Edinburgh bed and breakfast

I booked into this establishment for two nights by telephone. Mr Sandilands told me that the cost would be £37.50 per night, and a total of £75.00.

The guest house was comfortable, clean, and pleasant, (apart from the cat which shared occupancy of my room and bed on the second night - a bit awkward if you have an allergy.)

However, when I checked out I handed Mr Sandilands my debit card to pay for the room. He inserted it into a machine and asked me to punch in my pin number. I did so automatically and then realised that he had entered a charge of £140.00.

I told him this was wrong and he said (nervously laughing) that he had given me a discount.

I said "No, you have overcharged me". The price was £75.00, not £140.00. He then said that he had told me on the telephone that the price was £75.00 per night, which was not true. I know what I was told, and I had written it down when he told me.( If I had wanted to pay £75 per person per night, I could have gone to the Holiday Inn only a hundred yards away).

He refused to refund my money, and handed me £10, saying that was as far as he was prepared to compromise.

I told him I wanted a full refund of the money he had surreptitiously taken from my bank account. He smirked at me and he refused, telling me that our contract was verbal and had no legal standing. He told me that if I tried to take legal action for recovery of the overcharge, I would just be wasting more money and there was nothing I could do about it.

Well Mr Sandilands, I may not be able to sue you, but I can certainly make sure I tell as many people as possible about the underhand way you obtained money from me under false pretences. I can also file a complaint with your local trading standards office and the Scottish Tourist Board.

If anyone reading this is looking for bed and breakfast accommodation in Edinburgh, I strongly recommend any guest house apart from Sandilands. There are many good. Edinburgh B&Bs, but in my opinion Sandilands is definitely not one of them.