Kirklands Bed & Breakfast

Good location. Good breakfast and excellent choice of beers. Free parking, albeit a bit of a squeeze to access, but a cool head works wonders.

Lovely old house, lots of character, and very comfortable. Beautiful gardens. Douglas looked after us so well, excellent breakfast, eggs from own chickens.

Thank you for a delightful stay at your house, and in Melrose. We loved your breakfasts. It was such a treat having home grown berries. Thank you for your warm and professional hospitality. We look forward to showing you similar if you ever come to Bali. Love, Rick and Peta, Amori Villas

Nothing

Delightful period property with great host.

Unfortunately, Kirkland's presentation on booking.com was hugely misrepresented (which the host blames entirely on the booking agent). The property is well outside of Melrose. Neither the host nor booking.com provided driving directions. Travellers, unable to access Google Maps would be at a loss to locate the property. Breakfast was pleasant but nothing special.

Our booking.com reservation said that we had booked a superior room with ensuite bathroom and a fireplace. We paid extra for this room. The confirmation email provided a list of items that would be available in the room (including an alarm clock, radio, DVD, etc.) None of these items were in the room. The bathroom was actually down the hall...not private and not secure. Neither the bedroom door nor the bathroom door were lockable. The host said that he had lost the keys. The bed was a sparce mattress on a wooden slab. When we checked in and expressed our concern about the room, the host (Doug) said that booking.com assigns the rooms (obviously not true). He finally admitted that he had given our "superior room" to another guest. No reduction in cost though. We were just supposed to pay the extra and suck it up. We contacted booking.com to cancel our reservation. Booking.com asked us to send pictures of the room (which we did). Booking.com agreed that this was not a superior room and said the host had to agree to cancel. They sent the host three separate emails requesting his approval to cancel without charge. When asked repeatedly, Doug (the host) said that he never received any emails from booking.com. We stayed in the place because it was obvious that Doug was not truthful and would not have consented to a cancel without charge. On the morning of our departure, Doug came out to the car and told us that he had received booking.com's three emails when we had checked in...but he had just ignored them. After our return home, booking.com provided us with a partial refund as compensation for the host's multiple misrepresentations. The wise traveler should steer clear of Kirklands B&B in Melrose. There are, no doubt, a lot of more reputable B&B operators in the Melrose area. Don't give Doug a change to rip you off too.

We would recommend Kirklands House to anyone. I loved everything about it. The room, the peaceful location, the food, but most of all our hosts Douglas and Penny. This was hospitality at its very best. It felt like they were sharing their beautiful home with us, not running a B&B. We wouldn't hesitate to return there.

There was nothing we didn't like.

The house was not in Melrose as advertised. This caused a problem because I travelled by train from England to work in Melrose.