Difference Between Boarding and Lodging

Boarding vs Lodging

We grow up listening to words like boarding, lodging, and boarding and lodging. Did you notice the usage as separate and also together? There are boarding houses in schools, and lodges available for accommodation in tourist places and cities for travelers. You get a boarding pass when you are flying with an airplane. If both boarding and lodging refer to accommodation facilities, what is the difference between the two? This article attempts to highlight the differences between boarding and lodging to remove all doubts.

A lodge is a place that provides accommodation for a short period without the facility of food. On the other hand, a place where one gets accommodation as well as regular meals upon payment is referred to as boarding. Students, when they go to distant places in pursuit of higher education require not just a place for their lodging needs, but also food for their boarding requirements. Normally, hostels that are meant for such students provide not just lodging, but also boarding.

For example, one pays for lodging when he stays overnight in a hotel. Room tariff that a hotel charges, is for providing a safe room for rest, sleep, shelter and comfort. It also means safe storage of your luggage. For some, the only difference between boarding and lodging pertains to food; lodging is mainly having a safe place to stay.

Some hotels have this practice of pointing out boarding and lodging fees separately in their bill, which is very confusing for guests. Though technically, these hotels are right, once they have charged for boarding, there is no need to charge separately for lodging as lodging is included in boarding, isn’t it? If you are one of the boarders at a guest house, you also get meals provided by the place, whereas a lodger in a lodge pays just for the accommodation he gets at the place.

Another notable difference between boarding and lodging pertains to the duration of stay. Lodging is temporary and for short durations only, whereas boarding is more permanent in nature as is reflected by the use of the word in boarding schools.

In brief: Difference Between Boarding and Lodging • Though both lodging and boarding imply staying at a place, lodging pertains to accommodation only, while boarding implies both accommodation and food. • Lodging is temporary in nature and refers to a short stay at a guest house or a hotel, whereas boarding implies staying at a place for a long period such as a boarding school.