Cozy Homes Away from Home

By Sara Medina

Bed-and-breakfast places begin to take hold in the U.S.

For years, thrifty and adventurous tourists have known how to find good accommodations in Britain without uniformed doormen, glittering ballrooms, 24-hour room service and computerized reservations. The secret: the British institution of bed-and-breakfast establishments. These are private homes, ranging from stately Victorian town houses to rustic country cottages, whose owners turn over their spare bedrooms to paying guests and include the next day's morning meal in the price. Mostly small and as individual as their owners, the B & Bs generally provide a cozy version of home away from home.

Now the B & B idea is beginning to take hold in the U.S. as well. Today's domestic travelers are seeking not only to beat room rates of $100 and more at many large hotels, but also to get away from the drearily impersonal sameness of the motel chains. Homeowners, meanwhile, have discovered that taking in paying guests can help them cope with soaring fuel bills and real estate taxes. Most B & Bs are situated in small towns or country resorts, but they are also to be found in cities from Philadelphia to San Diego and at prices far below those of even an air-shaft room at a major hotel.

The trend seems to have surfaced first--and most elegantly--in San Francisco, where in 1976 Robert and Marily Kavanaugh opened an establishment in a tiny Victorian mews house off Union Street, calling itself simply the Bed and Breakfast Inn. Today there are 15 B & Bs around San Francisco, and their rooms (generally $40 to $80 per night) are tougher to book than space at the city's large luxury hotels, especially on weekends.

These intimate hostelries owe their appeal not just to economy but to personal touches and old-fashioned charm: fireplaces and pieced quilts, lace curtains and canopied beds, fresh flowers and fresh-baked croissants, and the willingness of most hosts to book theater tickets and advise on restaurants and bus routes. At the Bed and Breakfast Inn, a decanter of sherry sits invitingly in the dining room and fortune cookies appear on each guest's pillow at night. At the Spreckels Mansion, a colonial revival house saved from destruction two years ago by San Francisco Fashion Designer Jonathan Shannon and Architectural Restorer Jeffrey Ross, guests gather each evening before the library fireplace for drinks on the house.

In South Carolina, Charleston's Sword Gate Inn, an 18th century house belonging to David and Suzanne Redd, rents five antique-filled bedrooms for $55 per night; they come with a sumptuous breakfast (including freshly squeezed orange juice, cinnamon apple casserole, homemade sausage balls and locally blended "Carolina coffee") and complimentary bicycles for seeing the sights. The Vendue Inn's 18 rooms are organized around an 18th century courtyard, where wine and cheese parties take place each day to the strains of chamber music.

B & B accommodations are now available even in New York City. Most are bedrooms in apartments in such diverse sites as the loft quarter of SoHo and Roosevelt Island in the East River, which is reached from midtown Manhattan by way of a scenic 3 1/2-min. tram ride. Urban Ventures Inc., a booking service for New York B & Bs, has about 120 listings, nearly all in Manhattan. The most desirable rooms are also centrally located. "What they really want," jokes Mary McAulay, Urban Ventures' co-owner, "is a room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art." Rates for New York B & Bs range from $24 to $36 a night for one person, $34 to $48 for two.

Most B & B proprietors, even those who are full-time innkeepers, are not trying to make big money. Says Suzanne Redd of Charleston's Sword Gate Inn: "We're in it for the pleasure. We love to entertain." Marian Binkley, owner of San Francisco's Hermitage House, agrees: "It isn't a business, it's a hobby. It's like having ten sets of house guests every night. The B & B owner has got to want to mother the world."

B & B guests are an eclectic lot, including honeymooners and people celebrating anniversaries, an incognito celebrity or two and the occasional businessman. Says Judy Scott, manager of San Francisco's Washington Square Inn: "People who stay at B & Bs should be very independent and the sort who seek things out for themselves."

They have to be, since B & B accommodations present special inconveniences: they may be in residential neighborhoods far from downtown theaters and museums, and parking can be a problem on crowded streets. Many B & B guest rooms do not have private baths, nor are there usually telephones or televisions. There may be the early-morning clatter of pans from the kitchen, or the creak of old floorboards overhead. On the whole, B & Bs are not designed for families; there are often limitations on the number of guests per room, and fragile antiques and bric-a-brac do not coexist with small children. But for those who have embraced the B & B way of travel, there is no going back to hotel high-rise and motel monotony.

--By Sara Medina. Reported by Michael Moritz/San Francisco, with other U.S. bureaus

With reporting by Michael Moritz/San Francisco

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