Daily Life of an Inn

This is material based primarily on Modern History TV's video on the daily life of an inn. See this video.

21st Bell (3AM)

The day starts about 3 hours before dawn. Apprentices start getting the kitchen ready to make bread by drawing water, starting to mix and knead the dough, and heating up the wood-fired oven. All to make sure that the patrons who wake at dawn have fresh bread for breakfast.

23rd Bell (5AM)

About an hour before dawn, the stables are getting ready. Horses need to be prepared before they can just be ridden off at dawn; they need to get their feed and have time to eat it. Some will get hay, some might get oats or barley, and those able to afford the best get “horse bread”, which is a kind of bread made with peas. Those horses owned by high status individuals need to be cleaned and brushed. Sometimes horses lay in their own poop, and that all needs to be cleaned up and the horse dried off before the client sees it.

Inns aren’t really quiet places, except maybe between the hours of 11pm and 3am. There are animals who make noise, especially if something is “out of place” and gets them riled up. Patrons snore, and inn staff start moving around making racket when they start getting the kitchen started up. With the activity in the kitchen and stables, the animals are up, moving around, and making noise.

1st Bell (6AM)

People are getting up. 

The latrines would be busy, and be rather smelly. Solids and liquids were typically collected in different ways. They are the busiest in the mornings, and unfortunately they are cleaned up after the bulk of the patrons had left. So they will likely not be emptied out very often, as they are in use almost continually during the morning.


Breakfast: at the very best inns, you might get porridge with cinnamon (cinnamon was very expensive). In PK, which features cinnamon as one of its exports, cinnamon can be found in inns that are middle class or better. Warm, fresh bread is also a main staple. Water to drink, or even some ale if any left over. Apples or other local fruits. Cheese as well.

2nd Bell (7AM)

People like to travel in groups; most people leave at about the same time, so there is a bustling of action in the early morning.

4th Bell (9AM)

After the patrons have left, it’s time to clean. Animal dung will need to be scooped up and used as fertilizer or sold. By midmorning, the hullaballoo has died down. And it’s time to get the inn ready for the next cycle. Latrines need to be cleaned. Rooms need to be checked, lost items need to be placed in a safe space for when their owners come back. Money is counted, bookkeeping is done (especially if the inn was owned by the church or a noble). General tidying happens.


Typically, bedsheets weren't replaced. They were brushed off, straightened, and fluffed, but not really changed. Sheets weren't cheap, and unless they were heavily soiled, they were used as is. In most inns in Port Karn, sheets are laundered every few days.

Weekly, or more often, the rushes are swept up and replaced. The rushes would be put into the compost heaps. Posh places used mint or thyme in the floor rushes to sweeten the air. This was very expensive though, so it was usually reserved for times when there were important guests.

6th Bell (Noon)

They were social centers for lunchtime; business deals happened. It was a place of commerce. Pottage was common for lunch. Bread, leftover from breakfast or freshly baked, was also available. Stale bread didn't go to waste; was used to make bread pudding, or french toast. Diets were typically plant-heavy; meat was expensive. Water, ale, and herbal tisanes--herbal teas--were available.

7th Bell (1PM)

Fresh hay in the stables is replaced.

8th Bell (2PM)

Midafternoon it’s quiet again. Deliveries come in (ale, firewood, food ingredients, hay). These deliveries would be regular and common. A lot of wood was needed--several wagonloads a week--to keep the center fire burning, and for the ovens.

12th Bell (6PM)

Sunset: the travelers have arrived, and the place is jumping. People are travel worn and muddy/dusty. Kitchen is busy. Board games, dice, and cards start popping out. There might be music, if a musician showed up (the innkeeper might give him food and a place to sleep, but normally wouldn’t pay them to play; they could keep what they were able to get out of the audience, however.) Troubadores were often spies/info gatherers.

14th Bell (8PM)

People start going to their rooms, or finding a corner to wrap themselves up in a blanket and going to sleep. Some stay up later, but by 11pm, just about everyone has finally gone to sleep.

17th Bell (11PM)

It's finally quiet, more or less. The last revelers have finally gone to bed, and there are several hours before the inn wakes up to start a new day.