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The Irish- and British-English intransitive verb bed and breakfast:
– meant, in early use: to stay at a hotel, inn, etc., that provides a bed for the night and breakfast the following morning—cf. ‘bed and breakfast’: primary meaning and early occurrences;
– means, in current use: to stay at an establishment known as a bed and breakfast—cf. ‘bed and breakfast’ (lodging establishment): origin and early occurrences.
Hence, the verbal noun bed and breakfasting, which designates the action of practice of staying at an establishment known as a bed and breakfast.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences that I have found of the verb bed and breakfast and of the verbal noun bed and breakfasting:
1-: From an account of the thirty-ninth half-yearly meeting of the shareholders of the Bristol City Hotel Company, published in The Bristol Mercury and Daily Post (Bristol, England) of Tuesday 27th February 1883 [page 6, column 4]:
The Chairman remarked that the restaurant and the club were two subjects which he took notice of as soon as he came on the board, as he did not consider either of them profitable. The restaurant they found was abstracting people from the hotel who resorted to it as a place where they could go and get a cheap meal, and whilst gentlemen came to the hotel in thousands to bed and breakfast, they only came in hundreds to dine. They had now closed the restaurant, and were doing better in the hotel for it.
2-: From With the Wheelers. To Nan Bield Pass, by ‘Comfy Bend’, published in The Nelson, Barrowford, Brierfield Leader (Nelson, Lancashire, England) of Friday 24th May 1935 [page 17, column 5]:
Our party split into two parts, Bill and company, numbering seven, including Johnny and Joe, who had been bed and breakfasting at Clifton, to journey on by Haweswater to Mardale.
3-: From Cycle Runs and News: The Clarion Club, published in the Rochdale Observer (Rochdale, Lancashire, England) of Saturday 27th June 1936 [page 3, column 6]:
The party struck for Quernmore within three miles of Lancaster and there discovered an ideal camping site, two of the party who were “bed and breakfasting” going on as far as Caton.
4-: From With Malice Toward Some (London: Hamish Hamilton, January 1939 *), by the U.S. author Margaret Halsey (1910-1997) [Part II, page 69]:
—Context: The author and her husband, Henry, have arrived at Stratford-upon-Avon:
June 29th.
We are staying at one of the ‘Bed and Breakfast’ houses which are the equivalent of the American ‘Tourist’ places, except that they are a very little cheaper and a great deal less attractive. Ours, which looks fairly typical, is a small, cramped establishment wedged uncomfortably into a row of other small, cramped establishments. A steely and suspicious matron presides over it. She has a mouth which ought to be left out in the woods to catch bears. Our room, extravagantly small, is decorated to the eyebrows in a suffocating shade of pink. […]
[…]
June 30th.
[…]
[…] This room is so small it could be wrapped up and sent through the mail and when we are both in it together, we have scarcely space to stir a finger. An odour of cabbage, entwined with coal gas, works its way tactlessly up the stairs. But visions of sugar plums sustain me, for at the end of the long prelude of Bed and Breakfasting is the house at Yeobridge, standing by itself and facing the open country, redolent, in the manner of country houses, with straw and must and wood fires and furniture polish.
* This book was first published in November 1938 by Simon and Schuster, New York City.
5-: From Luton People Bring Back Happy Memories Of The Holidays, by a Luton News reporter, published in The Luton News and Bedfordshire Advertiser (Luton, Bedfordshire, England) of Thursday 17th August 1939 [page 9, column 2]:
A road tour of North Wales was the choice of Miss Neville, the manageress of a local shop.
Stopping when and where they pleased, they “bed and breakfasted” at farms and cottages by the roadside.
“We had a splendid time,” she said, “and the hospitality of the Welsh people was simply marvellous.”
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