York hotel’s starring role on TV sparks huge interest

The country’s most majestic churches were meant to be the stars of the series – but it seems a York hotel has stolen the show.

Britain’s Great Cathedrals with Tony Robinson has seen the actor and presenter look behind the scenes at six historic sites, including York Minster.

The Channel 5 series comes to an end this Friday (May 11) with a trip to Winchester Cathedral.

But through all his travels there’s been one constant – Grays Court.

Viewers have been offered the chance to win a stay at the beautiful historic hotel on Ogleforth each week. And the footage of its beautiful garden, rooms and library have certainly had a galvanising effect.

Since the series aired, the hotel has seen its website traffic leap by 325%.

Crash, bang, wallop!

[arve url=”https://youtu.be/0WS-VhGfctY” title=”The Grays Court competition on C5″ /]

“My reception team told me we had a number of phone calls to say they couldn’t get on the website on the Friday night when the programme first aired and the Grays Court competition was featured on Britain’s Great Cathedrals,” said hotel owner Helen Heraty.

“Then my IT support company told me that our website had crashed due to too much traffic!”

The website has been updated so it can cope with the extra visits for the rest of the series.

It is the latest boost for the hotel, which in recent weeks has topped a list in the Independent of the ten best hotels in York.

And it has been shortlisted as Hotel of The Year in the Visit York Awards.

So, as Helen says, “we may be getting even more web traffic!”