Hotel poll jolts London

As it prepares to host the Olympics, London has suffered an embarrassing reverse in the world's most democratic hotel awards.

Not a single place in the capital makes it into the UK's Top 25 places to stay, compiled on the basis of millions of speak-as-you-find entries on the TripAdvisor website.

Famous for squirrelling out specks of dust and tuned to the slightest grumpiness in service, the volunteer monitors — any guest can join in — have gone for English regional hotels.

Wales has three entries and Scotland one, but the big winners are the West Country and the north of England.

The best in the country, and also ranked sixth in the world, is Rudding Park near Harrogate, a converted stately home where Bill Clinton once famously stopped a game of golf to join a local couple's wedding reception.

London's failure was put down by TripAdvisor to the difficulty inherent in matching that sort of friendliness in the hurry-scurry capital, and to guests' reservations about value for money in luxurious but pricey hotels.

Alison Copus, TripAdvisor's European vice-president for marketing, said: "It's worrying not to see a single London hotel in the list. Come 2012, London hotels have to raise their game."

Regional winners were delighted with the verdict, which was based on TripAdvisor's "popularity index" and traveller ratings of specific property attributes. The index takes into account everything from cleanliness — an obsession of TripAdvisor writers — to suitability for specific types of travellers.

Rudding Park's accolades include the fondness for the "big, fluffy bathrobes". Torquay's Charterhouse hotel won points for hiding complimentary chocolate bars in towels, while the UK's best B&B was, appropriately, the Number One BB in Deal, Kent. The capital's younger visitors could draw consolation from one result. Though also out of the Top 25, the Luna and Simone hotel, in Victoria, was voted the UK's best family hotel, and was in the Top 10 family hotels worldwide.

One contented customer with demanding children wrote: "They offered to buy in any food we wanted if it wasn't on the menu."

Top 25 UK hotels (as voted by global travellers at TripAdvisor.co.uk)

II Rudding Park, Harrogate, Yorkshire

II The Manor Coach House, Worcester

II Boskerris Hotel, St Ives

II Can-y-Bae, Llandudno

II Charterhouse Hotel, Torquay

II Silverdale, Seaford, East Sussex

II Castlebank Hotel, Conwy County, Wales

II Avalon Beach Hotel, Bournemouth

II Dunkery Beacon Hotel, Exmoor

II Trelaske Hotel, Looe, Cornwall

II The Old Rectory Hotel, Martinhoe, Devon

II Apsley House Hotel, Bath

II The Waverley, Whitby, North Yorkshire

II The Clarance Hotel, Portsmouth

II Tremarne Hotel, Mevagissey

II Yeoldon, Bideford, Devon

II Gwestry, Aberystwyth

II Hotel Una, Brighton

II Hunters Quay Hotel, Dunoon, Argyll and Bute

II Bowling Green Hotel, Plymouth

II Staybridge Suites, Newcastle Upon Tyne

II Cedar Manor House Hotel, Windermere, Cumbria

II Broom House, Whitby, North Yorkshire

II The Waterhead Hotel, Ambleside, Cumbria

II Primrose Valley Hotel, St Ivesy