Finding Ulysses

In the last couple days, the Halsey House Inn has been added to a web site called BnBFinder, in the category of “Gay & Lesbian Friendly Accommodations”.

That’s all well and good. I would think that a smart inkeeper would be friendly to all sorts of people, regardless of exactly they might prefer to do under a quilt on an old oak frame bed.

But, what about the other Bed and Breakfast Inns in Trumansburg? Are we to believe that they are not gay and lesbian friendly? There’s one other B&B from Trumansburg recently listed in the BnBFinder, and though I’ve never asked specifically, I have no reason to think that it’s an unreceptive to gays and lesbians. For that matter, I can’t think of a B&B in Trumansburg that would be. As small villages go, we’re a fairly GLBT friendly place.

This oddly-selective listing makes me wonder how useful sites like BnBFinder really are for finding a place that’s going to meet specific needs. How did the Halsey House get listed in that category, when other Bread and Breakfasts weren’t? Did it just have to claim to be gay and lesbian friendly, or was it put to the test?

It all seems rather arbitrary, and in the arena of searching for a place to stay for the night in an unfamiliar town, arbitrary is not a good thing. If BnBFinder is going to have a category like Gay and Lesbian Friendly Accomodations, it ought to be sure that its people have comprehensively studied the towns it claims to be familiar with, and actually know which ones are friendly and which ones are unfriendly. Otherwise, it’s little more than an online version of the Yellow Pages, where people don’t even expect the information to be reliable.