I am not really keen on bed and breakfast places and would much rather stay in a hotel with a bar and other amenities. Or maybe an apartment or perhaps a villa in the Algarve like one we once stayed in one January? It even had it's own swimming pool.
I'm watching Holiday Homes In The Sun on channel 5 every tea time this week. Yesterday it was Woolacombe in Devon and tonight it's Sintra near Lisbon. They jogged my memory of some of the b and b's I have stayed on my travels. I didn't pay the prices they pay on that programme. Tenner a night was more my price.
Going totally on a tangent and kind off subject. Did you know that the sitcom Rising Damp was set in Yorkshire? No nor did I. Well I will go to the foot of our stairs.
A Kent B and B in February.
Once we decided to go to Kent in the snow in February for a few days like you do? It was our wedding anniversary and we wanted summat to do. So we drove to Kent.
We had found the B and B advert in an old Lady magazine and duly knocked on the door and were greeted by two old ladies. They looked me and the wife up and down and said:
"What's your name and address? You sound like you come from up North? Why have you come down here in the snow? We have to report any bookings to the police you could be terrorists you know?"
We carried our bags to a downstairs bedroom.
"S'pose you'll be wanting yer breakfast in the morning? We don't have a dining room. We'll bring it on a tray to your bedroom in the morning. Ten o'clock sharp mind".
We sat on the bed and laughed when they had gone. " How odd" we both said.
Ten o'clock sharp next morning there was a knock on the door.
Have you ever stayed in any strange bed and breakfast establishments?
Your two old ladies do sound a bit odd.
ReplyDeleteWe haven't stayed in many B&Bs but we did offer B&B accommodation in our old house so perhaps some of our guests have some funny stories to tell about us!
I am sure were the Hostess with mostest JayCee.
ReplyDeleteI once read about someone renting an holiday home and they left a note saying: Very nice house but not enough baking tins!
You really want to go baking when you're on holiday.
Home from home!
DeleteA Hoover free zone would be my perfect holiday home or even a week in a Wetherspoons.
DeleteMy experiences of B&B's have all been pretty good. I have stayed in numerous nice houses with nice hosts and scrumptious breakfasts. I racked my brain to come up with an odd or funny tale but could not find one to match yours. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear YP. Faulty Towers was based on The Gleneagles Hotel after John Cleese and Connie Booth stayed there for the weekend and they met the hotels eccentric proprietor.
ReplyDeleteAs far as hotels go... Shirley and I stayed at a small hotel in San Stefanos on the west coast of Corfu in 2018. At the time I referred to the proprietor as Basiltus Fawltiopoulos. He was bad in so many ways but we had a nice, cheap holiday there all the same. Twice he gave me the wrong wifi code, served sweet white wine when we had asked for dry and he kept guests' passports in a jumbled cardboard box behind the bar. He called all women guests "darling" in a leering sexist manner. I could go on but I won't.
DeleteSounds like you have got a great idea for a sitcom there YP.
DeleteMy friends once went to see some Rock bands in Paris and a friend asked what was the name of the hotel and another friend said: "Hotel Bastardo" and he wrote down the name of the fictional Hotel
The new sitcom would be called Fawltiopoulos Towers. The owner could be played by Boris Johnson but his hair would have to be dyed jet black.
DeleteHe could be Dirty Den and Lis Truss could be Angie Watts.
ReplyDeleteWe have stayed in some VERY strange BnB's (Tigger included) and in Kent too, but we think your one takes the biscuit. Terrorists? I guess that's Kent for you.
ReplyDeleteIt was back in the nineties Tigger. They were very eccentric owners but there was nothing wrong with the bedroom/dining room. I like Kent very much and the people I have met have always been really polite and helpful. Bus drivers especially.
ReplyDeleteI stayed in rather weird B and Bs in Scotland in the 1970s. In Pitlochry I was required to pay extra when I expressed that I needed to wash and would like a shower or a bath. This was an extra cost and was 10p extra on top of the Bed and Breakfast. This may not sound much today but it was bizarre even at the time and the woman clearly was not happy with me asking.for a bath/wash. I found out later that it was normal in Scotland to have to pay extra for baths or showers. We stayed in many B&Bs on a drive round Scotland in my Mini and all were basic and the general feeling was that the people were not very friendly. It took until 1995 when I went back and found that the people in Glasgow and Edinburgh were in fact extremely friendly and possibly I had been wrong to judge the B&Bs as unfriendly, it was just the way it was.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds nightmarish! Husband and I were travelling around Devon/Cornwall back in the late 1980's. It was late and we didn't have anywhere to stay as everywhere was booked up. Eventually we found a pub with sleeping accommodation. We had to walk through the pub kitchen with our bags up to a damp and dark bedroom with an unmade bed with the imprint of the previous guest! I put my own towel over the pillow and kept my day clothes on all night!
ReplyDeleteHi! Don't know why I came up as Anonymous!
DeleteI don't know Simone.
DeleteThanks for that Rachel. The B and Bs owners can be a rule to themselves. We once saw B&B Ten Pounds hand painted on a house gable near Inverness. The man owner was so amiable and even made portidge for our then two year old. Great anecdote Rachel.
ReplyDeleteWe had a similar experience camping in Derbyshire. The owner said: "You can have the static caravan for another Pound." It was freezing and very much like the description of your pub accommodation. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks again Anonymous.
ReplyDeleteI am the same as you. I don’t like B&Bs because they are too up and close personal. Give me a hotel or, preferably, a rental any day.
ReplyDeleteYes Traveller it's like your standing on occasion or waiting for a posh relative to offer you a drink. I like just to pay and let me do my own thing. Travelodge in Oxford really impressed me when I visited Oxford in August. They were so human and couldn't do enough for us. Thanks.
DeleteThe woman said without smiling that I would need to pay again if I wanted another wash other than the wash basin It left an indelible mark on Pitlochry for me.
ReplyDeleteI am sure were annoyed at the meanness and stupidity back then but now you can see the funny side Rachel?
DeleteYes. A really strange one in Hamm, Germany.
ReplyDeleteA blog post perhaps Tom? Go on. Please.
ReplyDeleteI met up with my daughter in New Orleans, where she was sent for a seminar from Afghanistan. We stayed in a house. The woman was so very nice, but...the week before we were due to have the house, her friend was in a car accident, so we shared the house with a man in a wheelchair. He was very nice, but it just felt strange. Also...the first morning we were there, her cat jumped up on the bed and relieved herself on the duvet. That was an embarrassing call. She was so very nice, but she was a bit scattered.
ReplyDeleteIt's very easy to feel like an interloper in someone else's house Debby. I much prefer hotels and apartments.
DeleteI just don't like sharing a bathroom, to be honest.
DeleteYep. Total agreement.
DeleteTen o'clock for breakfast? Far too late. I've never stayed in a B&B, but I've stayed in Motels and Hotels. This coming weekend I will be in a Hotel again, visiting my sister in our home town with my brother. Her place is too small for visitors.
ReplyDeleteTen o'clock is late for breakfast River. I like hotels because you can use the facilities and if you want a drink or meal you can just order what you want. I have had some very poorly cooked full English/Irish breakfasts in b & bs.
ReplyDelete