Find that Cozy B & B

A bed and breakfast (typically shortened to B&B) is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodations and includes breakfast and typically does not offer other meals. Most bed and breakfasts inns are private homes or family homes offering accommodations with fewer than 10 bedrooms.

During the California 1849 gold rush, miners would often be on the move searching for gold and only needed a place to spend the night and have a good breakfast before heading out to find gold. Today, guests are accommodated in private bedrooms with private bathrooms, or a suite of rooms. Breakfast might be served in the bedroom, a dining room, or the host's kitchen.

B&B's and guest houses may be operated as either a secondary source of income or a primary occupation for the property owner. Often the owners themselves prepare the breakfast and clean the rooms, but some bed and breakfasts hire staff for cleaning or cooking. Properties with hired professional management are uncommon (unlike inns or hotels) but may exist if the same owner operates multiple B&Bs.

Before the California miners arrived, the custom of opening one's home to travelers' dates back to the earliest days of Colonial America. Lodging establishments were few and far between in the 18th century and travelers' relied on the kindness of strangers to provide a bed for the night. Hotels became more common with the advent of the railroad and later the automobile; most towns had at least one prominent hotel.

During the Great Depression, tourist homes provided an economic advantage to both the traveler and the host. Driving through a town, travelers stopped at houses with signs reading Tourists or Guests Welcomed and one could rent a room for the night. While little more than short-stay boarding houses, the rooms brought needed income for the homeowner and saved money for the traveler. A tourist home or guest house represented an intermediate option between inexpensive campgrounds or cabins and costly hotels. The motel fad of the 1950s and 1960s later filled a niche for travelers needing only a bed for the night. Today, most large 

hotel chains offer the traveler an economy service hotel that offers breakfast too.

Most of the B&B's in the Sierra Gold Country started as private homes and were inspired to open B&B's to tourists. The private homeowners updated their properties as a B&B. With the advent of the renewed interest in B&B's and the increasing interest in historic preservation. Spurred by the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976 and assisted by two crucial pieces of legislation, the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, and the Tax Reform Act of 1976, (which provided tax incentives for the restoration and reuse of historic structures), B&B's in the Sierra Gold Country have sprung up and now offer the traveler many unique lodging opportunities.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, B&B's increased rapidly in numbers and evolved from home stay B&B's with shared baths and simple furnishings to beautifully renovated historic mansions with luxurious décor and amenities. Many B&B's created a historical ambiance by adapting historic properties as guesthouses decorated with antique furniture and one can now travel back in time.