When a B&B stay could be a drain on the spirits

SIR – As Guy Rose suggests (Letters, April 30), B&Bs have certainly improved since the Fifties and Sixties.

Once, on a trip to London with a friend (to visit the Biba boutique and go to Vidal Sassoon’s hair salon), we lodged in a B&B for a couple of nights. Our rather doleful host informed us that we would have to pay extra for the use of the bath plug.

I don’t think we took up the offer, and at that time we didn’t know about the potato plug. J F Finnie Edinburgh

SIR – In his marvellous Notes from a

Small Island, Bill Bryson tells how he was asked by a landlady to “please remove the counterpane each night – we have had some unfortunate occurrences with stains”.

He had no idea what he was supposed to do, having never heard of such an item before. Rosemary Almond Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire

SIR – Standards at B&Bs have indeed improved, albeit slowly.

Meandering through the streets of Morecambe recently, I saw a sign outside one establishment offering “COLOUR television”. Stephen O’Loughlin Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

SIR – We were recently looking for a B&B in Jersey.

One particular establishment, on its website, included in its key features: “Lavatory paper supplied”.

We decided on alternative accommodation. Nicholas Smith Stourbridge, Worcestershire