How Do You Really Feel about B&Bs?
 

I am looking for a B&B/Inn for the Shaw Festival in Niagara on the Lake. So Far, I have only found B&Bs with large communal bkfst tables. I don't know about you, but I prefer to have my own little space early in the morning. The B&Bs we have stayed at before, had their own separate tables for brfst. Do any of you feel that way too??

I don't like them.
They are usually in old homes so the walls are thin, the floors creak and the plumbing is not always wonderful.
I hate having to face other people in the am, before coffee...I don't especially like facing them while I have coffee either lol
I reeeally dislike communal tables, anywhere but home.

lol... am I being negative? :D

B&Bs are definitely an acquired taste. Some people like them, some don't.

We stay at one near my kid's college - the other guests are nearly always college parents too and it's fun to visit with them. Some of them we've stayed with several times! We are also close to the owners, so it almost feels like staying with friends.

That said, any other place we go we prefer a hotel. We like to have a fitness area and the general privacy a hotel offers.

If it's the only or most cost-efficient choice, sure, but mostly I prefer the anonimity of a hotel.

B&Bs are too much like staying with family for me and usually a little too 'chintz-and-ruffle' for my tastes.

That said, I've stayed in some very pretty ones in the Maritime Provinces. It's really a personal taste thing.

It so depends upon the Inn/B&B!! There are so many different types, one wonders how they can all come under the same general heading.
We've stayed in some lovely ones, but choose carefully.
Even in France, we enjoy staying in the chambre d'hotes in the countryside and villages.
Not all are chintz and ruffles, or really a family home.Our stays in Oregon,Vt. Maine, the North Shore in Ma. Mendocino in Ca.and many other places have all been enhanced by the Inns, as well as meeting some very interesting people. You can be as friendly or aloof as you like.

I hear you Scarlett! No you are not being negative IMO. I agree with the privacy thing wlwil. Gtg, actually the B&Bs there are just a bit cheaper. We have a reservation at a Best Western there, but it is a little out of the way,,,,but the privacy thing just might trump distance!!!

We've stayed at a few like that and haven't had any problems. In fact, we like talking to other guests about what they've seen and done. Perhaps you will find something they have done or seen of great interest and want to do it, too.

I know it was particularly helpful in Alaska, where there is much to see and do.

It could be an acquired taste, but for us, it seems to be right up our alley.

Sit down and break bread with people you don't know. It could be beneficial.

I've never been interested in trying a B&B. Bottomline is it's someone else's home. I prefer a hotel.

For the most part, I don't care for B&B's due to the privacy issue (and chintz/floral issue, lol).

One time we had no choice but to stay at one. Attempting to be social before the coffee took effect was just painful. Of course this was after a night of celtic music with a big group of friends, and way too many black and tans.

That said, DH did find one many years ago that was great. We were in Newport, RI and the couple had a sort of attached guest house. We had our own entrance, and they brought breakfast in a basket to our door. Other than than the only time we saw the owners was when the storm hit and power went out and they brought us candles.

IMHO it depends on the purpose of your trip and also on the individual place. I do find it ironic that B&Bs are promoted as romantic destinations, when as others have pointed out they usually involve some sacrifice of privacy.

My best experiences have been in Europe when traveling with family and we were genuinely interested in the owners and in other tourists' input, especially those who had already spent a couple of days in an area where we had just arrived. They were a great source of tidbits ranging from restaurant recommendations to alerts regarding quirky local customs.

On the other hand, in the US, I usually am not interested in the tradeoffs that are involved with B&Bs, especially the increasing trend to (ironically) offer only a "continental" breakfast rather than a cooked one.

My preference is inns followed by B&Bs. Puts a dose of humanity into one's life, which is so sorely lacking in this day and age. I can always go my room if I want privacy. Conversations I have with others, whose lives are so different from one's own, whose reasons for visiting a location are incredibly diverse, can really make my trip that much more meaningful.

Different strokes for different folks I guess. :) DAN

I'm with you, Scarlett ... I don't like strangers with my breakfast. :) I don't like having to be charming in the morning ...

We do occasionally stay in such a place, with the communal brekkie, but I prefer hotels and inns, really.

I like them if they have a more modern vibe and aren't all full of doilies! We stayed at a great one recently; the house had been completely renovated and was gorgeous with a wonderful view. The owners were very warm, and we had a lot in common with the other travelers.

Every time I get into one of these B&B discussions, there seems to be a major disagreement of terms. To me, a true B&B is someone who rents a couple rooms in their own home and serves them breakfast. I HATE that. But today larger inns with separate managers and staffs and no owners in residence seem to be called B&Bs. Many of those are fine with me.

But Judyrem. We've always stayed at the Moffat (Moffet?) Inn for the Shaw Festival (four times now). It's very pleasant, and you can have your own space at breakfast, even go into the lounge and sit at a coffee table if you want. It's very convenient about midway between the theatres on the main street. Plenty of parking in back too.

We have tried, really, since so many people like them. We stayed in one in Va. that looked very welcoming and relaxed, and the lady was lovely on the phone.
And it was all true, the landlady was wonderful, the place was relaxed and not stuffy, the rooms were beautiful, and I kept finding myself glancing with longing at the Hampton Inn down the street. DH felt exactly the same way.
They did have a communal table for breakfast, and we didn't mind that, but we (and our babysitter) were the only guests (the place only had four rooms).

It was just too much like staying in somebody's house. We had wanted to see if the "right" B&B (and this one was pretty darn close) was a good fit, and our final verdict is that it just isn't us. Now I don't even really like staying in the homes of people I know, so that may have been predictable. Interestingly, our baby-sitter loved it, and would stay in a B&B again in a hearbeat if she were to travel again. She was not really working on this trip. She doesn't get a lot of opportunity to go places, and we offered to bring her with us. She mostly paid for herself, except for a couple of meals where it was easiest to just throw her on the tab.

Not that I travel much anymore but I like B & Bs. My wife and I honeymooned in Ireland staying at B & Bs exclusively. Touring Italy, we always stayed in pensiones.

Do not like B&B's. Have stayed in many over the years, but I really don't like them, overall.

Just give me a nice hotel room with a coffe maker and a good restaurant.

We have stayed in a number of B&Bs that had little individual brkfst tables. One can check out w/the establishment the issue of communal vs private brkfst, if that is the deal-breaker. I do not wish to wake up to company either! :)

Patrick's point is a good one. There is something of a blurring between the line of inn/B&B. I tend to use B&B for any kind of smallish, charming, older place that includes brkfst, which may not be an entirely accurate use of the term. I am among the group that do not wish to stay in one of the 3 rooms offered by people who have opened their homes to guests....upon reflection, there used to be a term called "guest house" and that is the kind of B&B that turns me off.

I prefer the ones where the owners don't live on the property. We stayed at a 3-bedroom one recently, and the owners lived off site, but came in to make breakfast. Also recently stayed in one that had an adjoining house the owners lived in - if you needed them, you just buzzed the bell, but they weren't overly intrusive at all.

We've had one very good experience in Hawaii but otherwise we avoid B&B's for all the reasons mentioned.

I think there were several reasons why it worked for us this one time in Hawaii; it was the home of an artist (so no floral chintz) and there were separate entrances to the B&B part of the property so at no point did guests actually enter the 'home' part of the house. There were also 2 separate breakfast areas so we didn't actually have to sit with the other couple that were having breakfast and we noticed they'd actually been given a different time for breakfast... presumably to make it easy for the owners to just serve one set of guests at a time.

I think if you choose very carefully then sometimes you get lucky with B&B's but overall we prefer apartments above hotels with B&B's trailing way behind in last place!