Reading Between the Lines of California B&B; Guides : Lodging: Consumers beware. Listings frequently are written by the innkeepers themselves, and properties often are not inspected.

Not everyone wants to sleep in a stranger’s house beneath a shelf of quaint collectibles (especially after the events of Jan. 17). But California travelers by the thousands continue to look for just that kind of lodging experience, even when the alternative is a night in an impersonal but less-costly hotel.

Hard figures on the B & B trade have always been difficult to come by, since the distinctions between a B & B and a small hotel are so hazy. But Neale-May & Partners, a San Francisco marketing firm, has pored through guidebooks and advertisements to compile a list of 773 California lodgings that call themselves bed and breakfasts. That, says Neale-May’s Michele Bernhardt, is roughly three times as many as five years ago.

Other industry observers, including Sarah Sonke, director of the Virginia-based American Bed & Breakfast Assn., suggest that growth here and around the country has been far more modest. But there seems to be wide agreement that bed-and-breakfast operations will continue to hold a high profile in years to come--as evidenced by the estimated 200 B & B guidebooks now on the market nationally. This comes despite the price tag attached to B & B living: The average California hotel room rented for about $69 last year; though no one keeps figures on B&B;’s, professionals agree that the average room would fetch substantially more.

How does one find the right inn at the right price?

One potential answer is the 1994 Guide to California Bed & Breakfast Inns, compiled by the California Assn. of Bed & Breakfast Inns, published this month and available free from the state. (To request one, call 800-862-2543 or write the California Division of Tourism, P.O. Box 1499, Sacramento 95812.) The 60-page guide includes 211 lodgings with descriptions, prices, phone numbers, addresses and some drawings.

This is the first time the B & B association has published such a guide (though the state has distributed similar efforts from other publishers), and the information in it comes principally from the innkeepers. To be listed, they must be dues-paying members of the association, an investment of $250 to $300 per year.

Starting this year, association director Sandy LaRuffa says she plans to have each member lodging inspected, and to exclude those that fail to meet criteria set by the association’s leaders. For instance, says LaRuffa, if the word motel is on the sign, it shouldn’t be advertising itself as a bed-and-breakfast. Also, all room doors should have locks and free breakfasts should include “no Twinkies. No packaged food.” Other recommended attributes may seem less crucial --individually named rooms, personal collectibles on display, an atmosphere that will “facilitate networking among guests”--but on the whole, inspection may mean a big step forward for California consumers.

For Southern California readers, one shortcoming will stand out in the guidebook. Just 20 inns are included from the state’s eight southernmost counties. One reason is that this area has spawned fewer inns than have other parts of the state. But several insiders in the California B & B trade say another factor is the enduring schism between some innkeepers in the south and some in the north. LaRuffa’s group is based up north in Soquel, near Santa Cruz, and is campaigning to build membership in the south.

There are plenty of other sources in print for B & B information, but they, too, need to be examined closely. The guidebook “Bed and Breakfast 1994” (Plume Books, $14) has more than 1,000 listings and a track record of nearly 20 years. But to be listed, an innkeeper must join the Tourist House Assn. of America and pay annual dues of $35. “The Annual Directory of American and Canadian Bed & Breakfasts” (Rutledge Hill Press, $18.95) has even more listings, but the descriptions of the establishments were written by the innkeepers themselves, and the publisher has not visited the inns.

There are at least two guidebook series with sources that may be more reassuring. Authors of the “Recommended Country Inns” series (books on seven U.S. regions, from Globe Pequot Press; 1994 editions due out in November) pledge that they have visited all inns listed, and that no fees were required for inclusion. “Inspected, Rated & Approved” (American Bed & Breakfast Assn., $16.95) includes only the 450 lodgings nationwide that paid annual dues of $300 and passed site inspection. (The director reports 10% to 12% of lodgings that apply every year are turned down.)

The Auto Club of Southern California distributes “Bed & Breakfast Southern California” and “Bed & Breakfast Northern and Central California and Nevada” --but unlike American Automobile Assn.’s well-respected regional tour books, those listings are not backed up by site inspections. (Copies of the auto club’s California B & B guides are available to auto club members for $3 each; AAA’s Southern California B & B guide is available in many bookstores for $6.95.)