PICTURE the scene.

After a long day travelling from who-knows-where, you arrive, exhausted, at your rented holiday home. There's a kettle, but no teabags. A shower, but no soap or shampoo. A TV and VCR, but nothing to watch.

Annoying, isn't it?

Well, visitors to Maynard Lodge, West Malvern, will have no such problem. The self-catering holiday home at Croft Bank, owned by Michael and Elaine Roberts, prides itself on offering those little extra details that makes life for visitors easier.

Fresh flowers, tourism leaflets and brochures, a selection of videos, books, CDs and games, and even a copy of the Malvern Gazette & Ledbury Reporter, greet visitors to the lodge, a bungalow that was gutted and completely refitted after the Roberts' bought it in early 2001. A gas barbecue, shampoo, dishwasher tablets and bottles of Malvern Water add to the welcome, with a pair of binoculars ready by the window for any keen birdwatchers.

So successful has this approach been that the lodge has been awarded a Platinum Award for Tourism Excellence by Malvern Hills District Council and a five-star rating by the English Tourist Council, just five months after its doors were opened to the public for the first time.

The Roberts live in a house next door to the lodge. Formerly part of the same property, it was sold as a separate bungalow during the 1960s. When the last owner moved out, Michael and Elaine took the opportunity to reunite the buildings under the same ownership.

Local tradesmen were employed to install new windows, heating system, kitchen, bathroom and to carry out redecoration inside and out.

The garden too, overlooking the West Side of the Mal- vern Hills, was subjected to a £5,000-landscaping programme. The process taking over a year to complete.

"We gutted it completely," said Elaine. "We wanted to create one of the best self-catering holiday homes in the Malvern area. We've tried to put ourselves in the shoes of the visitor and say 'now what would I like?'"

Her husband agreed.

"If we were going to do it, we were going to do it properly," he said.

Visitors have booked a stay at the lodge from as far afield as Canada, for anything from a single night to a couple of weeks

"It tends to be the older people who want to come out, enjoy the area and the hills and the culture that's available in the area," said Michael who, when not vacuuming the lodge, works in sheet metal in Birmingham.

The awards and accolades have made up for the hard work, the couple says.

"It's a pat on the back saying 'you've done well'," said Elaine.

"I think Malvern is a wonderful area. This opportunity just presented itself and we'd always fancied doing something different."

Michael said he hoped the lodge would run for many more years.

"There will come a time when I don't want to travel to and from Birmingham. This is something that we can carry on into later life," he said.

"As this our first attempt, we've come into it completely fresh and our judgments have not been clouded by any previous experience. We just want to carry on and build on our success."

Rates at Maynard Lodge are payable weekly or daily and start at £50 a day off-season. For more information, call 01684 564568.