6. “Hotels” Meant Sharing Beds With Strangers
When the wealthy traveled in Regency England, they would often stay at the homes of other nobles as a guest. Regular working folks had no such luxury and were forced to remain at coaching inns. Such inns were a common sight along Regency roadways and offered a cheap frill-less overnight stop for poor travelers. Due to the high demand for such services, the inns were constantly packed. The owners of such inns were of low social status and didn’t have much wealth themselves, so expanding their inns and buying more beds was out of the question. So, what does an enterprising coaching inn owner due to meet demand? Make the guests share beds with each other, of course!
As horrifying as this sounds, communal bed sharing among travelers was standard practice throughout the west in the 17th and early 18th centuries. The method was so conventional that there were rules of etiquette surrounding the sharing of a communal bed. One was to lie still, be quiet, keep one’s hands to oneself, and not hog the blankets. Founding Fathers Benjamin Franklin and John Adams famously (and hilariously) broke these rules by spending a night at an inn fighting over whether or not to sleep with a window open.