A STALWART of dale’s bed and breakfast fraternity is looking forward to welcoming guests back to his Middleton-in-Teesdale guest house on Saturday following three months of closed doors due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Andrew Milnes, who has run the award-winning Brunswick House B&B for the past 31 years, said just minutes after the Government’s announcement last week giving the go-ahead to reopen, he received his first booking.
He added: “Immediately after the announcement the phone rang with a client wanting to book in for next week. I haven’t got anyone booked for Saturday night yet, but it’s nice to know we'll be open again.
“In March, it was cancellation after cancellation but I have a lot of loyal customers, some of whom did rebook for next year and others who moved their bookings to later this year.”
During the lockdown Mr Milnes, who runs the guest house singlehandedly, has been catching up on maintenance jobs throughout his three storey stone property.
“I’ve got clients who have been coming for the last 20 years,” he said. “Some of my clients have been ringing up during lockdown just to see how I’m doing, which is lovely.”
To begin with, Mr Milnes will only be letting out three of his five rooms to ensure he has sufficient time to clean each between clients and will be installing hand sanitizing stations in reception and within the dining room.
He added: “We do need to get people back and spending in the dale and it will be good to see our customers again, many of whom have become friends over the years.”
