And somewhat chastened. My point was to be aware of the fee, of which I was not aware through my own fault. Perhaps I did not express that clearly enough for some of you.

Frankly, I do not think that 2-1/2 weeks' notice of cancellation, especially for a 1 night weekday stay, puts a great hardship on a B&B in the low season. In addition, I have stayed at B&Bs all over the world over the course of many years of travel, and not encountered that policy anywhere else. Thus I will continue to think it is outrageous. Evidently I am in the minority on this board where that is concerned.

ckwald, I don't think you need to correct yourself because a lot of people don't know that a small independent inn will have a much tighter cancellation policy.

Go to www.PAII.org and you can learn a lot about small independent inns.

Perhaps if this were posted as a reply to the relevent post, more people would know what you are referring to.

I think sometimes we lose sight of the fact that it can be more hardship for a small B & B than a larger hotel - often these people live in their B & B's, or sometimes next to it, are the only "staff" and need to be there - there isn't a long list of employees - and I know of one where we stay when visiting our kid at college who tells me that like everything it has advantages and disadvantages -

one of the disadvantages, according to her, is taking a booking (at low season), then turning down an invitation, say from her famiy or a friend, and then having that person cancel even if it is 2 or 3 weeks out - at which time it may be too late for her to join them, or cost her more in airfare, or her lodging is difficult to find or unavailable, or the play or concert is sold out, etc - whatever reason - when it is a "one man band" it isn't like you can say to one of your other ten employees to man the desk and kitchen that weekend.

So just like, as part of her business, she is willing to make no other plans that weekend because a visitor is coming, the visitor must also be willing to pay for cancelling -

The B & B's we have stayed at over 8 yrs of having kids in college, all have fairly tight cancellation policies - and many, even on parent weekends, graduations, etc -(when they actually would be more likely to be able to re-book a room if I cancelled) - need to be paid a huge deposit ( like the one we just put down for graduation in 08.....)and have strict cancellation policies ...

Hey, everyone is welcome to their opinion - and your experiences with B & B's and cancellation policies didn't prepare you for this, - what you reminded everyone was that - even when we think we are familiar with travel, lodging, reservations, etc -to always check everything before committing !

I think that was the point of many comments,that it was good to remind people of this - but not to make it look like that particular B & B should be given a bad rap - you still think they are outrageous and that is ok, you - like all of us - can have whatever opinion you want - you just have to be ready to defend it to the hilt on this board

You need to post this to your original thread -

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=34986942

(Honest - $50 is NOT "outrageous")