European HERITAGE B&Bs

Is there anything more inspiring than staying somewhere that's both beautifully stylish and imbued with history? Rhiannon Batten explores five gems across Europe, from Sweden to Spain...

- Rhiannon Batten

When Studio 54 founders Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell opened Morgans Hotel in New York in 1984 it changed holidaying culture overnight. As the mini skirt was to fashion, or Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum to architecture, the world's first boutique hotel stole a march on conventional hotels, reinventing the genre with its thrilling design, must-eat restaurant and sassy approach to service..

So successful was the format that not only did the big hotel chains start offering everything from individually designed bedrooms to pillow menus, but holiday cottage owners and B&B proprietors followed suit.

By the late Noughties, the boutique B&B was the connoisseur's accommodation of choice. Characterful and hard to replicate, they also served as a three-dimensional mood board for design-obsessed travellers looking for interiors ideas to try at home.

But then came Airbnb, with its cheap apartments, followed by Covid, with its demand for sanitised key safes rather than meet-and-greets. As bookings fell, many B&B owners retired, or turned to self-catering.

That isn't quite the end of the story, however. Over the last couple of years the tide has turned once more. Fatigue with identikit apartments, the high prices of many hotels and a yearning for idiosyncratic charm means the boutique B&B is making a triumphant comeback.

Today's guests are newly appreciative of their hosts' deep, local knowledge and heartfelt hospitality. And, as travellers search increasingly for experiences rather than simply a place to stay, it's bringing boutique B&Bs with old bones to the fore, providing 24-hour access to historic buildings and traditional cultures that would normally be off-limits to all but their owners.