THE owner of a bed and breakfast who charges more than £1,700 per night at peak times has defended his pricing.

Ordinarily rooms at the Lockgate Dairy, near Chichester, go for between £80 and £140 a night.

However, the guesthouse, which is just a ten minute drive from the Goodwood racetrack, charges 15 times the usual rate during the venue's major festivals.

Defending the £1,757 price tag, owner Martin Lockwood said: "You’ve got to make hay while the sun shines.”

He added: “These magnificent events at Goodwood happen just three times a year and they bring rich people in from all over the world.

“My bank manager expects me to make the most of it."

Next up at Goodwood is the annual Revival festival in September which sees some of the country’s wealthiest classic car collectors descend on the venue.

A room at the Lockgate Dairy on the opening day of the Goodwood Revival was advertised recently at £1,757, while a deluxe suite at the Ritz on the same night would cost nearly £300 less.

The Argus:

Some bigger hotel chains use complex algorithms to amend prices based on fluctuating market demand but Mr Lockwood scoffed at the suggestion that his prices had been set by a computer.

He said: “I use the same device I’ve always used, a wetted finger in the air. If you don’t know your market you shouldn’t be in business.”

The former working dairy offers five-star accommodation in rooms with vaulted ceilings and oak beams and home-cooked breakfasts which have resulted in excellent TripAdvisor reviews.

He said: “It’s all down to the sausages, they’re made in a butcher’s just down the road and they’re award-winning.

“Really we’re a bed-and-break-feast.”

However, Mr Lockwood said the response from some over his prices had been nasty with his wife having received a number of “very intimidating, offensive phonecalls” questioning everything from their business practice to their religion.

He said: “We’re fully booked for Goodwood and we were fully booked for the Festival of Speed.

“I understand eyebrows being raised but that’s just life.

“There’s nothing negative about this story at all, this is a local business surviving and thriving by pricing well and knowing what the market will bear.”