Room and board is a phrase describing a situation in which, in exchange for
money
Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are as ...
,
labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the la ...
or other considerations, a person is provided with a place to live as well as meals on a comprehensive basis. It commonly occurs as a fee at higher educational institutions, such as colleges and universities; it also occurs in hotel-style accommodation for short stays.
Definition
*''Room'' refers to a private bedroom provided, sometimes with a private ensuite bathroom.
*''Board'' may refer to the food being provided, or alternatively, the table on which food is served.
With a room and board arrangement, the renter has a private bedroom and shares the rest of the house with the person renting out the room. This is different from
renting
Renting, also known as hiring or letting, is an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property owned by another. A gross lease is when the tenant pays a flat rental amount and the landlord pays for al ...
where the renter has private living areas, including a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen.
Two commonly encountered boards are:
* ''Half Board'', where the host provides only a
breakfast
Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night.Anderson, Heather Arndt (2013)''Breakfast: A History'' AltaMira Press. Various "typical" or "t ...
and
dinner
Dinner usually refers to what is in many Western cultures the largest and most formal meal of the day, which is eaten in the evening. Historically, the largest meal used to be eaten around midday, and called dinner. Especially among the elite ...
meals.
* ''Full Board'', where the host provides all three daily meals.
Another option is:
* ''
Bed and breakfast
Bed and breakfast (typically shortened to B&B or BnB) is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast. Bed and breakfasts are often private family homes and typically have between four and eleven rooms, wit ...
'', literally, a place to sleep and where breakfast is provided.
See also
*
Bistro
A bistro or bistrot , is, in its original Parisian incarnation, a small restaurant, serving moderately priced simple meals in a modest setting. Bistros are defined mostly by the foods they serve. French home-style cooking, and slow-cooked foods ...
, a type of informal French restaurant
*
Boarding house, a lodging establishment
*
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...
*
Parlour boarder A parlour boarder is an archaic term for a privileged category of pupil at a boarding school. Parlour boarders are described by a modern historian as paying more than the other pupils, in return for which they got a room of their own. A parlour was ...
, an archaic term for a category of pupil at boarding school
*
Sideboard
A sideboard, also called a buffet, is an item of furniture traditionally used in the dining room for serving food, for displaying serving dishes, and for storage. It usually consists of a set of cabinets, or cupboards, and one or more drawers ...
, an article of furniture from which food is served in a dining room
References
* http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/15/messages/521.html
* http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question30318.html
* http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.htm
External link
*
Hotel terminology
Food and drink terminology
{{Economics-stub