Best dog-friendly hotels in the UK

Our undercover inspectors stay at hundreds of UK hotels to bring you honest and impartial reviews you can trust.

As well as receiving glowing appraisals (each scored four out of five stars or above) overall, all of the below hotels welcome dogs. There are rural retreats like Another Place in the Lake District, which recommends dog-friendly walks from the doorstep, but we've also got city stays, including a rare pet friendly hotel in the heart of London. 

We completed stays at the hotels included within the past two years. Prices are for a Saturday night (peak price) and correct at the time of publication. All scores are out of five.

Another Place, Lake District

Score: 4.5

Book your dog-friendly stay with Another Place

Peak price: £170

Weeks before we visited Another Place they asked us to make a reservation for breakfast and to download the app in order to ‘plan our itinerary’. A long list on the blackboard in the lobby of the gleaming, whitewashed Georgian house confirms the sensation that this is a hotel for go-getters who want to make the most of their time in this most beautiful part of the world. There are hikes, kayak trips, stargazing sessions and other ways to enjoy glorious Ullswater. But, even if you’re not someone who can predict what time you’ll want your bacon and eggs a month before you wake up, you’ll still have a wonderful time here. 

We loved the Living Space lounge and dining area with its stylish, modern pine floors and floor-to-ceiling windows that let the Lake District come to you. Even better is the pool, where you can swim lengths while looking at the hills on the other side of the lake. The library with light flooding in through French doors is another temptation to just sit around rather than heading off for a healthy hike. Friendly, relaxed service belies all that pre-visit prep. We didn’t look at the app once, and nobody minded that we didn’t arrive for breakfast at the appointed hour.

Rooms: Our advice? The ‘Standard Rooms’ are small and simple for the price. Spend an extra £20 or for a huge ‘Better Room’, with a freestanding bath and either a lovely chaise longue in the bay windows or French doors to access the garden. There are specific dog-friendly rooms, and you can also take your dog into most, but not all, of the public areas.

Food & drink: We chose to eat in the Living Space, rather than Rampsbeck – the formal restaurant. Numerous vegan options pass the test of being dishes you’d order even if not vegan, especially the plant-based ‘meatballs’ in zingy teriyaki sauce.

Our verdict: We’d be happy to never leave – quite the compliment when you consider the glorious scenery on this hotel’s doorstep.

Reviewed: May 2022.

The Harper, Norfolk

Score: 4.5

Book your dog-friendly stay with the Harper

Peak price: £315

The village of Langham lies a mile inland from Morston Quay with its seal trips, salt marshes and huge skies. It has a church, a village school and, as of 2021, a luxury boutique hotel. Not that The Harper, with its friendly, unfussy service, feels out of place. This former glass blowing factory has been converted into a low-slung complex around a sun trap courtyard of olive trees, rusty chimneys and festoon lighting. Leading off The Yard is an indoor pool and hot tub, a stylish bar area and several cosy hideaways to curl up with a little something from the wine-vending machine.

Rooms: Even the smallest of the hotel’s 32 rooms, at 280 sq ft, is classified as ‘big’ (others are ‘bigger’ and ‘biggest’). All have four-poster beds, high-spec bathrooms with monsoon showers and free pre-mixed negronis in the minibar. There is a £25 charge for dogs, with beds and towels provided. 

Food & drink: Mouth-watering local produce is everywhere. There’s freshly caught North Sea shrimp sizzling over charcoal in The Yard, Norfolk pancetta mac and cheese from the bar, and tandoori monkfish in Stanley’s restaurant. Even better, you can eat wherever and whenever you please. Just make sure you don’t miss the complimentary 6pm freshly cooked snacks – meatballs with chutney dip on our visit.

Our verdict: Think spacious yet intimate, foodie yet unpretentious, relaxed, but still special: The Harper has got its recipe just right.

Reviewed: July 2022.

Find out more: the best dog insurance, as rated by our experts

Hotel Endsleigh, Devon

Score: 4.5

Book your dog-friendly stay with Booking.com

Peak price: £290

This Dartmoor hotel was once the enviable rural retreat of the Duke and Duchess of Bedford, who, in 1814, enlisted the help of landscape designer Humphry Repton to transform its grounds. Now part of The Polizzi Collection, both the Grade I-listed house and surrounding gardens are resplendent. Pick up a map and explore the 108 acres – you’ll discover follies, grottos, waterfalls and an arboretum, as well as a yew arch and fragrant rose walk with views down to the River Tamar.

Rooms: All 19 rooms have been elegantly designed by Olga Polizzi and many retain period features – we loved the fire buckets and hose reels on the landing upstairs. Our Classic Double (room 16), with its botanical paintings and roll-top bath (not all rooms have separate showers), overlooked the stables and clock tower. For the best garden views, choose one of the Repton rooms. Original hand-painted wallpaper is still on show in the Bedford rooms. A two-night stay is often required. There is a £20 charge for dogs, and restrictions on where they are allowed in public areas. They do, however, offer, to take your dog on a walk while you dine. 

Food & drink: Venison, duck breast and turbot with seaweed beurre blanc were among the mains on our three-course dinner menu (£67.50), although many visit simply to enjoy a garden stroll followed by afternoon cream tea (£35).

Our verdict: Everything about Hotel Endsleigh is enchanting, including the attentive staff. A first-class escape.

Reviewed: May 2023.

The George Hotel, Inveraray

Score: 4

Book your dog-friendly stay with Booking.com

Peak price: £103 

Near Loch Fyne, this convivial hostelry has been owned by the Clark family since 1860, and on our visit Kris, who’s currently at the helm, chatted with locals, overnight guests and four Austrians who’d travelled to Inveraray to tour the neo-Gothic castle. A former coaching inn, the George has an atmospheric cocktail bar which is the main dining area – it still has its original 18th-century stone walls and flagstone floor, as well as settle benches and a crackling open fire. Meals are also served in the modern, light conservatory. 

Rooms: Access to the main building’s 18 bedrooms is up a winding, tartan-carpeted staircase and along creaky corridors filled with antiques and oil paintings. Our standard room had a spacious en suite bathroom with a walk-in shower, and two love seats in a ‘chit chat corner’. Book the Merchant’s Suite for a raised spa bath, double rainfall shower and wood-burning stove. There is no additional charge for dogs, and they are allowed in the restaurant and bar. 

Food & drink: Food is served from midday and includes the likes of haggis, neeps and tatties (£12), a seafood selection featuring Loch Fyne salmon (£16) and pan-fried scallops (£18). Do enjoy a nightcap too – if you’re unsure which whisky to order (there are 400 to choose from), knowledgeable bar staff are only too happy to help you find your favourite.

Our verdict: A friendly, good-value haunt that’s full of character – one visit won’t be enough.

Reviewed: November 2022.

One Hundred Shoreditch, Shoreditch, London

Score: 4

Book your dog-friendly stay with Booking.com

Peak price: £271

Shoreditch is the byword for hipster cliches, and you’ll find every single one inside OneHundred. There’s a co-working space upstairs, a Peloton studio downstairs and a cocktail lounge in the basement where they’ll mix your gin with dandelion leaves. Yet behind the scenes are 258 stylishly furnished rooms with comfortable beds just a15-minute walk from the City.

Rooms: In London, where hoteliers happily charge £200 for a windowless sweat box, the ‘studio’ rooms (the smallest) feel like a spacious bargain. The effect is helped by neutral paints, woollen cream carpets and a sleek scarcity of clutter. And with a generous checkout time of noon and blackout blinds pulled down, the comfy bed is the sort of place you want to live in. You need to book specific dog-friendly rooms, although these are across all different room types, and dogs are allowed in most but not all public areas. 

Food & drink: Something equally miraculous is happening in the downstairs restaurant: a stylish bistro of deep woods, brass rails and leather seats where mains (like Cornish Fish stew and a garlic spelt risotto) come in at under £20. For Shoreditch, that’s remarkable. Sadly, breakfast was underwhelming – the full English and healthier options were there, but items were slow to be refilled. Plus, it feels cheap that hotel guests receive lukewarm filter coffee while baristas whip up frothy flat whites for walk-ins off the street.

Our verdict: Ignore the hipster theatrics and One Hundred is one of London’s best mid-range bargains.

Reviewed: January 2023.

How we review hotels

Unlike all other national UK travel magazines and newspaper travel sections, Which? Travel never accepts freebies. We pay wherever we stay.

All our hotel inspections take place anonymously. We book a standard double room online, just as you would, and we sample the hotel’s facilities, just as you would.

That means no special treatment, no reviewer upgrades and no opportunity for the hotel to influence our verdict.

And no matter how badly the hotel fares, we always publish the review, warts and all.

Our ratings

We use an overall star rating for the hotel based on what we think you should expect for the type of accommodation (B&B, luxury hotel etc) and price.

All our ratings strictly adhere to the following criteria:

• 0 stars – A dreadful hotel. We would not recommend staying here.
• 1 star   – A sub-standard hotel we think is well below average in its category.
• 2 stars – An adequate hotel we think has room for improvement.
• 3 stars – A solid hotel that meets our expectations.
• 4 stars – An excellent hotel we think is above average in its category.
• 5 stars – An exceptional hotel we think is among the best of its type.