# When is an inn really an inn? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 18, 2022, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-an-inn-really-an-inn/975140 "2022-11-18T12:31:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-an-inn-really-an-inn/975140/21 "2022-11-18T21:01:10Z")
Unless it’s the White Horse Inn, in which case you can’t move for people singing and dancing. But a _really_ traditional inn should have a house dog (woe betide anyone who sits in its seat), an oldest inhabitant and/or village idiot (woe betide, etc.,), who will tell you when “it was all fields round here”, and a jolly but no-nonsense barmaid. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-an-inn-really-an-inn/975140/22 "2022-11-18T21:35:14Z")
What were the practices of old-school Italian osterie [inns] and trattorie? Same as any other inn? (I think there are some stories in the _Decameron_ where people go out to eat?) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-an-inn-really-an-inn/975140/23 "2022-11-18T21:43:43Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > A traditional inn has three wise men and a virgin out back. Old joke: Why wasn’t Jesus born in [your most disliked city]? They couldn’t find three wise men and a virgin. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2022, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-an-inn-really-an-inn/975140/24 "2022-11-18T23:34:31Z")
> [@Ynnad](#): > > I have nothing useful to contribute. I’m just here to give a shout out to whoever named the Lake Eufaula Inn in McIntosh County, Oklahoma. (Eufaula is pronounced ‘you falla’.) Along those lines, there used to be a motel in The Dalles, Oregon named Inn at The Dalles. It was strung out along the top of a bluff and had a large sign that you couldn’t miss from eastbound I-84. I never stayed there, but got the impression it was a rather shoddy place. But I long thought it should have been renamed The Farmer Inn. (For those who don’t get it, combine the name of the inn with the name of the town.) Googling (I haven’t been through The Dalles in a while) I find someone’s bought it and refurbished it and renamed it. Unfortunately, they chose the name Celilo Inn. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2022, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-an-inn-really-an-inn/975140/25 "2022-11-19T03:57:32Z")
> [@Ynnad](#): > > I have nothing useful to contribute. I’m just here to give a shout out to whoever named the Lake Eufaula Inn in McIntosh County, Oklahoma. (Eufaula is pronounced ‘you falla’.) Did they watch a lot of Rocky and Bullwinkle when they were young? Brings to mind too the joke about “The Olde Log Inn”. less PG. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2022, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-an-inn-really-an-inn/975140/26 "2022-11-19T19:31:51Z")
You mean Days Inn isn’t traditional? ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2022, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-an-inn-really-an-inn/975140/27 "2022-11-19T22:08:37Z")
> [@jjakucyk](#): > > Historically, what differentiated an inn from a restaurant (aside from the former also having rooms to rent) was that a restaurant had a fixed menu and your food was prepared at the time you came to eat (within reason). Whereas at the inn you ate whatever the innkeeper prepared whenever it was ready. “Supper is at 6:30, we’re having mutton stew and succotash tonight.” This is also a good point. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2022, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-an-inn-really-an-inn/975140/28 "2022-11-19T22:19:58Z")
> [@themapleleaf](#): > > Inn on the Park; also some motels call themselves “motor inns”), The original Inn on the Park _was_ a Motor Inn on King W. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2022, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-an-inn-really-an-inn/975140/29 "2022-11-19T22:23:58Z")
I consider an inn to be more rustic, as opposed to a motor inn, which is just a motel. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-an-inn-really-an-inn/975140/30 "2022-11-20T08:08:59Z")
My rule of thumb is that if somewhere adopts the word “inn” in its name and advertising - it probably isn’t (though it may well be a very welcoming and comfortable hostelry of some other sort). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-an-inn-really-an-inn/975140/31 "2022-11-20T13:39:45Z")
> [@jjakucyk](#): > > Historically, what differentiated an inn from a restaurant (aside from the former also having rooms to rent) was that a restaurant had a fixed menu and your food was prepared at the time you came to eat (within reason). I mean _historically_ restaurants are a fairly new phenomenon. Right? As in only a century or two at hhe most! ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-an-inn-really-an-inn/975140/32 "2022-11-20T15:30:11Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > only a century or two at hhe most! More like 4. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-an-inn-really-an-inn/975140/33 "2022-11-20T15:41:45Z")
> [@themapleleaf](#): > > That would be my preferred way of touring the UK as well. That’s a good choice. Far from being some vanishingly rare option, the concept of pubs/inns/small hotels that you are thinking of are very common in the UK and often really good value. They are nice options for exactly the reasons you say, nice pub downstairs with a restaurant, a little room just upstairs and breakfast in the morning. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-an-inn-really-an-inn/975140/34 "2022-11-20T20:46:50Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I consider an inn to be more rustic, as opposed to a motor inn, which is just a motel. Yeah, IIRC a “motor inn” is just an older name for what we call a motel today. From what I understand, when Americans first started taking long trips by car, when they wanted to stop for the night people would just find a field, ask the farmer for permission to camp there for the night, and maybe pay him a few dollars for the trouble. Some of those farmers realized there was a business opportunity there, and started building cabins on their property that they would rent to travelers for the night. Those collections of cabins came to be knows as “motor courts” or “motor inns”, which over time evolved into the modern motel. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-an-inn-really-an-inn/975140.md?page=1)