Ever ask yourself just how many bed and breakfasts and country inns there are? How these small properties compare to the lodging industry as a whole? Wondering where to locate your new inn? Which states have the most bed and breakfasts? What are the strongest destination markets for bed and breakfasts?

For most of us, the notion that hospitality is the single largest industry worldwide would come as no surprise. We might point to Disney, Trump, Wynn, Tisch and the mega-room properties each has spawned as evidence that lodging is big business. What is surprising is that among the 51,000 lodging properties in the United States, 65.3% are small businesses with seventy-five or fewer rooms!

In a national study, Lodging Resources Workshops (dba Lodging Resources Partners) in association with Lanier Publishing undertook to quantify the impact on the lodging market of an often over-looked portion of this largest segment of the domestic lodging industry - Bed and Breakfasts and Country Inns. Using Lanier's database of over 15,000 small properties¹, a representative sample of 5,650 properties was analyzed. The results indicate that almost 31% of all U.S. lodging properties fall into the Bed and Breakfast, Country Inn or Small Hotel category.

The study results show these small properties account for 154,075 rooms or 4% of the domestic room supply nightly. This translates into nearly 28,000,000 occupied room nights. With an average daily rate (ADR) of $122 per night, Bed and Breakfasts, Country Inns and Small Hotels gross close to $3,500,000,000 annually.²  Read more...

¹ The study focused on lodging properties that designated themselves as Bed and Breakfasts, Country Inns or Small Hotels. Properties with more than fifty rooms were not considered as part of the study.
² Study published in 2000. ADR and gross revenue reflect 1999 lodging industry results.