Can I just add a few more words; the traditional Irish "B&B" was a great product for tourists. They got to come and stay with a family, in a family home - which is what many tourists wanted. Starting in the late 1980's, many people got the idea that you could purpose build a B&B house with an ensuite bathroom for every guest, and a separate dining area (to keep those pesky tourists out of your way when you want to watch coronation street).
This was effectively setting yourself up as a mini hotel, but without paying rates and water charges - unfair competition in my view. The proliferation of these modern B&B houses killed off a traditional product. Now the budget hotels, having got their product mix right, and with better economies of scale, are killing the modern B&B. I have no sympathy, being a proponent of the free market, but I hope that - in a practical way - the whole debacle will have taught people something about sustainability, the effects of unfair competition and the need for proper regulation of markets. If our goverment had the courage to say that once a B&B goes beyond a certain size, it must be treated as a rate-paying business, and if all of the proprietors of B&B premises had a willingness to agree, the traditional B&B might still have its own niche, instead of which it is virtually consigned to history, while the product which replaced it is on its knees.
