A FAMILY which took over a country hotel and restaurant just over a year ago was over the moon to be one of 11 hotels to receive an industry award.

The Homewoods took over Glewstone Court, near Ross-on-Wye, in November 2014.

Gary and Karen Homewood had never owned a hotel before but fell in love with the Georgian building.

And after their first year, Glewstone was picked out of hotels nationwide to receive a Good Hotel Award.

The award description said: “Over the last 12 months, we have evaluated customer feedback and these premises have demonstrated exceptional levels of room quality, service and value when compared to industry benchmarks in their category.”

The Good Hotel Award was introduced in 2015, from the creators of the Good Food Award, and was set up to offer a standardised awards programme across the hotel industry.

They take into account customer feedback, among other factors and apply scores to each attribute to form their policy scorecard.

Mr and Mrs Homewood said: “We are absolutely delighted. This is a superb achievement in our first year at Glewstone Court. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our loyal customers for their reviews and our amazing team for their continued hard work and support.”

Mr Homewood previously had 28 years of experience with corporate and private companies in the food industry. The couple moved from Northamptonshire and are joined by their daughter, Amy, and her partner, Sam Nicholls.

Miss Homewood is the events and marketing manager and Mr Nicholls is the hotel manager, with four-years hospitality experience.

Miss Homewood said: “My mum and dad fell in love with it as soon as they saw it.

"They wanted to keep the traditional feel and the Georgian character but they wanted it updated.

"We want to make it more of an events venue. It is such a lovely location- it is great for parties and weddings and family get togethers."