HOTELIER Rob Cole is celebrating being named one of the friendliest landlords in the country.

Rob was recognised by the AA for the warm welcome he gives to visitors at The Esplanade guest house in Weymouth and made it into the top 25 out of 3,500 venues which qualified for the Friendliest Host of the Year award.

Rob was invited to the awards bash with his wife Terri at the Royal Horseguards Hotel in Whitehall, London, where he took home an engraved decanter in recognition of his top 25 placing.

“I’m really pleased,” he said.

“It was totally out of the blue.”

Rob’s guesthouse on the seafront is inspected by the AA each year in order for The Esplanade to display its status as four-star guest accommodation.

But the hotel inspectors also made a shortlist of their favourite landlords and to Rob’s surprise he received the letter telling him he had been chosen.

He said: “I got the letter out of the blue saying I had been shortlisted.

“We went up to Whitehall and it was a really nice day out and we stayed the night in London.”

Rob and Terri, both 39, grew up in Weymouth and went to the old grammar school – now Budmouth College.

They moved away to Exeter and then worked in London.

They took over The Esplanade in 2008 after coming home to raise their children Lily, six, and Alfie, two.

On their trip back to the capital they went to a few of their old haunts.

They had dinner at The Ivy restaurant in the West End.

Terri still works as a forensic psychologist but Rob gave up his job as an accountant in the city when he moved back to run the guest house so he was thrilled to get shortlisted so soon.

He said: “We might not get shortlisted again so we made a weekend of it.

“It’s disappointing not to win but I’ve only been doing this for three years.

“I didn’t expect to win and I’m very proud to be shortlisted.”

The award for Rob’s category went to the owner of Compton House in Newark, Nottingham-shire.