Wow, you people are my heroes! I thought I was alone in hating B&Bs. My wife goes ape shit for a chain of B&Bs out here on the West Coast (a chain you say? Yes, it’s true!) called the Three Sisters Inns. Each is different, but they are all equally ‘Grandma’s House’ in feel, and all VERY expensive. After my wife raved about one in Pacifica (near Santa Cruz, CA) where she stayed on a business trip, I agreed to go for our Anniversary and boy did it suck. It was on a busy street with constant noise, paper thin walls, and no TV…anywhere in the place! Yes, I like to read and have sex in a bed just like anyone else, but I also like to watch TV. And if I am paying upwards of $300 a night, I expect basic ammenities by which I do not mean hand-crocheted doilies and creepy antique dolls.
I’ve been in B & B’s twice - one felt like the owner was overly intrusive, the other I was very very thankful that the owners were so attentive and personable. If they hadn’t chatted us up and therefore known which ferry we intended to catch (from Labrador - OK, technically the ferry leaves from Quebec - to the island of Newfoundland), we would have missed our ferry, and waiting for the next one would have either killed our touring day or caused us to miss the ferry from Newfoundland back to Nova Scotia. I’m very thankful we were in a B&B there.
That said, I found EVERYBODY we met in the Labrador Straits region to be helpful, friendly and accommodating. On the whole, I think I’ll avoid B & Bs, for the most part. I’ve seldom had a bad experience with a chain hotel/motel.
You have SOOOOO much to learn.
I’ve never stayed at a B&B but I know myself and I know I’d prefer a chain hotel. I don’t want to have to make conversation with people around the house and the owners/managers. I like a generic hotel for the anonymity and feeling of being on the road and somewhere blank and nowhere.
I am trying to reserve a big room at a B&B during leaf peeper season though, for some friends coming into town, but only because it’s around the corner from me.
For business, I’d prefer a chain hotel (I’ve never been given the option of anything but a chain hotel, but I think that’s what I’d choose if I had.)
For tourism, I prefer non-chain small hotels or alternative accomodations. But really, I’m only in my room to sleep and shower, so as long as it’s clean, warm, and there’s a lock, I’m ok. And there are good and bad B&Bs. At good ones…well, I might not decorate a room like that, but I can definitely sleep there for a night or two - and the owners and I kept pleasant but respectful distances.
OTOH, this past weekend, I stayed at a particularly awful one. I do not care to repeat that experience.
All kidding aside, when I’m in a chain hotel, the anonymity actually helps me “claim” the room as my own. In a B&B it’s impossible to get away from the fact that you’re in someone else’s room. The impersonal nature of the chain hotel allows me the illusion that I’m in “my” room since it doesn’t force anyone else’s decor preferences upon me.
Replace “ESPN” with “a shower with decent water pressure” and I could have written this.
I will admit there is one B&B I’d like to stay at: The Lizzie Borden B&B Museum. Rooms range from $150 to $300+ depending on which one and the season. Surprisingly, the John V. Morse Room (named after Lizzie’s uncle who stayed there when visiting and, more importantly, the room in which Abby Borden was murdered]) is no more expensive than any other, though I understand it is the most often booked.
Anyone know of any other “specialty” B&Bs such as this one?
There’s one outside of St. George, UT that I can’t find a link for, but it belonged to a well to do polygamist in the late 19th century who had 4 wives and more than 2 dozen children, and so it’s fairly perfect for a B&B. I also wouldn’t mind staying in a *really *old one (i.e. not Victorian but preferably pre-Revolution, preferably preferably 17th century) so long as it had the modern amenities.
At one point there was talk of turning some of the many guest rooms at the Biltmore estate into a very upscale B&B, though apparently they just built the hotel instead and decided to leave the 250 room main house as is.
If I’m traveling for work, any chain motel will do as long as it is clean and secure. I’m just there to work and I only use the room as a place to sleep and shower.
But if I’m traveling for pleasure, I will generally stay in a B&B with my better half. In almost 24 years of wedded-fucking-bliss, we’ve probably stayed in upwards of 50 different B&Bs. Many of them have disappointed us for exactly the reasons everyone else has mentioned - uncomfortable beds, small rooms with thin walls, weird owners, other guests sharing your bathroom, and wall-to-wall foo-foo crap everywhere. My least favorite were the ones that were just a room in an ordinary house, obviously a former child’s room, where the wife had decided to redecorate it into a B&B and the husband didn’t have the willpower or upper body strength to stop her. I’ve never seen so much Dusty Rose and Cornflower Blue frilly crap in one place in my life.
OTOH, we have stayed in a lot that were an absolute delight. We’ve spent quite a few long weekends in and around the Texas hill country, particularly near Fredricksburg, and the place is lousy with B&Bs. And by lousy, I mean over 350in a town of ~10,000 people. The best of them are of the “guest house” variety, where you have the whole place to yourself and you may not even meet the owners. These types of B&Bs are more than just a room to sleep in and a new place to watch TV, they’re part of the vacation itself.
So if I’m travelling alone on business - Holiday Inn Express is just fine. But if I’m getting away for a long weekend to relax with my sweetie, I’ll take the Palo Alto Barn every single time.
haven’t done too many B&B’s. I’m more interested in a clean room with good cable. Definitely not interested in sharing a bathroom. I would want a B&B if it was part of a package and related somehow to a historical area. That would be cool.
With that said I rented a house at Oshkosh for a couple of years and it was a wonderful experience because we had the upper floor to ourselves and the owners were great. We got to know them and any conversations between us were genuine. I truly enjoyed seeing them each year. Broke my heart when they stopped doing it.
mmmm, tacos!
Anyway, I much prefer hotels and the mention of tacos and sausage reminds me of a story of one hotel I stay at on a regular basis in Dubai.
Round about 2am one morning there arose such a clatter in the hall way that I had to investigate. It seems a local, ahem, ‘lady of the evening’ was objecting to the lack of payment from a visiting gentleman late of the UK. The lady was making it very plain what she thought of him and his performance. She called him many unsavory things in what sounded like many different languages. He in turn was roaring obscenities to match her own. Into the mix was added the hotel manager on duty and the doorman. What help they would be was uncertain as tears were rolling down their eyes from laughter. For you see both the participants were soundly drunk. The lady in question was barely presentable and the gentleman was wearing only a t-shirt. So, when the lady pointed out his inadequacies it was plain for all to see, and by this time there were many to see, that she was only telling the truth!
This is the kind of hotel I like to stay at:D. And it is a 5 star!
A chain motel would be listed as a B&D selling rooms by the hour.
If I’m ever in beet country, I’d definitely stay here. Otherwise, hotels all the way for me.
I’d like to hear about it, if you’d like to tell us.
My daughter got married in a B&B in Washington, Georgia, but that was a special case. First, we took over the entire house, so no strangers to talk to. Second, the owning couple were not cute old people, but were French educated chefs. He seems to have bought all the good parts of the town. So that worked.
We stayed in a couple of plantation houses in Louisiana. Those were a bit more organized, and you were in the slave quarters, not someone’s house. On the other hand, I stayed in one in Wichita Kansas, which had B&B breakfast but chain hotel rooms. The problem was they served pancakes with fruit in them, and I hate pancakes with fruit, and there was nothing else. For the most part, chains are close to where I want to be.
It had location going for it. Though it was in a residential area, it was about 4 blocks from where things were. And the people who owned it were very nice.
On the bad side, over the years, she’d bought so much stuff, knickknacks and doilies and collections and whatnots and pictures everywhere, that a team of maids probably couldn’t have kept it dusted. She definitely wasn’t able to keep up the dusting all on her own. Plus, it wasn’t cohesive. It is one thing if it looks like the Victorian Era belched all over the bedroom. It’s another if it’s joined by the Roman Empire, Prarie Style, and a Sci-Fi convention.
The house was not in good shape - the breakfast room that they’d added on was probably at the borderline of the building code, if that. Their contractor had left quite a bit to be desired. The little we could see of the kitchen on checking in, it was a little poorly lit and a little less clean than I want to believe professional kitchens are. But, not so bad that the only option was to walk out.
But the real kicker came at breakfast. In between serving guests, one of the owners regaled us with stupid pet tricks. I tolerate “getting to know” the B&B owner; I have no need to get to know the owner’s pets. I don’t care how fascinating the pet might be - I don’t want to see the owner french kiss it while I’m eating. I especially do not want to see that pet relieve itself during my meal. And then when the B&B owner follows that up by serving another person without washing his hands - well, it isn’t good.
Try Randall’s Ordinary in Stonington, CT – the original house was built in 1685 and served as an inn. (They also have a second building that is a converted barn.) Dinners are cooked over the open hearth in the original building, and although the dining room is lovely, there are also tables in the kitchen (next to the hearth) so you can watch the cooking in progress. My husband and I stayed there on our honeymoon in 2004 (in the newer building) and had a great time: it was by no means overwhelmingly personal, but the service was excellent and the staff seemed to really enjoy telling us about the history of the place. It’s now owned by the Mashantucket Pequot tribe (who also own the nearby Foxwoods Resort and Casino), but they do seem to be doing the right thing as far as preserving the ambiance of the place.
(On the same trip, we also stayed in one of the old buildings at Old Sturbridge Village, which was more hotel-like than a B&B but a really nice experience all the same.)
Back to the main topic…I have enjoyed the B&Bs I’ve stayed in, for the most part, but I don’t think I’ve stayed in a “bad” B&B, at least as defined above. Or maybe it’s that I’ve lucked out, and the places I have chosen to stay have generally tended to match the mood I am in on that particular trip-- so if I’m feeling relaxed and expansive, a “cozier” B&B will be more welcome than an impersonal hotel. (I love going the B&B/hostel route on trips to Ireland, for example.)
I think it really depends on location, but I think I’d prefer a hotel.
We’ve stayed at 2 B&Bs:
St. Augustine, FL: First time staying at a B&B. I picked the handicap accessible room because it had a big private shower, and recently remodeled. The room was OK, had lace n stuff everywhere. The bed had a 5 step stepstool to get into the bed (it did have some uses during our long weekend there! :D) There were 2 french doors leading to the outside with some window covering on it, but still not enough to cover it for my taste.
We’d take our breakfast and eat outside. In the evening if we were around we’d grab some cookies and glasses of wine and take it back to our room. We weren’t into really talking with anyone else either. So we tried to keep to ourselves as much as possible.
I can’t remember if it was the last night, or the last 2 nights we stayed there but there was a motion activated light outside the room that was going off all night. There was a ‘noreaster’ type storm blowing up the coast and it was so rainy and windy and so the light kept going off. It was horrible, we couldn’t sleep all night because the doors didn’t really keep the light out, and I’m surprised we didn’t go into seizure with the blinking light.
Key West, FL: This was our second stay at a B&B. The place we stayed at was about a block away from the B&B itself in one of their cottages. (Top floor of a house 1 room, kitchenette, private bath, jacuzzi and outdoor shower on the deck) Only time we really had to interact with anyone was check in/out, and the one time we came back to the room mid-day and someone was changing out the towels. Actually we scared him because he had just grabbed the old towels, and was coming back with fresh ones and we happened to come back then. The guy was pretty quiet since my husband had just fell asleep.
I’d definitely go back to this place, because it was priced that of a B&B, was within walking distance of all the places we wanted to go, had a microwave/kitchen/jacuzzi. It was like staying at one someone’s house, but you didn’t have to see or talk to them! I really missed having a pool though, especially in a place like KW where it gets really hot.
In the end, if I’m staying somewhere and walking is important and there’s a reasonably priced B&B to stay at I’d strongly consider it, otherwise I’ll pick a hotel and earn some points to come back for a free stay. I really miss not having a pool if I’m staying somewhere and actually would have time to use it, so I’d opt for a hotel that had an indoor pool (or maybe outdoor but who knows with weather). I like the anonymity of a hotel, because then we can have loud ‘relations’ and not worry about it - which is important when hubby and I can get nights out together without the kid (+1 coming). :p:D
I just wanted to say that the Moondance Inn in Red Wing, Minnesota, absolutely did not impose their dogs on us. We didn’t see the dogs once until the morning we left, until we mentioned our own dog and the owners told us they had dogs. We were the ones who wanted to see the dogs perform.
I think we have had the best times staying at historic properties, mansions that the owners have fixed up to their former glories. The Moondance fits into that category.
Cool, that sounds great! (I’ve always wanted to go to Plimoth Plantation during the Thanksgiving season- that might make a great place to visit while there. I saw Old Sturbridge as a child and loved it; there are similar places in the south but not quite as large a scale).