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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 9376653" data-attributes="member: 4937">This gets really complicated and it's hard to analyze the historical sources because of the complexity.  In both the modern and ancient world the primary costs incurred by the landlord are the risk incurred by a disreputable guest that might do him or his property harm and the fees and taxes imposed on him for operating a public house.  So it costs something aside from brushing out the rushes and boiling the sheets occasionally.  Operating a public house required a license and it was a heavily regulated profession.  In particular, the amount you could charge for a bed and certain basic necessities like a pint of beer was regulated by the local community because of the perceived necessity that travelers could obtain basic overnight lodgings at a low price.  In a world of slow travel this was a necessity to the proper operation of the town both at a political and economic level.  But the result of this is that the price of a bed was often undervalued.  To make a profit and to stay in operation, the innkeeper therefore had to get creative about how he charged the guests by offering them services whose prices weren't regulated and then charging for each service.  So, would you like a bath drawn for you?  Would you like a little coal for a fire in your room?  Would you like a bucket of oats for your horse?  Would you like this fine imported bottle of wine with your meal? "Two percent for looking in the mirror twice.", as the Les Misérables song puts it so well.  One of the best ways to recoup the loss off the heavily regulated price of lodgings was to upcharge for food and especially "premium food", so inns in particular in the historical record when you look at the prices you should not assume that those prices where "at cost" but a reflection of government regulation.  Thus, you do find in the historical record a place in a bed going for the equivalent of $20 where a basic meal is costing you $50.  Note also that this is just a place in a bed and not a room.  Strangers would often be packed 2-3 to a bed, which wasn't deemed such a bad thing on the whole since you probably had an unheated room because of how much the innkeeper would charge you for a fire.But assuming without context that this represents the cost of keeping an Inn is like running with Gygax's prices where he's assuming the price of tools is reflective of a situation akin to the Klondike goldrush.  Things distorting prices shouldn't be figured into the base costs of things without really some explanation and awareness of how things might change absent social customs or a different economic reality.It should also be noted that to avoid these problems people often just asked if they could be boarded in people's homes just like people often sign up with AirBnB in modern times and for many of the same reasons.  Less wealthy or reputable travelers would beg to sleep in the barn for a penny.  If the price of a meal was really as high as Inns were charging, then people couldn't feed themselves (even assuming the usual restaurant upcharge).  But if you look at similar historical references for the price of food itself (that is ingredients) as opposed to prepared food, then we find food was really inexpensive.  The situation is similar to buying food in the third world where they have no international buying power but purchasing power parity still allows people to buy food locally at low cost.  Food is one of the things that translates pretty readily.  It's all the manufactured things that are vastly cheaper than they would have been at the time.  But you can translate if you stick to modern handmade goods.  Like almost all clothing was expensive as modern hand tailored clothing and so absolute the most valuable thing a person you were robbing probably had on them was their clothing.And that's before we get into how the potential risk of giving a bed to a doppleganger, vampire, or werewolf might change the economics of housing strangers.</blockquote>

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