How many beds?

Who is your target market? Families? (Try to make some suites in that case, each with it's own bath so the rooms can be sold separately as well.) Couples? Friends? Mom & daughter? Guys?

That's how you figure out how many beds. Who is coming. Me? I don't want some crummy cot or fold out when I'm paying $200/night to go on vacation with my mother. (And I don't expect my 70 yo mother to sleep on the cot!)

You can, I know, force guests to take separate rooms. If you're the only game in town, it's a lot more money. We're not the only game so we have to balance that.

As for the second bed in our rooms...used a LOT. College trips for parent & child; friends traveling together; siblings; spouses.

At least give yourself the option of being able to put a second bed in the room. But it's more important if your market is couples to have seating.

I wish my smaller rooms (the ones with a shared bath) were large enough to have one of them with twin beds. There have been many times I needed 2 beds in a room.......

Edited to add would need only one room to have 2 beds in my market.

As stated, it all depends on the market you want to attract.  If you are gearing toward families, of course you need more than one bed in at least some of the rooms (depending on the # of rooms).  But if you are going with an all adult place you may opt for only one bed in each room. 

I do have 2 rooms of my 5 that have a second bed.  Originally the rooms had a queen and a full size sleeper sofa, after one broke due to miss use by a guest, we purchased day beds to take their place..  This works the best for us because they have dual purpose.  How often are they used, in my case it is more seasonally... Summers & holidays, otherwise very little. 

As Morticia gave the example of traveling with her mother, I will give the example of my recently departed guests, the husband and wife do not sleep in the same bed.  They are repeat guests and always book the same room, and have been known to change their plans when 'their' room is unavailable.

Agree to all of the above. 

Depends entirely on the market you expect and want to attract.  Sounds like your place would be family friendly, so more beds would be the way.

Depends also on the size of the room.  If the room seems too crowded now with the beds in them, they'll be way more crowded once guests and their bags are squeezed in.

A lot of inns find that the daybeds get a lot of use, even if no one's sleeping in them, as long as they're set up as comfy reading spots.

You'll also want to consider your septic capacity and just how many guests total you realistically can handle.  More beds mean more flushes and they all add up.

Three of my rooms have a queen bed and a daybed.  The daybeds are not fun to make up and when it is just a couple for a romantic weekend, it gets used as a luggage rack. UGH!  I don't think any of my guests have ever used the daybed as a sofa.   I hate having a third person in a room but they sure do come in handy when there is the third person and yes that does happen a lot.  Much better than making up a sofabed and guests seem to appreciate it more. 

Thanks guys for the imput.  I was planning on a mix of rooms.   Three suites with a layout of large room small room and bath;  One "flex" suite with a large room and a small room with a connecting bath between which could be booked as a suite, large room with bath or twin with bath.  The other rooms vary in size but will have their own bath.  One would work well with a king, some of the others would do best with a combination of smaller beds.  One suite downstairs is planned as ADA compliant. 

It was suggested to me to watch the total number of rooms and beds to keep it under the % of rooms which need to be compliant.   Having travelled with elder parents, I like the layout of this suite, and it is close to an outside door where a ramp could be installed with drive access but minimal visual impact.  

I  am relieved you all think a mix is ok.  I didn't want to think of replacing all the beds with queens. I was planning on doing a daybed in some of the suites, I may rethink that.   Some of the beds are going to go anyway, but some are nice and add alot of character.   Thanks again.

I am going to jump back in here about the daybed thing.  My experience is quiet different than the others here.  I love my daybeds and so do our guests.  They do use them to lounge & more when there are only 2 of them, but that is my intention.  I have a change in bedding if needed just like I do with my other beds.  Sometimes they are used for little bags but my rooms have ample closet space to spread out luggage. 

The style of daybed changes the complexity of bedding and time, effort in changing the sheets.  This bed uses a twin quilt, tucked in under the matress and pillow cases.  Easy as making any other bed. 

W?ow that is a jaw-dropping gorgeous daybed! 

i think a mix is great (some rooms with two beds) but you must get some queen beds asap. and a couple kings if you can. if you are running a b&b in the u.s., people want bigger beds.  back in 2005 when i was renovating an old place, the man running a 10 room hotel (now a b&b) across the road told me to get queen beds and that he was gradually replacing all of his with no smaller than queen.  and he has some rooms with two (big) beds in them. he was right. i was consistently asked for 'nothing smaller than a queen'  ... that was an eye opener for me.   even though the larger beds made the small rooms tighter, guests wanted that bigger bed.  i got grumbles about 'our bed is so small' but never 'our room is too small'.   i would have rooms with a lovely view of the harbor passed over because of a double bed.   also ... i had some very tall guests that wanted king beds or some accommodation for long legs at the end of the bed and i had a padded bench the height of the bed that i could fit out when asked to as though it were an extension of the mattress.  so i recommend staying away from foot boards unless you have really long beds. 

this is not a personal choice, i am happy in my short, twin bed. 

copperhead, that is some bed!  like sleeping in an elegant sleigh. i like it.

 Depends on the guests you get. We get all couples with just a couple of situations with mother/daughter type traveler who usually are fine with a king bed. 

In our area king beds are the biggest draw - no call for two beds in the rooms. What I've done just in case is to put a sofa in one that opens to a queen and a overstuffed love seat in the other that opens to sleep a twin bed. Have only used each one time. I would much rather do that then mess with the two twins and the belt and remake to change from two beds to one king.

It is in my estimation at least in our area, a "given" that a bed and breakfast room will have one bed - usually a queen but if you have room our guests love a king.

RIki

Think carefully about your market and why people are coming to stay with you.  I think from many of the experiences posted previously here by innkeepers with multiple beds in rooms that they have discovered it fosters guests attempting to push the occupancy limits in those rooms, which can lead to problems.  You need to have your max occupancy policy clearly stated for each room and be willing to enforce it. 

We have a mixture of types of rooms here and it's worked out very well.  We have a fairly large room with 2 Queen beds and it's our least booked room and it's a really pretty room.  But, it's worked for couples wanting separate beds, ladies traveling together, and infrequently for a third person.  Our most popular room has a King sized bed and can also be part of a 2 bedroom suite.  We have a fair number of folks that will go for our very large suite with a full sized sleep sofa in the living room for extra guests.  I have found for our location, it is RARE that folks want to have a third person right in the same room with them.  They like the privacy of a separate room in a suite arrangement for an additional guest(s).  Our rooms are fairly large, too.  Just my 2 cents....

I am catching up and just read this. We had a guest house that sleeps 12-16 -comfortably. 5 bdr/5bth. Two upstairs have 2 queen size each (perfect for families or couples friends traveling together) 3 bdrms downstairs, one has quen size bed and day bed, one king size bed and daybed. One is for our smallest and least expensive-queen size bed and love seat.

I would not put all queen size beds in a B & B unless necessary, we had one room in the main house that is a suite featuring a king size bed, sitting area and large bath. We also have three uptstairs rooms that in the future will remodel for renting-maybe.

Its nice to have a mix like everyone mentioned.

New article from iloveinns has a comment from an innkeeper who put recently 2 queen beds in each room and now has occ of 68% year round. She credits the second bed with securing her the additional bookings.

I don't see that play out around here. Actually, what I find in too many cases is that a man will not book a room with 2 beds. At all.

It all depends on who the market is. The innkeeper in the article is targeting baby boomers who are dealing with pain issues, snoring, older parents all traveling together.

Yes our rooms are pretty large for a historic home, but I can say that most of the people that stay in those rooms are either a family or two couples for a weekend....two days tops. Bathroom and stuff don't get really worked over. Guess you have to know your demographics. We catered to families as well so the two upstairs rooms where perfect for two families or they would rent the whole house and put the kids upstairs.

We've had all kinds of guests from anniversaries to birthdays to adult children renting the guest house to surprise their parent for their 60th birthday or the family that wanted lunch for the grandson that was getting married at Babcok National Park for him and the family which consisted of 20 people. So we've had all kinds of guests.

We are a pretty down to earth B & B cause thats what the market is here. Outdoors families-rafting, hiking etc so we never got too many people that came for a "luxurious" experience. We call it "home away from home" with a gourmet breakfast and amenities.

It suited us fine.