Bed and breakfast is a phenomenon that originated in the UK, but is more commonplace global. A bed and breakfast is typical a small house, usually a private home that will have a few rooms which will be let out as accommodation, and as the name suggests bed and breakfast will also offer breakfast, but usually no other meals are served unlike a larger hotel. Seaside towns and cities which experience a high level of tourism will tend to have a fairly high concentration of bed and breakfast hotels, and other areas will have few, although there are very few towns that will not have at least one bed and breakfast.

Bed and breakfast is a cheaper option of accommodation when compared to hotels and rooms can be as cheap as £20 a night, or in some cases even less. Prices have also been forced down due to the high number of budget hotel chains offering competitive prices and many bed and breakfast hotels have been forced to either struggle or slash their prices.

Many people prefer to stay in a bed and breakfast as they prefer the personal touch offered by these privately owned business, and many proprietors or bed and breakfast guest houses pride themselves on the high level of service they offer and they broad local knowledge they can impart to their guests.