One place where this is playing out is on TA, where they have defined four different categories of accommodations:
To be in the “Hotels” tab, the accommodation must offer all four of the following features:
A front desk opened and staffed 24/7.
Daily housekeeping included in the room rate.
Private bathroom for each unit.
If there is a minimum-stay requirement, it must be no more than 3 nights.
To be in the “B&B/Inns” tab, the accommodation must have:
Onsite staff daily.
Daily housekeeping included in the room rate.
Requirements for the “Specialty Lodging” tab include:
The accommodation must have onsite staff daily.
Any accommodation that offers shared (dorm-style) rooms will be considered a hostel, and will be listed in “Specialty Lodging”.
“Vacation Rentals” include:
Private vacation homes, villas, or units (apartments, condos) that are available to one party/group of travelers at one time for exclusive use.
Accommodations where homes/units are at different addresses, even if they are owned/managed by one company.
Accommodations without full time staff onsite at the same location with the guest accommodations.
But apparently they have added a "search filter" called "B&B sytle" so that you can search for hotels that are more like B&B's (whatever that means!) which has some business owners in a tizzy (see
discussion on owner's forum, must be a registered owner to access the forum).
I think it gets even more confusing because TA is an international site, and the definitions of these terms may vary slightly from place to place around the globe.
For us, our legal business name registered with the state is just "Harborfields, Inc."
Our current sign on the road by our driveways says "Harborfields On The Shore Housekeeping Cottages" (but it seems fewer and fewer people know anymore what is meant by "housekeeping cottages" and one of our regular guests has told us that she thinks that name diminishes what we really are.)
The chamber just lists us as "Harborfields On The Shore"
For our website (and signature file on our e-mails) we've more recently adopted "Harborfields Waterfront Vacation Cottages"
Our owner will, in conversation, talk about us as a "cottage resort" or a "cottage community," but I think "resort" is apparently defined in some state law or something somewhere to mean a place that provides food as well as accommodation (e.g. on the "American Plan" where three meals plus your lodging are included in one price, although not all the places that call themselves resorts do offer food), and "cottage community," to me at least, implies separate individual owners...
One of our competitors (not really) calls themselves the "_____ _____ Inn, Resort and Spa"
To the extent that resort means you have things to do onsite, and one never (or rarely) has to leave the property, then sure, we could be a resort... (edited to add: so long as you've stocked up on groceries and supplies at the store, you have a full kitchen and can prepare your own meals)
Ultimately, I think there is enough wiggle room in all of these terms (inn, B&B, resort, lodge, etc...) that we can adopt whatever we think fits best, but then it falls on us to make clear to prospective guests what we really are ... what WE mean by the name we have adopted.
Or we can just go by the dictionary definitions....
Inn: an establishment providing accommodations, food, and drink, esp. for travelers.
Resort: a place that is a popular destination for vacations or recreation, or which is frequented for a particular purpose: a seaside resort, a health resort.
Lodge: ok, multiple conflicting definitions in the dictionary: a small house, a large house, a beaver's house....
Bed & Breakfast: sleeping accommodations for a night and a morning meal, provided in guest houses and small hotels, a guest house or small hotel offering such accommodations.
Hotel: an establishment providing accommodations, meals, and other services for travelers and tourists.
Guest House: a private house offering accommodations to paying guests; or a small, separate house on the grounds of a larger house or establishment, used for accommodating guests.