Six en-suite rooms
Doubles, twins and a single, several with sea views. Flat-screen TV, hairdryer, tea and coffee in every room.
Fortuneswell · Isle of Portland · Dorset
BnB-Side
Bed and breakfast on the Isle of Portland, with an arts festival behind the front door.
Six en-suite rooms above the rooftops of an old quarrying village, a terrace that looks out to sea, breakfast in the drawing room, and a name that means exactly what it says.
The stay
A short seagull hop from Chesil Beach
BnB-Side sits at 77 Fortuneswell, near the top of the old village on the Isle of Portland: a wedge of limestone four miles long and a mile and a half wide, tied to the Dorset mainland by a ribbon of shingle. Walk four minutes downhill and you are on the beach. Walk up and you are on the cliffs.
A guesthouse that is also a creative hub
Downstairs is b-side's home: a gallery, a studio and workshop rooms where artists have made work for the festival since 2008. Upstairs, in March 2024, the organisation opened six comfortable en-suite bedrooms so that visitors could stay in the middle of it all and, without noticing, pay for the art.
You are welcomed by Cat, who manages the house. Breakfast is served in the drawing room each morning. The terrace, on a sunny day, is the best seat on the island.
Breakfast in the drawing room
Continental breakfast each morning: pastries, fruit, yoghurt, preserves and good coffee, with a view.
The terrace
Sea views over the rooftops of Fortuneswell. Sunsets here are, honestly, why people come back.
The practical bits
Free Wi-Fi throughout, a shared lounge, luggage storage and limited free parking. Check-in from 3pm; earlier by arrangement.
Studio and meeting space
Three flexible rooms downstairs for workshops, writing, rehearsal or a quiet meeting away from everything.
Four minutes to the beach
Chesil Cove at the bottom of the hill, Portland Castle under a mile away, Weymouth over the causeway.
Gallery
Have a look around
Click any photograph to see it full size.
Rooms
Six rooms, one house, no lobby
Every room is en suite. Rates change with the season and the length of your stay, so the simplest thing is to email Cat with your dates. Booking direct means more of what you pay stays on the island.
- Deluxe double with sea view1 double bed
- Superior double1 double bed
- Superior twin2 single beds
- Double with private bathroom1 double bed
- Standard single1 single bed
Included in every stay
- Continental breakfast
- Free Wi-Fi
- Flat-screen TV
- Tea and coffee tray
- Hairdryer and toiletries
- Towels and linen
- Shared lounge and terrace
- Luggage storage
- Limited free parking
- Local knowledge, freely given
Check-in from 3pm, check-out by 10am. Upper floors are reached by stairs. Not suitable for stag or hen parties; Portland has other ideas for you.
8.7 / 10
Staff 9.9
Cleanliness 9.4
Comfort 9.3
Value 9.1
Guest review scores from 293 verified stays, as published by booking partners in September 2026.
Warm welcome, clean, tidy room with comfy beds. Great view over the bay, breakfast was very nice.
Sarah, travelling solo
Lovely breakfast and very good service.
Tony, business stay
Well located, excellent staff, decent breakfast, comfortable bed.
Joel, travelling solo
The space worked even better than I expected for the writing element of the retreat. It was great having the use of all three rooms and people being able to choose an environment that suited them. The catering was excellent, I also had lots of positive feedback about the rooms and how nice the accommodation was. The group also loved Portland as a location; we had an excellent meal at the Cove and a beautiful walk around Portland Bill. The yoga and sauna was a particular hit.
Helen Bramah, ESRC PhD candidate at the University of Bath, who ran a writing and wellbeing retreat at BnB-Side
Ready to stay?
Send Cat your dates and she will come straight back to you. No booking fees, no algorithm, just a person on the island.
A wild and windswept island linked to the Dorset coast, known for its dramatic cliffs, hidden coves and breathtaking sea views.
Sea swimming with the b-side crowd, choreography optional. Photograph: Pete Millson
The Isle of Portland
Accommodation on the Isle of Portland, and what to do with it
Portland is not quite an island and not quite the mainland. It is a place of quarries, sea pinks, climbers, birdwatchers and a lighthouse at the end of the world. Portland and Weymouth were named Dorset's Towns of Culture for 2025, and the b-side festival is a large part of why.
Chesil Beach
Eighteen miles of shingle, graded by the sea from pea to fist. At the bottom of our hill.
Portland Bill
Lighthouse, Pulpit Rock and the tide race. Photograph: Chris Hornby.
Tout Quarry Sculpture Park
A disused quarry full of carvings, including an Antony Gormley, hidden in the rock.
The Island Sauna
A barrel sauna right by the sea. Sweat, plunge, repeat.
Cliffs to climb
Portland is famous for its sport climbing. Sailing, windsurfing and foiling happen in the harbour.
Sidà Yoga
A calm studio a short walk away. The Bird Observatory, sea pinks and the coast path do the rest.
Stay with a purpose
Come for a few days, leave a little bit more in love with this remarkable island
EscapeCreateConnect
Bite-size Creative Getaways
A long weekend for up to six guests, all meals included, with a carefully balanced menu of creative, mindful and outdoor activities led by Portland artists and artisans. Small enough to feel personal, full of inspiring company.
An example menu; activities change with the season. The next season of dates opens in autumn 2026.
Ask Cat about the next dates
ResidenciesRetreatsCourses
Let us host your residency or residential course
An artist running a residential, a producer needing research and development time for a team, a business wanting a creative and environmentally minded retreat: b-side will help plan it, with connections to artists who can lead workshops and Portland residents who can lead walks and talks, or simply host you with homemade food, flexible spaces and quiet rooms.
So far the house has hosted a two-day writing and wellbeing retreat, a week-long encaustic wax residential and a research weekend for socially engaged artists. Need more than six rooms? A network of Portland residents, experienced hosts all, can take the overflow.
Pricing is worked out with you, to suit your budget and your guests.
Talk to Cat about hostingThe festival behind the front door
Every night you stay pays for art on Portland
b-side is an arts organisation and community interest company founded on the Isle of Portland in 2008. It commissions new art, runs a year-round programme with the island's community, and every September produces an international festival in Portland's quarries, streets and along its coast.
The festival is, in its own words, locally loved and internationally renowned. Artists project films onto Pulpit Rock, carry fire across the quarry floors and hang work in the windows of Fortuneswell. Arts Council England has funded b-side as a National Portfolio Organisation since 2012; Dorset Council, Portland Town Council, Agincare and CB Reid support it too. The 2026 edition, That Other Place, ran over four days and drew around 6,000 people.
But a festival that lives on grants is a festival that can be switched off. So in March 2024 b-side turned the upstairs of its own building into a guesthouse. It called it, naturally, BnB-Side.
2008
b-side founded on Portland
6,000
visitors to the 2026 festival
6
rooms that keep the lights on
½of b-side's income
Feel good, do good
It worked. BnB-Side now generates almost half of b-side's annual turnover of around £250,000. That is what pays for artist bursaries, residencies, youth work and the festival itself. "We opened bnb-side because we were completely dependent on public funding and wanted to be more financially secure," says Raina Summerson, b-side's chair.
By choosing BnB-Side you are supporting Portland's social and cultural economy: celebrating and respecting the island, making the best use of its landscape and its warm community connections. No shareholders, no head office. The money stays on the rock.
Next chapter
Buying the building
b-side has been offered the chance to buy 77 Fortuneswell, the house that holds the festival's studio, gallery, community space and BnB-Side. The target is £50,000.
Donate to b-side
Three little letters
An island arts charity, a $100 billion corporation, and the word "bnb"
In one corner: a six-room bed and breakfast on an island of 13,000 people, run by a community arts organisation with a turnover of about £250,000. In the other: Airbnb, Inc. of 888 Brannan Street, San Francisco, valued at around $100 billion. Airbnb says that the name BnB-Side threatens its brand. b-side says that "bnb" means what it has meant in Britain for generations: bed and breakfast.
In February 2026, b-side applied to register the BnB-Side logo as a UK trade mark for bed and breakfast, guesthouse and catering services. It had already registered the b-side logo, the target of rings the festival has used since 2008, a few months earlier. The application was published in March. In May, the first of three letters arrived from Airbnb's lawyers, demanding that b-side abandon the name it had been trading under since the guesthouse opened. Then Airbnb formally opposed the application at the Intellectual Property Office.
"We thought the name was both really obvious and really cool," says Rocca Holly-Nambi, b-side's director. "b-side was founded almost 20 years ago, so when we set up our BnB in 2024 to raise money for the festival, we just popped the 'bn' in front because it's a universally recognised description of what we're offering." No compromise was accepted. "They won't let us compromise by using a different case, an ampersand or an 'and'. According to Airbnb, we can't describe our BnB as a BnB at all."
Spot the confusion
Airbnb's case is that the BnB-Side logo is confusingly similar to its own. Here they are. One is a target of concentric rings used by a Portland festival since 2008 with the word "bnb-side". The other is a red looped symbol Airbnb calls the Bélo, with the word "airbnb".
Portland, Dorset
bnb-side
One house. Six rooms. Breakfast made by Cat. Owned by a community interest company.
San Francisco, California
airbnb
An online platform listing millions of other people's homes. A Delaware corporation.
The marks exactly as they appear on the UK trade mark register:
| bnb-side | Airbnb | |
|---|---|---|
| Symbol | Three concentric rings, the b-side target, used on Portland since 2008 | A red looped "A" the company calls the Bélo, introduced in 2014 |
| Colour | Magenta, sea blue and lime; white on the register | "Rausch" red |
| Words | bnb-side: a B&B, on the b-side | airbnb: shortened from Air Bed and Breakfast |
| What it is | A guesthouse with six rooms and one front door | A booking platform; it owns no rooms |
| Who owns it | B-Side Multi Media Festival CIC, 77 Fortuneswell, Portland | Airbnb, Inc., 888 Brannan Street, San Francisco |
| Size | Turnover about £250,000; a handful of staff and many volunteers | Valued at around $100 billion |
| Registered for | Class 43: bed and breakfast, guesthouse, accommodation and catering services | Ten classes, from software and payments to concierge services |
What Airbnb claims, and what is actually true
Airbnb's opposition rests on three grounds. Each is quoted as reported by The Guardian, with what a guest would actually find.
Airbnb says
Consumers will confuse the two brands.
What happens
A guest who books BnB-Side arrives at a stone house on a hill in Fortuneswell, is met by Cat, and eats breakfast in the drawing room. Nobody has ever asked where the app is.
Airbnb says
bnb-side could benefit from, or damage, Airbnb's reputation.
What happens
b-side's reputation is eighteen years of festivals, Arts Council backing and a review score of 9.9 for its staff. It borrowed nothing. If anything, the name borrows from b-side, which came first.
Airbnb says
bnb-side will profit by misrepresenting itself as an official Airbnb service.
What happens
BnB-Side has never claimed any connection with Airbnb, and every pound of profit goes to a not-for-profit arts festival. It is what it says it is: a B&B, on the b-side.
"bnb" is a description, not a brand
- B&B, BnB noun
- Abbreviation of bed and breakfast: a private house or small guesthouse offering a room for the night and breakfast in the morning. In British use for generations, on signs, in guidebooks and in the phone book.
2008
The year b-side was founded on Portland. It is also the year three designers in San Francisco launched AirBedAndBreakfast.com, which they shortened to Airbnb in March 2009. Airbnb chose "bnb" precisely because everyone already knew what it meant.
14
Accommodation companies with "bnb" in their name that Companies House records show successfully registered in the past decade, according to The Guardian's analysis.
2019
When Airbnb opposed the Italian mark Ciaobnb, the EU Intellectual Property Office rejected the opposition, finding that "the word BNB tends to be associated by consumers with the concept of Bed & Breakfast". Read the decision summary
2021
When Airbnb tried to invalidate Hairbnb, a Scottish dog-sitting business, the UK Intellectual Property Office found "no likelihood of direct or indirect confusion" and Airbnb's claim failed, despite the strength of its brand. CITMA case review
2025
The General Court of the European Union upheld the partial revocation of two of Airbnb's own EU trade marks for services it could not prove it had genuinely used. Trade mark rights, the court reminded everyone, do not stretch beyond what a company actually does. EU IP Helpdesk
How it unfolded
b-side is founded on the Isle of Portland. The same year, AirBedAndBreakfast.com launches in San Francisco.
Airbedandbreakfast shortens its name to Airbnb.
b-side opens BnB-Side upstairs at 77 Fortuneswell to reduce its dependence on public funding.
Airbnb files UK trade mark UK00004132806, claiming priority from an EU filing. Registered 7 March 2025 across ten classes.
b-side applies to register its own logo, UK00004312167, for art exhibitions and workshops. Registered 10 April 2026.
b-side applies to register the BnB-Side logo, UK00004345327, in Class 43: bed and breakfast, guesthouse, accommodation and catering services.
The application is published in Trade Marks Journal 2026/011, opening a two-month window for objections.
The first of three legal letters arrives from Airbnb's lawyers, demanding b-side stop seeking to register the name and stop using it.
Airbnb, Inc. files opposition OP000462592 at the Intellectual Property Office on three grounds: confusion, unfair advantage or damage to reputation, and misrepresentation.
b-side, with pro bono advice and the Bristol firm Stevens, Hewlett & Perkins, files its defence and asks the IPO to reject the opposition with costs. Status: evidence period.
The Guardian and the BBC report the story. b-side's answer: "It's terrifying but we're not going to back down."
A decision is expected. Robin Webster, partner at Stevens, Hewlett & Perkins, says proceedings "are likely to continue for another six to twelve months."
Voices
This feels like an uphill battle they're embarking on. BnB has long been widely understood as shorthand for a descriptive phrase, and descriptive phrases are available for the public to use.
Craig Beaumont, trade mark attorney, Barker Brettell, to The Guardian
It's quite punchy of Airbnb to say they're so well-known that they can monopolise a term that they only incorporated into their name in the first place because it was a descriptive one that everyone immediately understood, and then say that someone else using the term is going to confuse customers and damage them.
Darren Meale, partner, Simmons & Simmons, to The Guardian
There's a public relations angle to take into account. Some companies may welcome getting a reputation for aggressive enforcement but that can backfire when the target is a community organisation, like this one.
Lee Curtis, chartered trade mark attorney, HGF, to The Guardian
It's pretty bitter. We've watched other small, local hospitality businesses go under, and local people unable to afford homes here, who have been negatively affected by the force with which the Airbnb market has conquered Portland. One person owns eight properties on the island, all of which are rented out on Airbnb.
Cat Wightman, manager of BnB-Side
bnb-side now generates almost half the festival's annual £250,000 turnover. If it loses its name, we risk having to establish it all over again.
Raina Summerson, chair of b-side
Everybody's reaction was the same, they were like "no, enough is enough". We're just going to sit with our values and we are going to sit it out because we need to secure the future of b-side festival on the island, and the BnB-side has been our way of doing this.
Rocca Holly-Nambi, director of b-side, to BBC Radio Solent
In fairness, Airbnb's statement in full
"Earlier this year, we were notified of a UK trademark application for 'bnb-side' covering a wide range of services, including holiday home bookings. We want to resolve these situations amicably and directly, and contacted the applicant several times with no response, while a subsequent legal letter drew only a brief acknowledgement. With only a two-month window to object under UK rules and no dialogue underway, we filed an objection with the UK intellectual property office to preserve our ability to protect our trademark in the UK. We have initiated no other legal proceedings, and continue to extend an invitation to talk."
Airbnb spokesperson, quoted by The Guardian, 14 September 2026. b-side's account, as reported by the same paper, is of three legal letters, the first in May 2026, and no compromise on case, ampersand or spelling.
Not the first time
Airbnb polices the letters "bnb" around the world. It has opposed or challenged, among others, businesses called SeaBNB, MailBNB, BagBNB, VRBNB, GradBNB, CareBNB and CarBNB. Some it has beaten. When the word is doing its ordinary job of meaning bed and breakfast, it has lost.
-
Scotland, 2019 to 2021
Hairbnb, a dog-sitting service · Airbnb lost
A former RAF police dog handler registered Hairbnb for pet boarding. Airbnb missed the opposition window, sent a cease-and-desist a year later, then applied to invalidate the mark. The UK IPO found no likelihood of confusion. Novagraaf · CITMA review
-
Italy / EU, 2016 to 2019
Ciaobnb, a small booking software company · Airbnb lost
The EUIPO Opposition Division rejected Airbnb's opposition, holding that "BNB" is understood as Bed & Breakfast and that the distinctive parts of the marks, "Ciao" and "Air", are nothing alike. LGV Avvocati
-
USA, 2021 to 2024
TreeBNB, luxury treehouse rentals · Airbnb won
The US Trademark Trial and Appeal Board sided with Airbnb; the owners had marketed their treehouses through Airbnb's own platform since 2015 and offered identical booking services. JD Supra
-
USA, 2021
SeaBNB, a boat-holiday booking site · Airbnb won
Summary judgment for Airbnb at the TTAB: an online platform listing lodgings was found too close to an online platform listing lodgings. Brand Diplomacy
-
USA, 2021
@Home BNB, a home-rental company
Airbnb opposed the mark, arguing it "incorporates the BNB portion of AIRBNB". Law Street Media
-
USA, ongoing
Soul BnB, a mobile health spa
Airbnb opposed registration of SOUL BNB for "health spa services for the wellness of the mind, body and spirit", a business with no rooms at all. TTAB filing 91288785
-
Portland, 2026
bnb-side, a bed and breakfast · undecided
A B&B calling itself a BnB. The IPO will decide whether that is allowed.
Whose side are you on?
Stay here
The simplest, nicest way to help. Book direct with Cat and every penny of profit goes to the festival.
Email CatHelp buy the building
b-side is raising £50,000 to buy 77 Fortuneswell so that the festival, and its B&B, have a permanent home.
DonateTell someone
Share the story. Trade mark opposition is a numbers game, and public attention is the one thing an island charity has that a corporation cannot buy.
Read The GuardianKeep in touch
Join the b-side mailing list for festival news, new getaway dates and, one day, the result.
Sign upSources and records
- The Guardian, 14 Sep 2026: "We're not going to back down": tiny Dorset B&B stands up to Airbnb's legal bid to "monopolise" letters "bnb"
- BBC News, 15 Sep 2026: B&B resists calls from Airbnb to change logo
- Dorset Eye, 14 Sep 2026: Portland guest house takes on multi-billion-dollar US corporation
- b-side, 14 Sep 2026: We are in the news, and not why you might think
- UK IPO record UK00004345327: bnb-side (opposed, OP000462592)
- UK IPO record UK00004312167: b-side (registered)
- UK IPO record UK00004132806: airbnb (registered)
- b-side.org.uk/stay: the official BnB-Side page
Book direct
Let's chat. We can't wait to host you.
Whether it is one night on the way along the Jurassic Coast, a week of writing with the sea outside, or a residency for your whole team, start with an email to Cat.
Cat Wightman, BnB-Side manager
bnb@b-side.org.uk
01305 568044
BnB-Side at b-side
77 Fortuneswell, Isle of Portland
Dorset DT5 1LY
77 Fortuneswell, Isle of Portland
Dorset DT5 1LY
Prefer a booking site? BnB-Side is also on Booking.com and OwnerDirect. Booking direct keeps more on the island.