Bed & Breakfast Safety

They are safe and your room can be locked. B&B are not much different from B&B elsewhere. Owners may or not live in the premises (very rarely in my experience. And you can leave your luggage inside. I wouldn't tour the city with your luggage. That would be so ridiculous that you will be filmed and posted on YouTube.

The only thing you will not be safe from is scorching heat and mosquitoes. No locking mechanism will keep those out in August. A B&B with air conditioning will help you keep you safe from the heat. From the mosquitoes you can only hope in the repellents. Vape is the major bug repellent brand in Italy. Buy the ones that you plug in the socket and release the repellent with heat.

Thank you so much for the tips and for answering my question. We appreciate it!

alaura,

In addition to staying in B&B's, you could also consider budget hotels as most provide breakfast with the cost of the room. In my experience it's been very safe to leave belongings in the room but for an extra precaution, I normally lock my Netbook inside luggage when I'm going out touring for the day. Some hotels provide an in-room safe for smaller items, but I've never used one. Many here prefer travelling with a Money Belt in order to provide some protection from pickpockets.

As this is your first trip to Europe, I'd highly recommend reading Europe Through The Back Door prior to your trip, as it provides a lot of good information on "how" to travel well in Europe. It covers things like different types of lodgings. The Italy Guidebook provides lots of information on hotels and other lodgings in various price ranges, along with websites.

There are some potentially expensive "caveats" with using trains or other public transit in Italy, so be sure to do some research on that.

Happy travels!

In my experience, some B&B owners live on premises, many don't. You may receive a key to your room, one to the B&B entrance, and one for the building. There may not be a phone in your room, so be sure you have a way to contact the owners, who will give you their phone number. Read reviews - there may be no lift in the building, breakfast may be dispensed coffee and a pre-packaged sweet roll, or the owners may bring in a fresh, lavish breakfast each morning. I usually prefer hotels because there are usually more services available and the price can be about the same.

I have never been concerned with personal safety at a B&B, No experience with AirBnB. All rooms have had locks, and while I have also never had theft issues, prudent measures you would take with any hotel room would make sense. For apartment rentals, the same applies, I guess you really do not know who has keys. I typically have a plan of where to stash anything valuable, thieves are not interested in my clothes or books.

All the airbnb's we've used have provided us with a key. We've had both private rooms separate from the host, and rooms in the apartment with the host present. Never had an issue worrying about theft...if these people steal from you, they won't last long on airbnb as I'm sure someone would report them (I just wouldn't leave money lying out). They also have to worry about the people staying with them stealing or nosing into their private rooms when they are out as well...the trust issue works both ways.

Any B&B (as opposed to airbnb) we've stayed at has had locks on the bedroom doors, but again, they typically have cleaners, so don't leave valuables (money, jewelry, electronics) out in plain sight.

I've stayed in multiple B&B throughout Italy and never had an issue with safety. The bedroom doors had locks and we were issued keys. Most places even had a room safe. I always place valuable in a safe when out of the room. I think it is unlikely that a cleaner would steal but would rather not leave anything tempting in sight and have to deal with an uncomfortable confrontation.

I have never stayed in a B&B where I wasn't able to lock my own door. So I would consider that a huge red flag if you encounter that. I am not familiar with the website you are using but I am a a big trip advisor fan. Peruse the reviews on where you are staying. I think you can trust the general consensus of the reviews on those sites as far as safety. There will always be a few outliers.

When we leave our hotel rooms in Europe we use PacSafe locks on our suitcases. They make am amazing lock that opens with a card (looks like a credit care), do not need to remember combinations. That way you can feel like your belongings are safe.

We used a B&B and Airbnb when we were in Italy and felt safe in all three. We had locks to our units/doors and nothing ever went missing (we also intentionally chose more tourist friendly neighborhoods). In fact, the weirdest issue we had was he one hotel we stayed in where housekeeping had moved some of our personal items arou d the room, but nothing was missing.