Julie,

This bothers me when I am on the road, however, the inns are filling their rooms with two and three night stays so they do hesitate booking one night and leaving the room empty two nights when they can get a guarantee booking for two or three.

The only suggestion I can make is to call a B&B you are interested in, explain that you are "on the road"  and only require one night.  If they have more rooms open then booked, they may accommodate you.  Some inns will tell you to call back a couple of days before and will take one night bookings after Thursday.  I suggest that you check the places on line that you are interested in and since more and more inns are doing on line availability,  you can save yourself some phone calls if you see the inn is already booked for the weekend.  

You can also check bedandbreakfast.com's hot deals every Wednesday (after 10:00 am mountain time) to see what inns are offering in the way of discounts for the coming week.  In order to be listed, inns must offer at least a 20% discount and oft times will drop the two night minimum for last minute bookings.  

I did do some research for a guest once about a year ago on this same topic and at that time the Candlelight Inn in Napa showed one night availability for several Saturday nights.  I just did a quick availability check for a couple of upcoming Saturdays,  July 22nd and August 5th for one night and two rooms were available on each of those dates.    

http://www.bedandbreakfast.com/california/candlelight-inn.html

I hope this helped a little.   Rose

Rose Ciccone
Mail To: roseciccone@verizon.net
Associate Editor - BedandBreakfast.com Report
http://www.bedandbreakfast.com/report/Spring-06/index.htm

Contributing Editor - America's Favorite Inn's, B&B's and Small Hotels

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Rose Ciccone
Mail To: roseciccone@verizon.net
Associate Editor - BedandBreakfast.com
http://blog.bedandbreakfast.com

Hello,
Are all inns in Ca. now making it so that you can't stay one night on a weekend ?
I am having trouble finding any place that will just let you stay on a sat. evening.
Julie p.

Hello Julie!

From an innkeepers perspective, there are clear advantages to a two night stay.  That said, when we are traveling on business or our vacation - we are normally just passing through a town and need lodging for a night. So, being required to spend a two night stay (and in some places, three) annoys us to no end.  As a result, we made the conscious decision to not require a two night's stay either.  So, if you are ever in the Placerville/Apple Hill area and would like a ranch stay - we'd love to have you visit!

Best regards,

Mark & Robin Miller

Innkeeper/Owners, Fleming Jones Homestead B&B & Robin's Nest Ranch:  World Class Miniature Horses

www.robinsnestranch.com

Hello Julie

This might be too late to help you now but...The Worthington House Inn in Northern CA still allows 1 night stays. We just stayed there (we HIGHLY reccomend it) and had that very conversation with the owners having ran into trouble ourselves when we had to shorten a reservation.

Good luck.

Hi Julie,

I would like comment on your question from the point of view of an innkeeper. My wife and I own The Terra Cotta Inn clothing optional resort and spa located in sunny Palm Springs, CA. Depending on the time of year, we have from a 2-4 night minimum stay requirements for weekends. We never have a minimum for Sunday thru Thursday nights stays.

I am a past president of the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce. We have been open over 12 years. I have seen many B & B's and inns go out of business in that time period. The major reason is low occupancy because they only booked weekend business. this is what happens, a couple opens a place with a dream and their lives savings. They are strapped for cash and starts booking Sat night stays. They are afraid to hold rooms for 2 or 3 night weekend stays as having one or two empty rooms on a Sat. is financially devastating. They find they can't make it on what they are charging on Saturday nights, so they start raising their rates. Pretty soon people say they are overpriced and stop go altogether. they then go out of business and lose their savings.

Our rates are from $139 midweek and $159 weekends. If we had  just a 2 night minimum on weekends, we would have to charge about $280/night just to break even (that means my wife and I would earn nothing for all our work). If we booked just Sat nights, we would have to charge about $535/night to break even. No one would stay here and we would go out of business. Thus we need guests to stay lonmger than a Sat night and our guests do. About 60% stay 1 week or longer.

B & B's and innkeepers work very hard. If you want a nice place to stay at, you have to let them earn revenue for more than just 1 night a week.

My final piece of advice is if you are just passing through a town for a Saturday night, call last minute for a reservation. We occasionally get cancellations and can book guests for just a Saturday night.

 

We have never had any requirement on minimum nights. We opened in 2004 and take just one night guests, no problem!
Tricia
Atherton Inn
San Francisco Peninsula.... California