Not many people go into the hotel industry looking for a quieter life, but that's exactly how it was for Christine Coverdale and her husband Paul.
The couple were running a successful kennels and cattery business in North Yorkshire for 17 years when they decided to sell up and "semi-retire" by looking after human guests instead of other people's pets. "We were putting in too many hours," says Christine. "It was a very stressful job and it was totally taking over our lives. I'm having a quieter life now."
Having sold their business, the couple found the 18th-century Cottage Leas Country Hotel near Pickering in North Yorkshire early on and later bought it off an asking price of £600,000.
"We loved the setting and the fact that it wasn't overlooked by anyone, with stunning views over the Vale of Pickering," says Christine, who runs the hotel with her sister and their son, helped by chef John and his wife. Husband Paul spends most of the week running another of their interests, an engineering firm in Teesside.
After moving in last August, the couple launched a major refurbishment. The downstairs public areas have already been given a complete makeover, but plans to extend the number of bedrooms from 12 to 17 and turn a derelict barn into a new restaurant hit problems early on. After planning problems the couple got rid of their original architect, but he was also site-managing the project and took the contractors with him.
Unfortunately the previous owners didn't provide much help and much of the stock was out of date, which meant they had to close the restaurant for two weeks. "But we got through it," Christine laughs. All in all the feedback so far from guests has been "encouraging".
www.cottageleashotel.co.uk