pauntley Court, situated in a tiny gloucestershire hamlet, is reputed to be the birthplace of the very same, one of england’s most well-loved and famous historical figures. The eponymous hero of the well-worn tale of the country boy who travelled with his cat and his few possessions wrapped up in a handkerchief on a stick, rising through society’s ranks to become Mayor of London – not once, but four times – started life here in what is now a bustling, busy home to a modern family.

There is still a cat here, albeit one who is accompanied by two ponies, two kunekune pigs, several chickens, a Patterdale terrier and a few fish for good measure. This menagerie was brought to Pauntley by Melissa, Mark and their three children when they moved from Wiltshire in 2007. The property had originally been bought by Christine, Melissa’s mother, almost a quarter of a century ago, and today the three generations live side by side, enjoying family life together in what has been a home to many other families before them. 

Reclaimed quarry-tile flooring, a classic green Aga with a vibrant backdrop made using tiles from Fired Earth, create a warm yet practical kitchen.

78 Oxfordshire Limited Edition March 2013 50 The english home

Feature JIll SHeAReR photographs NICK YARSleY

The fireplace, with its sandstone surround, warms the drawing room.

Blue accents highlight a neutral scheme, including cushions in Flying Duck by Mulberry and a lamp from Porta Romana. Afternoon tea includes traditional Yorkshire curd tarts from Bettys of Harrogate.

In hallowed

footsteps Returning to Yorkshire after many years abroad, the Clarkes found the allure of a once-beautiful Georgian manor house impossible to resist

t

at home

John and Karen Clarke live in a grade II listed early Georgian manor house overlooking an ancient abbey in the midst of the North Yorkshire Dales, from where they run a luxury bed and breakfast and weddingvenue business.

They have two daughters: Charlotte, 17, and Natasha, 12, plus the family’s border collie, Poppy.

32 The english home

he monks of medieval times may have spent much of their time in prayer, but they certainly seem to have valued earthly beauty, too. Look at any map of england, and you will always find the sites of abbeys, convents, priories and monasteries in the most idyllic spots.

North Yorkshire is particularly well served for medieval relics; some of the land’s most powerful monasteries were here and the rolling windswept dales are littered with the remains of once-magnificent feats of medieval architecture, lending a spiritual dimension to the elemental majesty of the landscape.

Returning to england in 1998 from the highpressure world of commerce in the far east, John and Karen Clarke were looking for peace and tranquillity, too. “We had decided on Yorkshire, because it feels like proper countryside,” explains Karen. “one of the problems with many other parts of the country is that you find a charming little village, but around the corner there is often a busy road, a large town or even a landfill site. We had both done our travelling, and now we were looking for somewhere we could just enjoy living in a beautiful place.” Karen knew the area well, having been brought up in the county,  The english home 33

Telling the story of your fabulous place to stay Once all of the nitty gritty is agreed, we will create your listing. We will also ensure that all the places guests can visit are uploaded (and illustrated) on the website. We will research local events (from country fairs to festivals) and put them on the site – this is one of our USPs and has ensured that the all powerful search engines are constantly bringing people to the website.

Get in touch If you would like to become part of Quintessential Europe or have any questions about Membership, please do get in touch. We’d love to hear from you even if you are not quite ready to apply.

Call us for a chat….anytime +44 (0)1608 695087 Or drop us a line and we’ll call you back info@quintessentialeurope.com Or even use our online form www.quintessentialeurope.com/contact+us We look forward to hearing from you!

How to join If you have a truly fabulous place to stay, then please get in touch.

We’d love to hear from you.

Here are the details you will need to send if you wish to apply: Your Property Name Address

Phone Number Email Address

How it works Quintessential Europe is the culmination of six years of market research and analysis of booking behaviour. We offer a unique website, with a sophisticated and simple booking engine, to selected luxury accommodation-providers across Europe.

• Our Quintessential standards ensure that your property will not be lost among countless places of lower quality.

• We only accept Fabulous properties as Members.

• Members only pay commission on the bookings they make through the website. There are no other fees involved.

We also request Guest Reviews to ensure the exceptional qualities of our properties are truly acknowledged and celebrated.

Website

We will discuss photography requirements and the copywriting of your listing once your property has been accepted.

Bank Details Once accepted you’ll need to send your bank details to allow us to send you payments directly when bookings are made.

We will need: Bank Account Holder Full Name Bank Account Holder Date of Birth Bank Account Currency (GBP or EUR) Bank Account Sort Code Bank Account Number

Join Us Taking all the hard work out of finding a truly fabulous place to stay Luxury Bed and Breakfasts, Exclusive Homestays, Fabulous Restaurants with Rooms