thumb|upright=1.3|One of the last remaining textile mill boarding houses in [[Lowell, Massachusetts, on right; part of the Lowell National Historical Park]]
A boarding house is a house (frequently a family home) in which lodgers rent one or more rooms on a nightly basis and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months, or years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. It normally provides "room and board", with some meals as well as accommodation.
Lodgers legally obtain a licence, not exclusive possession, to use their rooms and so the landlord retains the right of access.
Arrangements
thumb| Early-20th-century dinner in a miners' boarding house in northern [[Canada]]
Formerly boarders would typically share washing, breakfast, and dining facilities; in recent years, it has become common for each room to have its own washing and toilet facilities. Such boarding houses were often found in seaside towns in the United Kingdom (for tourists) and college towns (for students). It was common for there to be one or two elderly long-term residents. "The phrase "boardinghouse reach" [referring to a diner reaching far across a dining table] comes from an important variant of hotel life. In boardinghouses, tenants rent rooms and the proprietor provides family-style breakfasts and evening dinners in a common dining room. Traditionally, the food was put on the table, and everyone scrambled for the best dishes. Those with a long, fast reach ate best."
Boarders can often arrange to stay bed-and-breakfast (bed and breakfast only), half-board (bed, breakfast and dinner only), or full-board (bed, breakfast, lunch, and dinner). Especially for families on holiday with children, boarding (particularly on a full-board basis) was an inexpensive alternative and much cheaper than staying in all but the cheapest hotels.
History
thumb|[[Maroochydore Boarding House, Queensland, circa 1917]]
Boarding houses were common in most US cities throughout the 19th century and until the 1950s. In Boston, in the 1830s, when landlords and their boarders were added up, between one third and one half of the city's entire population lived in a boarding house. In New York in 1869, the cost of living in a boarding house ranged from $2.50 to $40 a week. Some boarding houses attracted people with particular occupations or preferences, such as vegetarian meals.
Later, groups such as the Young Women's Christian Association provided heavily-supervised boarding houses for young women. However, with the housing boom in the 1950s, middle-class newcomers could increasingly afford their own homes or apartments, which meant that rooming and boarding houses were beginning to be used more often by postsecondary "students, the working poor, or the unemployed."