toedtoes

I agree Thomas. And I apologize I'm not trying to be argumentative, it's just a good conversation.

Having worked in a pharmacy, I remember the news magazines routinely showing how Pharmacists are cheating their customers, switching the drugs, short counting the pills, etc. It does get annoying, or worse, to be lumped in with the bad.

Heck, I see it here with destinations when posters state "2 days is too long there, you only need a couple hours" or "don't bother going, go here instead". It's all subjective.

Brittany90

Scarlett: I agree with Thomas6, you're making a broad brush generalization about a segment of the lodging industry. Many B&B/inns are specifically marketed to travelers with pets. Most innkeepers that I know keep their own pets in their private quarters (we even have a private area of our yard for our dogs). This is just one of the many generalizations & misconceptions that are in this discussion. There are lots of different lodging choices out there, because everyone doesn't like the same thing. Why people choose economy lodging & some travelers stay in 4 star hotels. Let the traveler decide without being swayed by inaccurate info is all that I hope for.

bnbtraveler

Brittany90...You, as an innkeeper,should not have made the statement about 1-3 room places having no private area just for guests. I have 3 guest rooms, down from 4 when I started out 15 years ago. I have 2 parlours and a diningroom, plus a sleeping porch and a big front wraparound porch exclusively for guests. Do we share the front porch with guests who want us too at the 5pm snack time - YES! I understand you do too. That is one of the reasons people love it here. We also gently excuse ourselves after an hour or so so the guests can have it to themselves, or get on with their evening plans. We never go out there if we feel the guests really want to be by themselves...like last weekends wedding couple. Please do not generalize and think before making this type of comment! We are having a hard enough time here as it is gt;)!!!

yellowbyrd

We prefer to stay in B+B's but do our research ahead of time and ask a lot of questions before reserving. Because we do not like to share space with owners, we always look for a B+B or small inn where there is a dedicated guest entrance and living room as well as outdoor area that is exclusively for guests. We love to eat, so we look for a full breakfast and I am very fussy about cleanliness, so we look at all the reviews on tripadvisor.com and fodors.com for any comments that suggest a less than spotless environment. The point is....DO YOUR RESEARCH! There are good and bad hotels, and good and bad B+B's.

Some of our favorites?...
Cape Cod- Fort Hill Bed and Breakfast (We get our own cottage with fireplace, gardens and ocean views or the large suite with a soaking tub, sitting-room with piano. Unbelievable breakfast! Helpful innkeepers)

PEI-Barachoise Inn (Has to be seen! Separate building with 4 suites. fireplace, great spa tub, full breakfast. )

Bar Harbor- Graycote Inn (Reasonably priced, full breakfast, very helpful inn-keepers, rooms with fireplace and lovely porch)

Nantucket-Union Street Inn (A bit impersonal because of the size but the best we have found on Nantucket. Lovely suite with huge bathroom and nice sitting room. Full breakfast. Helpful innkeeper. )

New Orleans-Maison Perrier (Great location in the Garden District. Wonderful suite with sitting room and bathroom big enough to live in! Full breakfast.
Helpful hosts.)

Venice, Lucca, Volterra, London, Amalfi, Cinque Terra....
Hey...I could go on but you get the point. Of course I do have a friend who tried to get last minute accommodations to visit for Parent's Weekend at Ithaca College and ended up staying at a Pig farm!!!!
So do the research and make your reservations in advance...or take your chances with a B+B.

Judyrem

To the B&B ownwers on this thread, any good recs for Niagara on the Lake? ;-) ? No communal tables please! Brittany90, I would stay at your place in a heartbeat! We stayed at an Inn?B&B in Bar Harbor and Dingle, and had some of the BEST breakfasts ever.

SusanSDG

I don't think anyone here was bashing B&B's. On the contrary, I think this thread was started as a kind of true confessions of "I know people love them but I don't get it", originally just about the communal tables. If they weren't successful, popular choices theer's be nothing to discuss.
And the creepy stories are a blast. I, for one, would love "True Confessions of an Innkeeper with The Guests from Hell".

Scarlett

Brittany Let the traveler decide without being swayed by inaccurate info is all that I hope for.

You will have to hope for more than that here on Fodors Lounge.
We all ( Travelers ) discuss these topics every day, all day and night and we do our best to sway each other all the time. We also travel and experience a broad variety of places to stay, eat, etc.

These are called OPINIONS and we all have a right to them.
No names have been named, your B&B will remain nameless unless you bring it in with some sort of silly advertising.

This is the First time I can remember that a hotelier or B&B owner has ever come into a Fodors discussion and argued their point.
Enjoy the forums but do not try to control them.

Scarlett

Thomas, sorry, I missed your last post there..

Having NOT stayed in every B&B in the land, I will most certainly be generalizing when I discuss them.
If this topic were about a particular B&B, then I would stick to my issues with that one B&B.

We all do the same thing here when talking about Hotels and I do hope all of those General Managers are not coming onto Fodors next to argue their points!

The title of this thread is HOW DO YOU REALLY FEEL ABOUT B&BS?

We are answering that question.

You and the other owners might answer that question and not argue with the other posters regarding their answers.

flanneruk

American B&Bs? Loathe them.

They're always in a pretty new (by our standards) house whose owners rat on endlessly about the fact it's more than five seconds old (or "historic" as Americans call it, meaning nothing ever happened there and it all didn't happen about 1920).

All in favour of communal tables - but against the prissily designed main courses they serve instead of the proper egg, beans, bacon and chips breakfasts you get in real B&Bs at home. And, for all their aires and graces, no American B&B serves proper yogurt and insists on covering everything with sugar. If all this "healthy" food you serve instead of a proper fry-up's so good for you, how come you all die so young?

Lastly, even more than all those "my name's Darren and I'm going to make you feel really guilty you're not giving me a preposterous tip" waiters America's infested with, the bloody owners (or whatever absurdly pretentious name they give themselves, like "innkeeper") insist on being you new best friend.

Dreadful places. Nuke 'em all.

ME_Innkeeper

To Scarlett:

A couple of points...I don't think any innkeepers were trying to control the forum, unlike yourself, telling us not to...

Second point, I would think that 'travelers' (of which B&B and hotel owners make up a small portion) would really appreciate hearing from the owners of the places they stay.

Most of us who posted were trying to help with some of the misconceptions we noticed and trying to balance out the perceptions. After all, this is my sole business. If travelers who have never stayed at a B&B come here, see the topic and start reading, and there are no counterpoints from owners of the establishments, then it does present a somewhat lopsided view.

A 'he said, she said' conversation. 'I like them,' I don't like them.'

I was trying to bring up why it might be nice to try one.

As for all the negative and positive points the posters raised about B&B's I do have to say that if a lot of guests didn't like what the owners were doing the places would close. The frilly, lacy, doily places as well as the modern, urban, hip places.

I certainly wouldn't want someone to come here under duress. Like the guest I had earlier this year who only came because, 'I got this stupid gift card for Christmas or I wouldn't be in this dump.'

Scarlett

"A couple of points...I don't think any innkeepers were trying to control the forum, unlike yourself, telling us not to... "

why the smiley face? is it supposed to take the insult out of your remark? or just passive/aggressive??

ME_Innkeeper

Oh, right, and to answer the question...if I need to be in and out and don't need breakfast before I leave, I stay at a hotel.

If I'm on vacation and have time in my day, I stay at a B&B where I'm almost certain that I can speak with someone knowledgeable about the area and get a decent meal in me before I have to face the world.

My first B&B stay was in Ireland. Very nice, lots of fun. Second stay was in Nova Scotia. Great old house circa the US Revolution (moved to NS from Boston when the Tories was tossed). From then on I started actively looking for B&B's here in the US.

Less than 10 years after that first stay, I hung out my own shingle and it's been a blast.

Overall, I like them.

Judyrem

got this stupid gift card for Christmas or I wouldn't be in this dump.'
LOL, what a rudesby! What did you say? Some people have no manners IMO!

wanderluster

<<<<< That is one of the reasons people love it here. We also gently excuse ourselves after an hour or so so the guests can have it to themselves, or get on with their evening plans.>>>>>


Okay, no offense as you're probably
a lovely person, but an hour?? Even 20 minutes would be too long!

Again, nothing personal but when
DH and I have a chance to get away
with out the kids, we're not out
to make new random friends.

While we
can be delightful conversationalists,
we don't want to be!!!
We have enough *mandatory*
cocktail parties and social
events to attend that require
our sparkling wit and interesting
take on life

B&Bs are just way too up close
and personal!

Thomas6

'I also think when people refer to "hotels"..they are lumping a lot of different sorts of hotels together.. Maybe the Holiday Inn in Great Barrington smells like chlorine...'
So you, Scarlett, take exception to this generalization but feel completely justified in making similar ones about B&Bs? And you have a problem with a smiley face on another post when you did exactly the same thing on the first reply post to this topic? Whatever...
I have been posting on these boards for over 2 years and rarely bother with them anymore because of the vitriol that passes for opinion here - as this has. Glad to hear from those who enjoy communal tables and other aspects of B&Bs; glad the rest of you will continue to enjoy Hiltons and Motel 6.
Judyrem, I have never stayed in Niagara-on-the-Lake but the Harbour House Hotel is a Select Registry Inn, a group of inns & B&Bs with stringent inspection standards, and appears to have a dining room with separate tables. They are an inn rather than a smaller B&B; you might give them a try.

bnbtraveler

To wanderluster - We give ourselves one hour MAX as if we didn't do this guests would want to share way more time. We want our privacy too! Some nights the guests are so interesting and some others just hit it off that we could be up till midnight - their choice! I put the snack in the diningroom. They choose to have it or not, and choose where to enjoy it. It is not mandatory to have it, and especially not in any particular place. My wedding night couples are treated very special and given all the privacy they want. Their snack is already left in their room before their arrival! Ironically, on more than one occassion they have come out to the porch with us too!

bnbtraveler

One more point I feel I must make then that is it for this subject, at least for me. As you can tell, being an innkeeper is an all encompassing passion. We do it because we want to pamper people, give them the best we know how to do. As a professional (licensed by city, state and county), I feel this is my duty, monitoring these boards to see what issues potential guests may have. I have decided, due to this discussion, to make my wording on my website to specifically state that I have 3 different breakfast tables for 3 rooms....no sharing. I actually often do 3 different breakfast times so often guests don't see each other anyway! We appreciate the feedback, we don't appreciate the very negative and uninformed comments. In 15 years I have seen a major evolution from the cutesy, no TV type place to the b&b of NOW - flat screen TV's in rooms, fine linens, free wireless, chosen breakfast times, etc... A few years back we were FEATURED in the NY Times, an article on business travel. A guest woke up one day and forgot what city he was in. It was then he knew he could travel better - IN HIS OPINION - There is no right or wrong to this, just personal choices. You have no right to question people who desire b&b's and we have no right to say you must...end of story for me....15-1/2 years and still loving my interaction with guests, many who have become friends....guests from 21 countries, 50 states and 4 territories so far.....

wliwl

Is it bad that I won't leave a review for our favorite B&B because it's hard enough to get reservations there now?

BTilke

I'm not a big fan of most BnBs, but FlanneurUK's remarks about American BnBs are off the mark. In our part of PA, there's no shortage of 18th century places to stay, which is older than any of the BnBs operating here in the part of the UK where we currently live (or at least any of the ones you'd consider staying in). One of the "newer" BnBs in Bethlehem was built in 1858, which is still decades older than our listed "historic" cottage (included in the town's historic walking tour guide) in England.

I prefer larger BnBs, which are probably more accurately described as inns rather than homestay BnBs. For example, I would happily stay at the Sayre Mansion, esp. in a Carriage House Suite.

http://www.sayremansion.com/suites.htm

BTilke

And while I'm at it, might as well put in a plug for this beautiful corner of Pennsylvania, please, the PA Dutch country is not just about the Amish!!

http://www.sayremansion.com/areainfo.htm

Ok, commercial over. We now return to your regular program.