What do you think of British B&Bs? Email us with your stories and see comments from other readers

THE GOOD OLD British B&B has come in for many a knock over the years. And so it should, at least in England, where the places I’ve stayed have epitomised my worst nightmares of nylon sheets, swirly carpets and service without a smile.

Yes, it’s a generalisation and, yes, I’m sure there are charming places where the owners serve homemade jam over breakfast by the Aga, but I haven’t stayed in them, and neither has anyone I know.

What is it about English B&Bs that gives their owners licence to sprinkle twee ornaments everywhere, from the crinoline lady hiding the spare lavatory roll to heart-shaped pomanders hanging from every doorknob? On a recent trip to a New Forest B&B, I encountered mismatched furniture crammed into tiny rooms, and an owner in a Hilda Ogden apron who was as miserable as the weather. A colleague, who checked into a pub B&B in Bedfordshire, rolled up ten minutes before the deadline for the “7am to 9am sharp breakfast” and was told he was too late. When he asked meekly for a cup of coffee the stony response was: “The bar opens at noon.”

What I want to know is why, if you head north of the border, standards seem to be so different. For every bad experience in an English property, I’ve had a wonderful one in Scotland, which seems to be full of places with excellent service, fantastic prices and rooms as beautiful as their locations.

Could it be down to the Scottish concept of hospitality, where people wouldn’t dream of letting you leave their homes without a cup of tea and a plate of homemade shortbread? Take the B&B owner in Perthshire, who came out one icy morning earlier this year and defrosted my car for me. Or the historic Inveresk House, 15 minutes from Edinburgh, where Alice Chute serves breakfast in an enormous dining room under a Scottish plasterwork ceiling.

My best find on two visits to Scotland this year was St Munn’s Old Manse in Kilmun, which doesn’t feature in any guidebook. My room, full of sumptuous furnishings, had views over Holy Loch to the mountains beyond. A large chunk of the £20 I paid for the room (no single supplement) must have gone on the fridge crammed with refreshments — no minuscule plastic milk pots here. And in the bathroom, there was a stash of toiletries for anyone who had forgotten something.

The owner, Angie Burke, told me over a delicious cooked breakfast that she likes to run the place as if she were catering for friends. All I can say is — lucky friends.

St Munn’s Old Manse (01369 840311, www.visitscotland.com); Inveresk House (0131-665 5855, chute.inveresk@btinternet.com).

What do you think? E-mail readersforum@thetimes.co.uk.

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