B & B bathrooms

Yep !!! unless it is obvious. There is no standard definition of B&Bs. They can range from a couple bedrooms in a private home to a small hotel. And sometimes not so small. Only thing in common is some level of a breakfast.

One thing to be aware of is that you might have a private bathroom that is nonetheless down the hall from your room. I find that a royal pain. Headed to the toilet? Lock your hotel room. Unlock the bathroom. When exiting, re-lock the bathroom and unlock the hotel room. Life is too short for that.

Yes! You want one that says private ensuite so that as a previous poster mentioned, you are not going down a hall.

I have stayed at two different B & B's where the bathroom was down the hall. One was in Scotland (Isle of Skye) and the other was in Denmark (Aero Island). Although I wouldn't want to do it all the time, sometimes you can't be picky if accommodations are lacking and you want to visit someplace special.

Yes, as the posts above indicate, what we call a "private bath" in the US is called "ensuite" in Europe. A "private" bathroom may just be yours, but down the hall (you have the only key). As a further refinement, the parts of the bathroom (sink, shower, bathtub, toilet) can be in separate places. It's common, for instance, in a place where the shower and toilet are down the hall, for there to be a sink in your room. And finally, there is often a mixture. So, in a place with 10 rooms, 6 may have ensuite facilities, and the remaining 4 may share two toilets and one shower.

So, yes, you have to check each place separately. They are usually quite specific on their website (no proprietor wants disgruntled guests who didn't get the plumbing they wanted). I prefer to book by e-mail, and in my e-mail I request the price for my dates for a room with ensuite shower and toilet, just to minimize misunderstandings.

To keep my e-mails straight, I put details in subject line. For instance, if I'm asking about the Pension Torino in Rome (and yes, they often have names of other cities just to confuse me), I'll title it "Reservation Request - Pension Torino - Rome". Particularly since I'm usually booking several different cities in a trip, and inquiring about several properties in each city, this makes it much easier when the replies start coming, to keep track of who's responding to what.

Harold, those detailed Subject lines are a very good idea. Thanks for that suggestion.

Thanks for the info, forum is such a great tool!