Can someone please explain the allure of the bed and breakfast to me?
I'm not talking about the small, like 4-10 rooms, inn that has a front parlor where they serve you breakfast. The decor in places like that tends to be a little cute for my tastes, but I've stayed in places like that before and have no complaints.
No, I'm talking about when the rich retired couple buys a really big house and rents out their guest bedroom(s) to wandering travelers.
Hotels I get. You go, you pay, you mess up the room and the staff who have an hourly wage or a salary do your bidding for you.
Staying at a friend/relatives house I get. You go, you don't pay in money but you bring a bottle of wine or it's family and you just descend upon them, you hang out and visit and at the end of the day you retire to your separate corners. You ask if you can help with the breakfast, you strip the bed before you leave, you try to clean up behind yourself and you don't stay too long or you'll start to stink like the fish.
B&Bs are like these weird hybrid where money changes hands and you can never really feel at ease. The owners want to be all chatty with you and tell you their life story and offer you recommendations on where to go and what to do and form this CONNECTION. While you're just sitting around being your slovenly self. Because if I'm paying for it I'm not making my bed. And maybe I don't need your recommendations. And maybe I like it when things are quiet once in a while and don't need you to just keep on talking.
Luckily our room was in "the bunkhouse" this weekend. E.g. not part of the main house. There were two rooms in the bunk house. The couple staying in the other room had completely taken over the common area of the bunk house before we got there.
So we wandered Newport catching the sights we wanted to see, sharing some yummy dinner, then hid in our room and read our books for the night.
Really, do people enjoy this sort of traveling? I just don't get it.
