Residential code status

Definition

In some states, the room count under which the building code treats an inn as a house, not a hotel.

Why It Matters

A fire in an old house full of strangers is the night this trade fears, and the building code draws its line by counting rooms. Ohio lets an owner-occupied lodging house with five or fewer guest rooms and ten or fewer occupants be built to the residential code. Past either figure, or once the owner moves out, that allowance ends and the building answers to the state's commercial building code. Michigan writes a statewide rule that a bed and breakfast is a single family structure, never a hotel, if it has ten or fewer sleeping rooms counting the innkeeper's. It must also serve meals at no extra cost and keep a working smoke detector in each sleeping room and an extinguisher on each floor. Michigan's local zoning and fire rules still apply on top. The room permit prices the zoning and the breakfast exemption the kitchen, and this prices the structure. Ask what the building was approved as before pricing an inn already over the line, or a plan to add rooms.