, hearty breakfasts come as standard, with other meals not guaranteed and, crucially, prices typically offer value for money. Yet now another kind of B&B is rising up within the ranks. At these, you really have to squint to tell them apart from hotels at all. Take Piglets Boutique Country Stay in Essex, whose name even brings to mind one of England's most popular boutique hotel brands, The Pig. It's the best B&B in the land, according to its shiny 2023 VisitEngland Award for Excellence, thanks mainly to the fact it's not much like a typical B&B at all – there are chickens, a carefully clipped croquet lawn, self-cleaning swimming pond and an honesty bar with a gin library worth lying for. In fact, the only difference between these next-gen B&Bs and hotels is that they're more intimate, or, perhaps, more special – both because they tend to have fewer rooms, and because they have genuine personality and features that only their owners would have included. What's more, regular hotel room rates are rocketing – by 11 per cent year-on-year at last check – thanks to the usual suspects (inflation, energy costs, labour shortages), and some new ones: high occupancy, independents closing, and a post-pandemic desire to collec){kind=link}
Once the ideal option for a cheap (and chintzy) weekend away, now the best properties offer fabulous luxury
Forget the American Dream. In Britain, the national go-to career fantasy has long been the idea of selling up, migrating seawards and ”opening up a little bed and breakfast”.
There’s something about the thought of having a revolving door of interesting guests to talk to, combined with only being responsible for feeding them until mid-morning, that seems to appeal to many of us, especially after a hard day. For the traveller, the accommodation has always held a simple, friendly appeal: a place to rest and reboot in the right location, with real-life, relatable locals.
But lately the grande dame of British holiday-making has had something of a glow-up. The core identifiers remain: landladies and gentlemen live on-site (that is, in their own home), hearty breakfasts come as standard, with other meals not guaranteed and, crucially, prices typically offer value for money.
Yet now another kind of B&B is rising up within the ranks. At these, you really have to squint to tell them apart from hotels at all.