Finding Locally Owned Accomodations

That's an interesting question. I don't know whether booking.com would be of any help to you. I use it for initial research all over Europe and for many of my bookings. The names of lodgings will often reveal their status as outposts of chains if that is the case.

I too like this idea. As acraven mentioned I first research lodging on Booking.com. I have found locally owned accommodations this way, through websites and from friends. Most recently when booking in Sicily I have found recommended locally owned lodging. I haven't been to Colmar, but perhaps someone will chime in and will have a recommendation. It would be nice to find resources for the future.

For an upcoming five week trip to England, I first used booking.com, Airbnb, HomeAway and trip advisor to search for places. That allowed me to search by price range, location and specific features and read reviews. After identifying interesting, available properties, I then did a google search to see if they had a website that allowed me to book directly. All but one did. On their websites I could read more about the owners and the property itself to verify they were locally owned.
I’ve tried using local tourism sites for recommendations without much luck. It seems to be a “pay to be featured” game.

lfrederick2106: On our Best of Eastern France tour last year, the group stayed at the St Martin in Colmar. I think it's privately owned. I marked it with a star in my notes. We were in Room 202, which overlooks the main square. The room was big, and the window was great for watching the townspeople and the tourists going about their business. I think my only complaint was the staff kept sneaking into our room and turning on the a/c whenever we were gone.

But sorry, I can't answer your larger question.

Here are two resources used for locally-owned accommodations, particularly in France:

https://www.gites-de-france.com/en/guesthouse-bed-and-breakfast These are individually owned real bed and breakfast accommodations, not a the on-line platform that took the name.

https://www.logishotels.com/en/ Individually-owned hotels, many with restaurants. These are often husband/wife operations.

These may be less well-known to US-based tourists, but they are very highly used by Europeans.

Also Best Western of all things has some gems in places in Europe. The brand has stayed fairly true to its 'independently owned and operated' with a central reservations system roots over the years and has some options that are decidedly not cookie cutter.

What Bets suggested are great leads. I’ve used these websites for many years, to find locally owned accommodations.

Dear Leslie.

My daughter-in-law enjoys these research activities and so is delegated the task. Found us an apartment for 8 adults and 5.15 children on Rue Berthe Molly in the old town of Colmar for early October 2018. Had a big laugh when I told her the English translation of molly. She tells me that her first approach is to look for the towns/city’s tourist websites and progress from there. Is unaware of any site that covers all areas. In addition to the excellent sites already recommended, you could try the following in relation to Colmar; France-Voyage.com and navigate to Colmar and enter your preferences. Another site that may be useful is tourisme-colmar.com/en. Yes, she does devote many hours and resources to planning accommodation.

I suspect that most of the electricity supply to the this and the nearby region is from nuclear power plants. Did not notice any buildings with photovoltaic panels or storage batteries or wind turbines in the area, but I wasn’t looking for them. Plenty of wind turbines in northwest France and Belgium boarder region though.

Most residential buildings appeared to me to be 80’s or earlier, even 200-300 years or more, and I would presume are not LEED, or equivalent, compliant. Could not comment on commercial buildings, doubt many are post 2009.

Best of luck with your searches. Ron

Bets’s suggestions are what I would suggest.

I had forgotten about the towns' own tourism websites, but they can be good sources, too, and have used them. Lee, who contributes about Germany, is a big proponent.

I am definitely not a fan of the current on-line rental platforms based in the US and UK.

I go to Europe every year since 2001 and have taken 18 RS tour. I always find locally owned accommodations to stay at in the RS guide book for that city and then book directly with the local place.

Hostals (not to be confused with Hostels or Hotels) in Spain are generally locally owned.

Renting a private room with Airbnb is similar to a B&B. You interact with the owner and you're helping them pay their bills.

The British Isles have all kinds of B&B sights to search.

Booking.com would not be my choice to research locally owned mom and pop places or BnBs

That would mean the little local places would need to advertise their rooms via booking.com and pay a commission. I start research by looking at TripAdvisor to see hotels and bnbs in their database. I might also search for the city’s tourist info site and research lodgings that way. Make sure that the tourist info site is actually operated and maintained by the town you’re researching and not actually some 3rd party booking site attempting to funnel you into their snare.

In Germany I use almost exclusively "locally owned accommodations " taken from the town's website, travel guides that include small budget hotels and Pensionen.

Can't help you, however, with Colmar but in France the pattern is the same , ie, staying in small 2 star hotels, (family owned, as in Berlin, Lüneburg, and Munich, Hamburg) be it in Strasbourg, Metz, or Paris.