In Bingham Township, the Wilson family is betting that simplicity is what travelers are desiring.
The Roming Roost is not your neighbors Airbnb.
It’s a bed and breakfast — a distinction that is seen less and less.
“I almost feel offended, in a playful way, when people call this an Airbnb,” Kristen Wilson said. “We’re a true bed and breakfast. The biggest joy for doing this is the connection with the people that come through here.”
That connection shows up in small, deliberate choices.
The Roost welcomes families and kids, something not every traditional bed and breakfast is built for. Breakfast itself is continental style and self-serve. But the real draw, Wilson said, is what happens outside the dining room: a working farm, a garden, chickens, horses. From there, Wilson and her family built a niche within a niche. The Roost is a registered WWOOF host — short for Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms — meaning volunteers can stay for free in exchange for farm work and shared meals. From there, the family created a spinoff for guests who aren’t part of the WWOOF network but still want the experience: a discounted “Community Supported Agriculture experience and stay,” where visitors pay a minimal rate, get their hands dirty in the garden, and take home vegetables at the end.
“What they’re paying for is really a CSA experience,” Wilson said. “It’s been really neat to incorporate that and watch it grow. It’s one of our favorite things here.”
What guests seem to take away, she said, isn’t the farm work itself so much as the absence of everything else. There are no televisions in the rooms, and Wilson makes sure guests know before they arrive.
“This is a place rooted in simplicity, but you’re going to get it with a lot of good hospitality,” she said. “I think people crave that, even though they might not realize it. The takeaway is, ‘I didn’t realize how bad I just needed to be away from my phone, or just to sit outside and watch the sunset.’” The Roost’s origins trace back to 2020, a year Wilson describes as strange on every front. The family had been looking at an existing bed and breakfast to buy, a deal that fell through just as the world went sideways. At the same time, they were navigating serious health challenges with their youngest daughter, then about six months old, spending long stretches at DeVos Children’s Hospital.
“We were realizing every day is a gift,” she said. “We’re given one body, one space to take care of — one temple. We just felt like we needed to pour into something bigger than us.”
That instinct became the Roost: a space meant first to help her own family heal, then extended to anyone who walked through the door. Opening a bed and breakfast in the middle of a pandemic was, in Wilson’s words, bizarre — but also exactly what people needed at the time.
“Welcoming people into your space during COVID was bizarre, but so wonderful,” she said, “because everyone needed it then.”
Wilson doesn’t see the traditional bed and breakfast model disappearing six years in, even as short-term rentals have reshaped the broader travel industry.
If anything, she thinks the format is evolving toward agritourism and farm-stay experiences like her own — a response, she believes, to a culture that’s grown too tech-focused and too polished.
“I don’t think it’ll go anywhere. I think it will change what it looks like,” she said. “As we become more distracted by the world, people are going to come back to this type of concept — the more simple stays, the nostalgic memories from when we were kids, when travel wasn’t five-star resorts and elaborate vacations ... We are a true bed and breakfast, and we just believe in what that stands for,” Wilson said. “I cheer on any bed and breakfast up here. Everyone sticks it out, and I hope it stays that way.”
COTTONWOOD INN, AN EMPIRE FARMHOUSE KEEPS BREAKFAST A century-old farmhouse just outside Empire is filling rooms and turning strangers into breakfast-table friends.
Holly Decker has owned the Cottonwood for 24 years, but her connection to the property goes back further than that.
The farmhouse itself is more than a century old, tucked on the edge of Empire near the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore headquarters.
“I think it’s special because I grew up in Empire,” Decker said. “I’ve just known that farmhouse since I was a child. So that in itself is kind of special to me.”
The house started out as a family-run apple farm, known locally as Roen Farm — the family that built it, migrated from Norway in the 1800s.
Decker got the idea to turn it into a bed and breakfast while she was away at graduate school, looking for a reason to invest in northern Michigan even though she wasn’t living there yet.
A friend mentioned the farmhouse was for sale.
“I was just curious about it,” she said. “And then once I went in, I just thought this would make an awesome B&B, because it had so many rooms.”
It didn’t have nearly as many bathrooms then as it does now.
Today the Cottonwood has six rooms in the main farmhouse and a separate cottage on the property, seven rooms in all. There’s also a barn that’s occasionally hosted small weddings over the years — two or three a year, including the 50th wedding anniversary of co-owner Toby Wegener’s in-laws.
The Cottonwood has been full to capacity the past few weeks — all seven rooms, anywhere from 23 to 30 guests at a time.
Breakfast is where Wegener spends most of his time — he’s there seven days a week, full time, and says he talks to every table.
It isn’t a continental spread alone.
Wegener cooks a full breakfast fresh each morning, with three or four hot options rotating alongside a self-serve continental spread of donuts, bagels, fruit, hard-boiled eggs, coffee, juice and tea. Hot breakfast runs from 8 to 9:30 every morning.
The recipes trace back to Wegener’s mother-in-law — Decker’s mother.
A Southern-style French toast and a berry bake are both popular, he said, but nothing beats the basics.
“I now make scrambled eggs and bacon every single day as our third option,” Wegener said, “because no matter what we do, scrambled eggs and bacon, without a doubt, is the most popular. It’s not rocket science. You provide people with a friendly smile and what they want to eat, and they will love it.”
Every room at the Cottonwood has its own bathroom, and the main floor is set up restaurantstyle, so guests can eat privately or sit down together. Wegener said that flexibility is part of what sets the experience apart. One recent weekend, three different parties — from three different parts of the country — ended up sharing breakfast for three straight days and became friends. They’ve already scheduled a trip back at the same time next year.
Both Decker and Wegener see a bed and breakfast industry that’s gotten more crowded, though they read the shift differently. Wegener said the rise of short-term rentals has simply raised the bar.
“It just makes you be on top of your game,” he said.
The Cottonwood can take guests for a single night or a two-night weekend — filling a gap for people just passing through.
Most guests come from Chicago and Grand Rapids, with a fair number from Wisconsin, though this year has brought visitors from Virginia, Kentucky, Utah, Washington and Germany.
LEELANAU COUNTY OFFICIAL BED AND BREAKFAST LIST:
Northport: Days Gone By Bed & Breakfast, The Northport Inn, Mill Pond Inn (Wauban Cottage) Omena: Sunset Lodge, Omena Shores Bed and Breakfast Suttons Bay: Korner Kottage Bed & Breakfast, The Guest House, The Inn at Black Star Farms Lake Leelanau: Inn the Pines Bed & Breakfast, Snowbird Inn Bed & Breakfast, Luna Rosa Farms Leland: The Riverside Inn Glen Arbor: The Sylvan Inn, Glen Arbor Bed & Breakfast and Luxury Condos Empire: The Cottonwood, Sleeping Bear Bed & Breakfast Maple City: Little Traverse Inn, Leelanau Country Inn Cedar: Nature’s Window Bed and Breakfast Bingham Township: The Roost
