BTW, on the hotels vs. B&B/Inns definitions, it’s not universally true that “A hotel has an operator and front desk that is open 24/7″ although that’s the general requirements for a “hotel” that TA uses. If they applied that systematically then most hotels in France – and I’m talking about the chains like Mercure, Campanile etc. as well as every independently owned hotel – would be classed as B&Bs, because 24 hour desk is NOT the norm.

In our own town of Alençon, France there’s a hotel – part of the “Logis de France” hotel grouping – that has a separate restaurant, conference facilities, dozens of rooms – yet is classed as a B&B!!! But TA refuse to correct this because of the front desk issue, completely ignoring the fact that none of the other hotels listed for the same town have a 24/24 desk either. Nuts.

I think that a better definition of B&B is that breakfast must be included in the room price, the owner must live on the premises, and the total capacity/number of rooms is limited (generally 6 or fewer rooms, though some countries allow fewer). That’s the usual definition used throughout Europe.

Phil