Today sees the launching of a series of articles that are inspired by cases and situations encountered daily. We believe that illustrating these situations in detail, can help everyone to understand what B&B hospitality implies and what distinguishes it from staying in a hotel.

 The situations described deal with the experiences of both guests and owners’ of B&B’s that are members of our circuit.

A typical situation we find ourselves dealing with is when guests having received their booking voucher, call our B&B in Paris booking centre complaining that they cannot find the reserved B&B. Actually, in most cases the client is standing right in front of the B&B but doesn’t see it because there is no sign saying ‘So and so’s B&B’.

There cannot be a sign because hospitality is given by a family who doesn’t run a guesthouse or a hotel. These people have simply decided to make one or more of the bedrooms in their apartment available to guests. Some of our Members are pensioners but many others have nine to five jobs like the rest of us.

Our members are not professionals working in the tourism and accommodation sector. They are people who decide to run a B&B to earn a little extra. This means that we will not find a business sign and what is more, the booking voucher will have the address and street number of a private residence that is not marked in any other way. This misunderstanding basically comes about due to expectations of hotel services. Of course this has nothing to do with a B&B. A B&B by definition is family hospitality that includes breakfast in the home or in an agreed café.