Is a bed and breakfast a B&B if it only has ONE guest room?

Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum

Help Support Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

JBloggs

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 7, 2008
Messages
17,744
Reaction score
9
I have come across yet another B&B with website and promotions and it is a SINGLE GUEST ROOM? Is this a B&B or IS THIS A HOMESTAY?
Can anyone make a bed, serve a breakfast and then voila they are now a B&B? Seems to me every house from here to there would now be a B&B for TAX WRITE OFF purposes (yes I saw it as I see it). This is not good for those of us who run legit B&B's with designated guest common areas and operate these as INNS.
 
My understanding of a homestay: Hosts and family share their living space (and maybe bathroom), eat breakfast with the guests and (more often than not), the guests sleep in Jr.'s bedroom with all his stuff in the closet while he's away at college or sleeping elsewhere while paying guests are in the house. I think this is most common in farmstay situations in this country.
We have an Inn in our regional group with one room. Private guest spaces and full breakfast, on a famous lake and rates are $300-$350 a night. She certainly considers herself a B&B, as do her guests.
Assuming the criterias of amenities and privacy are met, what difference does size make? Up to the owner how much of their life and home they want to give up. If they provide everything any other B&B provides and pay as much to market as anyone else and do business legally, who has the right to tell them they are not a legit B&B?
 
Yep...still a B&B. I hope they are paying their lodging taxes etc. Some folks just want to try it I guess. Seems like a waste of time and effort to me to do just one room but if they enjoy it and do it well. I say fine.
 
We have in our Assoc a 1 room B & B - and it IS a B & B suite. They built a log house and the ground floor is a one room suite B & B. Beautiful place.
 
I agree with Wendy...if it's professional and not just staying in the spare bedroom, then it's a b&b.
 
I agree. I looked at homestays as an option to bring in revenue (with hopefully less time investment on my part). No thanks. The places I researched taked about providing multiple meals a day, possibly transportation (often students are the ones staying during a homestay). That sounded an AWFUL lot like another child to me...I need one of my own to move out before taking that on.
 
In our town a B&B is considered a place renting 1-3 bedrooms. Beyond 3 rooms is considered an inn and all the laws change. When I first opened I started with one room and then went to three.
 
As long as they open legally I do not see a problem. That is the biggest issue as there are so many places that the powers that be would not allow this type of business to legally opperate.
In my area, lodgings with 1-2 rooms are not required to collect taxes, this opens up a huge can of worms in my opinion. And we also have issues with vacation rentals, who are renting on a nightly basis and not collecting taxes as they are using a loop hole in the system and no one is listening (or willing) to do anything about it. At one point one small 2 room B&B also started renting a vacation rental (on same property), using the same website and rented it with the same policies, they never were required to collect taxes.
 
Sure if they are legal, insured and inspected. They may be starting out like us, creating one room at a time to avoid a huge debt.
RIki
 
Funny about the share a bathroom with the hosts part, I don't even share a bathroom with my kids.
 
Sure if they are legal, insured and inspected. They may be starting out like us, creating one room at a time to avoid a huge debt.
RIki.
Me too Riki....started in 2002 with the Cottage (paid in full ), 2004 added the Inn suite & hot tub sun room, 2006 2nd bedroom in the Inn suite and 2010 the 2 story barn. All paid in cash but money came from a rental home, got a new loan 5.35 %,was 8.25% before. 2012 might be the 3rd and last room (under the Cottage).Mary in Bwater :)
 
We started with one room, July 2007.
Second room October 2007.
Didn't add the other two rooms until summer 2008.
=)
Kk.
 
One room imo is "letting out a room".
Joey Bloggs said:
One room imo is "letting out a room"
Not if it is done in style as here http://www.blue moon farmbb.com/ welcome.php
RIki
.
egoodell said:
Joey Bloggs said:
One room imo is "letting out a room"
Not if it is done in style as here http://www.blue moon farmbb.com/ welcome.php
RIki
I agree with this statement. and... a cottage is another story altogether. :)
 
Just found another one room B&B near us by a fluke, it has a 1000 foot suite, it is not advertised on directories that I can tell, except one homeaway vacation rentals. I guess, once again, I am stating the 'earn extra income by letting out a room' concept. Don't get me wrong it is a lovely place, location location and all that. There are 102 listings on this site for this lake. Here it is: http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p335285
 
Just found another one room B&B near us by a fluke, it has a 1000 foot suite, it is not advertised on directories that I can tell, except one homeaway vacation rentals. I guess, once again, I am stating the 'earn extra income by letting out a room' concept. Don't get me wrong it is a lovely place, location location and all that. There are 102 listings on this site for this lake. Here it is: http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p335285.
I dont' see anything about breakfast even being offered. States there is a kitchen. The place looks lovely though. Trying to get B & B folks to "bite" I guess.
 
Just found another one room B&B near us by a fluke, it has a 1000 foot suite, it is not advertised on directories that I can tell, except one homeaway vacation rentals. I guess, once again, I am stating the 'earn extra income by letting out a room' concept. Don't get me wrong it is a lovely place, location location and all that. There are 102 listings on this site for this lake. Here it is: http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p335285.
I dont' see anything about breakfast even being offered. States there is a kitchen. The place looks lovely though. Trying to get B & B folks to "bite" I guess.
.
catlady said:
I dont' see anything about breakfast even being offered. States there is a kitchen. The place looks lovely though. Trying to get B & B folks to "bite" I guess.
Another blog at this lake had an article about a "NEW EUROPEAN B&B at THE LAKE," this is how I even heard about it. There are some after hours things coming up and then I saw this (not at an afterhours, but on the blog)
 
I think it can really depend....
We recently stayed at a place in Northern CA with only one room. It was the epitome of a professional, classy, bed and breakfast inn....but they only have one room so far. The room was an large suite addition with a private entrance and overlooks their vineyard and gardens. Professional website with online booking. All the amenities of a first class place. Awesome breakfast that they bring to the room with fresh ground French press coffee. The list goes on & on.
Economic times put the kabosh on their plan to build 2 more rooms on the property. :-( It cost them over $10K just to jump through some of the red tape and fire inspection hoops for the one room. I give them huge props for sticking with it to try to fulfill their dream.
I don't consider renting one room out (like a former kids' room) with no amenities a B&B or bed and breakfast inn. It really is a homestay. There's a HUGE difference.
 
Back
Top