Bed And Breakfast

Visitors to Maui, Lanai and Molokai will have far fewer lodging choices beginning Jan. 1, when county officials say nearly all of the estimated 1,000 bed-and-breakfasts and vacation rentals must shut down for failing to hold the appropriate licenses.

A cook was charged Tuesday with shooting and dismembering the owner of a bed-and-breakfast and killing three other people in a grisly Labor Day weekend rampage that shocked people across the Maine countryside. State Police Chief Col. Craig Poulin refused to discuss a motive for what he called Maine's worst homicide case in years.

Jim McLean's Apples Bed and Breakfast Inn, with its signature apple pound cake, has long been a favorite spot for vacationers looking for a relaxing weekend in the San Bernardino Mountains. But lately, McLean's getaway hasn't been packing them in. McLean and other mountain bed-and-breakfast owners blame the drop in business on the thousands of cabin and vacation-home rentals in the city -- which pay lower taxes and face less-stringent health and safety codes.

Re "A B&B brouhaha at Big Bear," Dec. 18 The story on home rentals in Big Bear Lake fails to note that the city of Big Bear Lake already requires owners of vacation rental homes to obtain a city business license, pay a city fee, collect occupancy taxes and submit to an initial and annual follow-up inspection to assure compliance with city fire, health and building codes. The city has done so since 1999 under Transient Private Home Rental Ordinance 99-300. The push for even tighter restrictions on private vacation home rentals by proprietors of bed-and-breakfast inns and motels/hotels in Big Bear is just an attempt by these business owners to push any possible competition out of their way. The reality, however, is that because most vacationers who choose to rent a private home for their families in Big Bear or elsewhere are not looking for a bed and breakfast or hotel room, it will only have the effect of damaging the local economy while restricting access for thousands of Southern California families who want to enjoy a retreat in our beautiful local mountains.

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that there are no second acts in American lives. But then, it never occurred to Fitzgerald to ditch the Hollywood snake pit and open a bed & breakfast in a fetching corner of America. Meet a few former California residents with better sense. Full Circle Ranch Cave Creek, Ariz., one hour north of Phoenix Your Host Since 1995: Jim Langan, Altadena/Pasadena native, aka "host, cook, maid, servant and friend." Past Life: 21 years as an aerospace engineer; five years as a landscape architect and interior designer.

The plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies was a nice touch. So were the down pillows and the feathery comforter on the bed. But it was the view from the balcony that made us want to linger in our room at Playa del Rey's only hotel. From here we could see the saltwater marsh and grassy fields that make up the Ballona Wetlands.

I have been going to the San Bernardino Mountains all of my life, starting with my grandmother's house in Running Springs. Now that Grandma is gone, I have to rent. And if you're going to rent, the Big Bear Lake area has a range of options. There is the low end, the little roadside cabin. But the last one we tried had a hot tub akin to a 1960s aquarium-shop tank and decor I would kindly call disco country.