Are Bed and Breakfasts a slowly disappearing business?

[TheGander]

On holiday in the Lakes at the moment. DH and I reminisced about the B&Bs we have stayed in during 25 yr marriage. At least half were run by people who seemed to resent their guests, one I stayed in recently was a little run down and you could feel the owners counting down to retirement ( decor was 1980s, outdated electrics, carpets seen better days etc). It got me wondering if fewer and fewer people want to take on the work of running B&Bs, and maybe with air BnB, holiday lets etc it’s getting harder to make a living from it. Anyone else got that feeling?

I don’t know. I’d imagine they cater to different audiences. Airbnbs are great for families as you can get a self contained space for your whole family.

I’d imagine couples may still want a bed and breakfast where they get a nice room and breakfast included. But I have young children so it’s been 10 years since we’ve used one.

I can see why there’d still be a market. Did you pay much for the old one you visited recently? I’d imagine you’d still have to spend £100+ a night to get a decent one.

LOL OP not to laugh but given recent events, this topic could become a hot topic for reasons you probably never intended !

Judging by ‘Four In A Bed,’ the B&B business is alive and well but has very exacting standards!

Yes, I think their day is over. I read some stat in a newspaper that suggested an 80% drop in numbers in Ireland over the past 25 years.

But surely that's mainly because most have converted to be Airbnb..
I'm guessing the business of the remainder haven't seen their business drop by 80%.

Are there any businesses that aren’t in decline in Britain? Apart from fraudulent activities?

But is that because people are picking faults and expecting high standards for next to nothing? Expecting money back and complaining online over a mark on the sheets.

You can't please everyone in regards to decor etc yet no one ever has a good word to say. I could never run a b+b , I couldn't handle the criticism.

Can you explain. Whatever it is that is funny has passed me by!

Well, I didn’t suggest otherwise — I imagine some have, certainly, but also that people who just did two rooms in their house over the summer have probably just stopped.

I’d prefer an AirBnB, and do our own food.

Just a flippant remark given the current stop the boats issue going on. It is stated that hotels and B&Bs are used to house them. Given how heated a lot of threads have become I was playfully saying the thread was in danger.

I know many on MN lack a sense of humour but I was only trying to make light of what has been going on.

oh well exits thread.

I think there’s still definitely a place for nice small hotels with en-suite accommodation, aimed at the overnight-stay market. Lots of people enjoy staying somewhere independent or with some character.

But I think the traditional cheap B&B with dodgy carpet, old furniture and a shared bathroom probably doesn’t really compete in a world of chain hotels.

Not sure it's lack of a sense of humour it's just that noone got your rather obscure joke.

It wasn’t a joke it was a reference.

a reference made in a thread about B&Bs, given current events and illegals being housed in hotels and local B&Bs anyone that might have read the news may have possibly made the connection.

Plenty around but these days they will call themselves boutique hotels.

Have they though?

B and B s were generally large properties out of the reach of most people as a single dwelling. Running them as a business allowed the owner to be part of the community, provided more regular employment- not on a huge scale but more than a change over clean.

Air B and Bs have taken much of the first couple of rungs of the property ladder. And that why they are so damaging to communities.

I have t stayed in one for 40 years. I recall as a child staying for a weekend in a very grim one in Blackpool. Iirc you had to be out by 9:30 and not allowed back in till 4pm. It was a cold and wet weekend spent trudging the streets waiting to be allowed back in!

Sorry if I don’t post regularly, I’m in a youth hostel with intermittent internet! The B&B I stayed in recently wasn’t cheap, but it was on the Isle of Wight in August and it was cheaper than a lot of the competition. I read a lot of “ vintage” novels (1930s to 1950s) and a shabby B&B with a passive aggressive landlady forbidding re entry to the accommodation between 10 am and 5pm is a recurring theme. I guess these days people have more choice and so B&Bs have to either up their game, or offer lower prices. I think a lot of the old school ones have older owners who will be retiring soonish.

No wonder people voted with their feet and started holidaying in Spain!

Watch the one dad and daughter one
He's got a top hat..breakfast is a disaster.
All eggs are off.

Most certainly, even if all they did was to change their business model by becoming room only, no breakfast with self check in. This made life easier for the hosts whilst at the same time guests seemed to become more difficult and incredibly demanding and we had to push prices higher and higher to cover costs. Ours was one of the b&b businesses that sold up a couple of years after covid

Our place had been a b&b for decades and very well reviewe and busy but it will never be a b& b again. It is now one large holiday let. The same has happened to many other places owned by peole we got to know. Folk think it's a nice, easy lifestyle, reality is it's a relentless slog during busy periods if your place isnt large enough or busy enough to support the cost of staff.

I used to stay in B&Bs with my parents and it was fine. I've never stayed in one with my kids until this year when we were in France. My son couldn't really get his head around the idea that we were staying in someone else's house but that they were in no way related to us!
It was really lovely, each room had its own bathroom and it was lovely to chat with other guests over breakfast.

Stayed in one about 5 years ago in Fowey as a couple pre kids. It doesn’t feel very private and it feels like you’re on show a bit.
not very under the radar. I’d rather stay in a big hotel or an air BnB and not feel judged. And pick my own breakfast.

wouldn’t stay in a BNB again ever I think

Yes, I know a couple who used to run a very high-end luxury BnB with astonishing gourmet breakfasts in a beautiful old house where they lived in the stable block. It was an absolute grind, so after a few years they rented the whole house out as a luxury let for groups and small weddings with them doing the catering. Less of a relentless daily grind.

How to tell us you've tried to hijack a thread with your own agenda, without actually...