Bed-and-Breakfasts Vs. Airbnb

In the first few years after opening Kenwood Gables Boutique B&B in St.Petersburg, Fla., in 2019, its co-owners, Reymond and Jayson Lazaro, would frequently welcome guests who expected to have the five-guestroom place to themselves, as if it were a vacation rental.“They would say ‘Who are you? What are you doing here?’” Reymond Lazaro said.

Since then, the couple has worked to educate potential guests.“We have made it a habit to ask, ‘Have you been in a B&B before? A traditional B&B, not Airbnb?’”The vacation rental platform Airbnb (which was founded in 2007 as Airbed & Breakfast) has co-opted traditional bed-and-breakfast lingo even though vacation rentals don’t typically provide meals.The two have been conflated, said Randall Bangs, who operates several bed-and-breakfasts, including the Stewart Inn in Wausau, Wis., as well as a nearby vacation rental cabin listed on Airbnb.

“Now you have people who refer to any property as Airbnb,” he said.Terminology isn’t the only headwind these small businesses face.Many have found themselves competing with hundreds of vacation rentals while trying to preserve their piece of the lodging pie.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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