Federal Hill's
Scarborough Fair Bed and Breakfast was named one of the country's top urban BnBs for 2009-2010 by
Bedandbreakfast.com last week.
The award is based on both quantitative and qualitative analysis of the independently posted reviews on BedandBreakfast.com, according to the site.
"They read all the individual reviews that guests have left, star-ratings for different aspects of the inn rating system and using that somehow select the best inns in the country," explains Barry Werner, the inn's co-owner.
Owning a BnB in Baltimore is "pretty different," according to Werner.
"It's not what people traditionally think of when they think of a bed and breakfast experience. We have all of the normal comfort and luxuriousness, but there's, in my opinion, a heck of a lot more to do here than there is at BnBs in more traditional settings," he continues.
"You have all of the different things in the city to do. All of the festivals, tourist attractions and museums. You can do the normal thing, spending all day exploring the city and then come back to a very comfortable setting that's more like staying at your best friends house, except that its yours and its private," says Werner.
Werner was bitten by the BnB bug as a child, playing BnB with his grandmother "all the time."
"I'd design the rooms and pretend what they looked like. And grandma and I would make pretend menus and have pancakes. She's really the reason," Werner says.
Now, 76, his grandmother is an occasional honored guest at Scarborough Fair.
Werner says he hopes that the award will help travelers see that staying at a BnB is preferrable to to choosing a hotel.
"Hopefully it will help people see that a bed and breakfast is about more than where it's located but also about what it offers. You can find wonderful accomadations in BnB in almost any larger city nowadays and have a wonderful, personalized experience. Hotels tend to be too sterile where the shouldn't be and not sterile enough where they should be. This will hopefully help get the message across that there are many more options," he concludes.