Hamish Champ: Wherever I lay my hat, it's probably a pub

I love staying overnight in a pub. In a 'letting room', that is. Not spark out on the floor of the saloon bar.

There's a certain something - and to be honest I'm not quite sure what it is - about going to sleep in a comfortable room above the bar where only minutes earlier one had been drinking and chatting and generally enjoying all that a fine inn has to offer.

One of my earliest childhood memories is of staying in the Red Lion in Bakewell, Derbyshire, with my mum and dad. I don't know why we stayed in the pub and not the Rutland Hotel, just across the road, although I suspect it was because the latter was too expensive.

Whatever the reason for choosing the more modest accommodation I didn't care in the least. We were staying in the room that, the landlord had assured us, was the very spot where the (in)famous highwayman Dick Turpin had rested overnight on his madcap dash from London to York.

His claim was probably far-fetched but I not only believed him, I convinced myself I could see Turpin's name carved somewhat erratically onto a wooden beam in the ceiling.

Yet my strongest recollection of staying in that pub wasn't its history, fake or otherwise. No, what I remember most about it was the smell of the bar in the morning when we came down for breakfast. Stale smoke intermingled with the heavy scent of beer to create something almost overwhelming in its intensity. Aged eight I absolutely loved it.

Some 41 years on and letting rooms in pubs appear to be all the rage again - or maybe I'm just more aware of them doing the job I do now.

Either way, growing numbers of people want a more personal experience when they stay somewhere. And a clean, comfortable room in a nice pub, with decent amenities and attentive staff on hand, cannot be beaten.

A number of large pub operators have been making a concerted effort in recent times to raise the quality threshold of their accommodation to the extent that some rooms I've seen recently on t'internet would give the poshest hotel a run for its money, both in terms of room quality and, it has to be said, price.

Which reminds me. A growing number of pubs are getting their act together and showing all they have to offer on the web.

This is clearly a good thing. But can I make a plea, one which if met might improve everyone's chances of making a success of attracting people to their establishment?

If you are going to create a website for your pub can you ensure that the photographs you take and subsequently use are of the best quality you can muster?

I'm not flogging anything here but your website is the window through which 'surfers' see what's on offer.

A collection of decent, well-lit and well-framed photographs of the pub, both inside and out, will sell it to the most fussy of potential customers.

You don't have to be David Bailey, but the ability to point a camera, get everything in frame and in a decent light - literally - will definitely help get your message across.

And if you take photos of your bar area, take them when the place is buzzing. Shots of glistening tables, spotless floors and the like are all very well, but a photo of an empty pub isn't nearly as alluring as one taken when the place is in full swing…