Thanks Madeline, anything you or others can add from "personal" experience.?.
First let me say that we have a legal, 3-room B+B..permitted, inspected, SS certified. We have always served a full hot breakfast and we are the ONLY small B+B within 20 miles that does a full breakfast...all the other small B+Bs advertise a continental or continental plus (whatever that is) breakfast.
To run a legal, permitted, inspected 3 or fewer room B+B in MA you need a health inspection, and Serv Safe certification if you prepare any food at all. (Even if it is just a muffin) Many towns look the other way for small places who only serve "continental" breakfasts. However, the larger inns in the area are likely to scream to the board of health, demanding proof of SS certification, if any small B+B is good enough (and popular enough) to take business away from them.
During an inspection here several years ago, while explaining why it is sooooo important for us to proudly display our SS Certificate in the dining room, the town's board of health agent mentioned to me that some "guests" call her each year to see who is up-to-date with their SS certification....she thinks that guests really CARE! I howled when she mentioned this and suggested, to her horror, that perhaps it was not a prospective guest who had called her but one of the larger inns. OMG, she was crushed to think that it wasn't John Q Public who was so determined to find out who was "legit" and up-to-date on their SS!
I mention this to point out that many smaller B+Bs, that cook to order for a couple of guests each day, may, in fact, not be a high priority for enforcement for the local board of health...especially if the board is understaffed. If the larger inns in the area know that they can pressure the smaller B+B's into offering fewer amenities, like a full hot breakfast, in exchange for not complaining to the BOH ( questioning about their SS certification) then the smaller B+B's will probably advertise a continental breakfast to avoid the hassle and $$$ of SS.
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