Bed and Breakfasts in Ann Arbor: How Far Ahead You Have to Book

Ann Arbor has eight independently run bed and breakfasts. Counted room by room, all eight together come to roughly 45 guest rooms.

That number is the whole story of this page, so it is worth sitting with. Weber’s, the family-owned hotel out on Jackson Avenue, has 158 rooms by itself – more than three times the entire independent bed and breakfast stock of the city. When people say Ann Arbor inns are hard to book, this is why. It is not that they are fashionable. It is that there are 45 rooms, and on eight Saturdays in the autumn plus one weekend in the spring, tens of thousands of people want to sleep here.

So the useful question about an Ann Arbor bed and breakfast is not what it costs. It is when you have to commit, and how long you are locked in once you do. That is what this page is sorted by, because it is the part that actually costs people money and it is the part no other list prints.

Everything below was checked on 29 September 2026. Rates and policies change, so confirm at the time you book.

The deadline nobody tells you about

At a chain hotel you can usually cancel the day before arrival and pay nothing. At an Ann Arbor bed and breakfast on a big weekend, the date you must decide by is months before the date you arrive. Two properties publish this in writing.

The Ann Arbor Bed & Breakfast Inn at Rackham Gardens states it plainly on its own policies page: “Two days notice is required for cancellations (EXCEPT graduation & football weekends. They require 2 months notice.” Read that twice. On an ordinary Tuesday in February you have a two-day window. On a home football Saturday you needed to have made up your mind sixty days ago.

The Burnt Toast Inn goes further still: “Whole house rentals have a three month cancellation policy and Graduation has a six month cancellation policy.” Six months. If you want a house in Ann Arbor for commencement, the decision is effectively irreversible from the previous autumn.

Neither of these is unreasonable. A house with five bedrooms cannot absorb a late cancellation the way a 158-room hotel can – one dropped booking is twenty percent of the building. But it does mean that booking an inn here is a different kind of transaction from booking a hotel, and nobody warns you.

Two practical consequences:

Decide about the peak weekends absurdly early. Commencement and the home football Saturdays are the constrained dates. If those are your dates, you are working on a six-to-twelve month horizon, not a two-week one.

For anything else, the inns are more available than their reputation suggests. A Wednesday in March at one of these houses is often bookable on ordinary notice at ordinary prices. The scarcity is concentrated in about ten dates a year.

Book these a year out

Stone Chalet Bed and Breakfast Inn and Event Center, 1917 Washtenaw Avenue. The largest of the true inns and the one with the longest booking horizon. Its own site describes “over 11 distinct and wonderfully decorated rooms” spread across three separate buildings: three rooms and suites in the Main House, seven in the Parsonage, and a single unit in the Carriage House. Rooms have en suite bathrooms and no televisions, and breakfast is cooked to order in a formal dining room. The inn’s own site tells guests it is usually booked a year in advance and to plan accordingly, and it sells seasonal lodging passes aimed at people who come back for multiple football weekends. If you want the biggest and best-known inn in town, treat a year as the lead time.

11 units across three buildings. En suite bathrooms, cooked-to-order breakfast, free parking. 1917 Washtenaw Ave. Room count from stonechalet.com; rates and cancellation terms are not published on the site, so confirm both when you book. Verified 29 September 2026.

Burnt Toast Inn and The Washington House, 415 West William Street and 516 West Washington Street. Family-run since 2004, and structurally the most interesting option here because it is two houses two blocks apart rather than one building. The Burnt Toast house has five bedrooms and sleeps up to ten; the Washington House has four bedrooms and sleeps up to seven. You can book a single room or take a whole house, which makes this the obvious choice for a family that wants to be under one roof for a wedding or a graduation. The catch is the one above: whole-house bookings carry a three-month cancellation window and graduation carries six months, and at commencement the Washington House is only let as a whole house.

Two houses, nine bedrooms total – five at 415 W William (sleeps 10), four at 516 W Washington (sleeps 7). Both 48103. Whole-house and single-room booking; whole house is the only option at the Washington House during graduation. Three-month cancellation on whole-house rentals, six months at graduation, per burnttoastinn.com. 734-353-2121. Verified 29 September 2026.

Two months’ notice on the big weekends, two days otherwise

Ann Arbor Bed & Breakfast Inn at Rackham Gardens, 921 East Huron Street. A mid-century modern building on the edge of Central Campus, which makes it the architectural outlier among a set of Victorian houses. Nine guest rooms, all with en suite bathrooms, and free covered parking – genuinely valuable this close to campus, where parking is the hidden cost of every stay. Some rooms add balconies, fireplaces, whirlpool tubs or kitchenettes. Breakfast is hot and served in the atrium or on the deck. Of everything on this page, this is the one whose written policy is clearest about the two-tier system, and the check-in window is worth noting because it is narrower than a hotel’s: 2pm to 10pm, with checkout at 11am, and bookings are charged the day before you arrive.

Nine rooms, en suite bathrooms, free covered parking, hot breakfast. Check-in 2pm-10pm, checkout 11am. Cancellation: two days, except graduation and football weekends, which require two months, per the inn’s own policies page. 734-994-9100. Verified 29 September 2026.

The one that behaves like a hotel

The Inn at the Michigan League, 911 North University Avenue. Run by the University itself, upstairs in the Michigan League on Central Campus, and the answer for a lot of campus visits. At 21 units it is larger than any independent inn on this page, which means it has actual availability more often, and being university-run it books and cancels on more conventional terms. Rooms are published at $145 and the suite at $240, with additional guests at $10 each. Wi-Fi, cable, a daily breakfast certificate and a parking pass for a nearby structure are included, which in this part of town is the detail that matters most. Stained glass, Pewabic tile and handcrafted woodwork come with the building.

21 units: king rooms, double rooms, a wheelchair-accessible room and a suite. Published rates $145 room / $240 suite, extra guests $10. Breakfast certificate and parking pass included. 911 N University Ave, 734-764-3177. Rates from the University’s published figures; the inn’s own booking pages were not reachable when we checked, so confirm the current rate directly. Verified 29 September 2026.

If you are staying longer than a weekend

Davies House Inn, 1355 King George Boulevard. The one inn here built around long stays rather than weekends, and the only one on a golf course – it sits on the first fairway of Georgetown Golf Club, southeast of downtown. Three queen suites with private baths and two standard rooms, plus three extended-stay spaces with efficiency kitchens, and the whole house can be taken at once. It quotes nightly, weekend, weekly and monthly rates. If you are in town for a fellowship, a medical stay at Michigan Medicine, or a month of house-hunting, this is the listing on this page designed for that rather than tolerating it.

Five bedrooms (three queen suites with private baths, two standard rooms) plus three extended-stay units with efficiency kitchens. Nightly, weekend, weekly and monthly rates. Whole-house rental available. 1355 King George Blvd, 734-973-1722. Verified 29 September 2026.

The least expensive room in town, with a caveat worth knowing

Library Bed & Breakfast, 808 Mary Street. A book-themed house near campus run by innkeeper Joan Knoertzer, with a reading and rare-book room, a kitchen with a cookbook collection, and literary-themed guest rooms. Three units are published at $85 and a 19th-century two-bedroom suite with its own bath at $110, which makes this comfortably the cheapest bed and breakfast bed in Ann Arbor. The caveat is straightforward and not a criticism: those $85 rooms share a bathroom. If that is fine with you, you are paying roughly a third of what a downtown hotel charges on a normal weekend and getting breakfast made for you. If it is not, spend the extra on the suite.

Three units at $85 with shared bath, plus a two-bedroom 19th-century suite with private bath at $110. Breakfast included. 808 Mary St, 734-668-6815. Note: two Ann Arbor inns have near-identical web addresses and are easily confused – this one is annarborareabedandbreakfast.com, the Rackham Gardens inn is annarborbedandbreakfast.com. This inn’s own site was not reachable when we checked, so rates are as published elsewhere; confirm by phone. Verified 29 September 2026.

The two smallest houses

Baxter House Bed & Breakfast, 719 North Fourth Avenue. Two guest rooms, published at $115 to $135, plus a two-bedroom apartment with its own entrance that sleeps six at $300 to $350. Innkeeper Kathleen Baxter. Rooms have private bathrooms and balconies looking onto the garden or the city, and there are free bicycles and free on-site parking. The location is the argument: this is a short walk from Kerrytown and the Farmers Market, and under a mile from campus. With two rooms, it is also the single easiest property on this page to find full, so ask early.

Two guest rooms at $115-$135 with private baths and balconies, plus a two-bedroom apartment sleeping six at $300-$350. Free bicycles, free on-site parking, breakfast daily. 719 N 4th Ave. Verified 29 September 2026.

Huron River Guest House, 3586 East Huron River Drive. The one that is not in town. Three rooms in a house east of the city on the river, about a ten-minute drive from downtown and roughly a fifth of a mile from the Border-to-Border Trail, which makes it the pick if you came here to ride or run rather than to visit campus. A fireplace, a hot tub, and a pool in season. Rates start around $87. It trades under a second name on some maps, “A Different B and B”, which is worth knowing if you are searching for it.

Three rooms, sleeping up to four additional guests across up to three bedrooms and 1.5 baths. Fireplace, hot tub, seasonal pool, free bikes, free private parking, American breakfast daily. Roughly 0.2 miles from the Border-to-Border Trail. 3586 E Huron River Dr, 734-945-8799. Rates and cancellation terms were not reachable first-hand when we checked; confirm by phone. Verified 29 September 2026.

Worth the drive: Ypsilanti

The Newton of Ypsilanti, 220 South Huron Street. A historic house in Ypsilanti’s Historic South Side, ten minutes east of Ann Arbor and a different proposition from anything in the list above. Three suites: the Barnard sleeps two, the Newton Suite sleeps four with a queen bedroom plus built-in bunk beds and an adjoining bathroom, and the Gibson sleeps two. It also runs as a gathering and event space.

One thing to be clear about, because it is unusual for a property in this category and we would rather you read it here than discover it at checkout: breakfast is not included. The inn’s own site offers “a two course seasonally and locally sourced gourmet breakfast available for $25 per person” as an add-on. That is a fair price for a cooked two-course breakfast, and the house is priced as an inn rather than a bed and breakfast. Just budget for it, or plan to eat in Depot Town, which is five minutes away.

Three suites – Barnard (sleeps 2), Newton Suite (sleeps 4), Gibson (sleeps 2). Breakfast is an optional add-on at $25 per person, not included, per thenewtonofypsilanti.com. Also operates as an event space. 220 S Huron St, Ypsilanti, 734-340-3345. Rates and cancellation terms are not published on the site; confirm directly. Verified 29 September 2026.

Two entries in our own directory you should ignore

We would rather flag these than quietly leave them in a list.

The Lamp Post Inn, 2424 East Stadium Boulevard, is closed. Yelp carries it as closed as of mid-2026, and that address now trades as The University Inn Ann Arbor on the same phone number. It was a family-owned budget property near the stadium and the hospital for decades, and it still appears in our directory and in a lot of travel listings. It is not a bed and breakfast you can book.

Canterbury Chateau is not in Ann Arbor. Our listing gives it an East Huron Street address, and that is wrong. The property is at 5050 Kintyre Lane in Brighton, about half an hour north-west in Livingston County, with four rooms. It may well be a good place to stay. It is not an Ann Arbor bed and breakfast, and if you book it expecting to walk to campus you will have a bad morning.

The whole picture in one table

Sorted by how far ahead you realistically need to commit.

If the inns are full

They will be, on the dates most people want. Two things to try.

The first is to widen the definition of what you are looking for. Weber’s Boutique Hotel on Jackson Avenue has been family-owned since Herman Weber founded it in 1937, has an indoor pool, sauna and spa tub, and runs the steakhouse downstairs that has been an Ann Arbor institution for the better part of a century. It is a 158-room hotel rather than an inn, but it is family-run, which is usually the thing people are actually after when they search for a bed and breakfast.

The second is to work the full hotel inventory properly, which is a different exercise: see our guide to the best hotels in Ann Arbor, which sorts them by what each one charges to park, and hotels near the University of Michigan, which sorts them by which of U-M’s four campuses you are actually visiting. If your dates are a home football Saturday, start with where to stay on a Michigan game weekend.

And once you have a bed, the rest of the trip: things to do in Ann Arbor and the best restaurants in Ann Arbor.

The short answer

If your dates are flexible, any of these eight houses is bookable on normal notice and you will pay less than a downtown hotel. If your dates are commencement or a home football Saturday, you are competing for about 45 rooms, and the properties that hold those rooms want your decision two to six months in advance and will hold you to it. Book the peak weekends the season before. Book everything else whenever you like.