Check out B&Bs before you check in

The right guidebook or Internet search can stop you from ruining a trip by reserving a room at the wrong inn.

By CAROLYN THORNTON

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 22, 2000

Sampling Florida's B&Bs Inns in St. Augustine, Ocala and St. Petersburg are three of an estimated 300 bed and breakfasts across the state. Check out B&Bs before you check in The right guidebook or Internet search can stop you from ruining a trip by reserving a room at the wrong inn. B&B tour is a fun time for a good cause A fundraising tour of four bed & breakfast lodgings in Citrus County is scheduled from 2 to 5 p.m. Dec. 10.

Hours of driving brought my husband, Allan, and I to a bed and breakfast inn touted as "quaint" and "historic," but there was no one to greet us. The only person in sight was a young man washing a car. He told us the B&B owner was out of town, but because our name was clearly written in the reservation book (we had found it there while poking around on our own), the young man told us to take any room we wanted.

We climbed darkened stairs (the light bulb had burned out) to find that the nicest looking room had a screeching ceiling fan. Others had beds stripped and were so sparsely furnished they reminded us of dormitories, not the cozy, romantic getaway we had envisioned.

Faced with limited lodging in the small town, reluctantly we selected a tiny room with a made-up bed and asked for the room key.

"Take any one," the young man told us. "They fit in all the locks."

Since then we've learned a lot about bed and breakfasts and how to judge the good, the bad and the ugly long before standing on the inn's doorstep. The process begins before the phone call.

Research: Guidebooks (printed and on the Web) are a good place to start, but they are merely that -- a starting point. Do not use one guide alone or rely solely on guidebook listings for your selection. Some of these "guides" are compiled by paid-for submissions from the inns themselves. These glowing reports sometimes only exist in the operators' imaginations.

On the other hand, authors of some series guidebooks are so underpaid and face such impossible deadlines that they cannot possibly inspect every inn, forcing them to rely heavily on second-hand reports. A B&B that was excellent one year could have dramatically gone down the next, particularly if ownership has changed, so check the copyright date on that book.

Many survey-type guidebooks list features of an inn with no rating of ambiance, cleanliness or friendliness of the host. After all, such qualities are subjective.

If inns are rated, learn what the ratings mean. Have the ratings been compiled from guest surveys or staff members of the rating service who use a detailed checklist for each report? Were the inspections made incognito or by advance arrangement?

For 30 years the Relais & Chateaux association has been synonymous with superior quality and personal service. Country inns that qualify as member properties must meet the five-C rule: character, courtesy, calm, charm cnd cuisine.

"People know what Relais & Chateaux stands for," said Robert Gagnon, owner/operator of Auberge Hatley, (819) 842-2451, in North Hatley, Quebec.

Inns such as Auberge Hatley, a 1903 villa that overlooks Lake Massawippi in the Eastern Townships, are anonymously inspected regularly, in addition to the association keeping a watchful eye on properties through guest comments.

In general, regional B&B guidebooks have more detailed entries than those contained in a directory that tries to cover the entire country. The best guidebooks have listings resulting from the writer having spent some time, preferably overnight, at the B&B.

One of my favorite guidebooks is the Recommended series. Inns listed in these regional guides have been personally visited by the author.

Expectations: Make sure the B&B you choose is the right inn for the occasion. Whether the B&B is run by owners or managers affects its ambiance. Do you want to be left alone for a romantic weekend? Then you may prefer a B&B or inn that is operated like a hotel, with room service and a polite but somewhat distant staff, rather than a B&B with a chatty, too-helpful owner in residence.

Would you like to feel like part of the family? If the host is resident, he or she (or they) may join guests for cocktails in the evening, pull out maps for sightseeing tips or join you in a game of chess on a rainy day.

At Melrose Mansion, (504) 944-2255, in New Orleans, owner Melvin Jones believes he is in the entertainment business rather than the room-renting business. Friday evening cocktails allow guests to mingle with local celebrities and friends in the downstairs parlor of the 1884 Victorian Gothic mansion.

If you are staying in a historic property, will you have to vacate your room earlier than you would like or stash your belongings so that tour groups can troop through? Are the furnishings for use or just for show?

"We're a home, not a museum," said Millie Marshall of Madewood (504) 524-1988), a Greek Revival mansion in Napoleonville, La. "We've taken all the ribbons off the furniture, and we serve wine and cheese in the library, dinner in the dining room, and brandy and coffee in the parlor."

Additional questions to ask:

• What is breakfast like? At Dairy Hollow House (501) 253-7444) in Eureka Springs, Ark., yummy continental breakfasts with homemade breads and jams are brought in baskets to the remote cottages of the inn. At Auberge Hatley, cooked-to-order breakfasts can be served in the dining room or individual rooms or even on the terrace overlooking the lake.

At Madewood, trays of fresh coffee are left outside guest rooms to tide guests over until the more formal, full plantation breakfast is served at a set hour in the home's dining room.

• What's the inn's policy regarding children? Some inns are geared for families, complete with highchairs and cribs. If children are welcome, ask yourself if you want to be awakened by someone else's crying baby during your romantic date.

• Do guest rooms have phones, TVs, VCRs (and a library of videos), working fireplaces, whirlpool baths? Ask, if any of these are important to you.

-- Carolyn Thornton is a freelance writer who lives in Purvis, Miss.

For more information

Two Web sites focused on B&Bs are http://www.bedandbreakfast.com and http://www.bbonline.com.

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