Just my opinion, but I always think of master suite as a bedroom with the bathroom inside the bedroom (private bathroom). A master bedroom to me is just the biggest bedroom. A master bedroom does not have to have an attached bathroom. A master suite does.

LOL - that's how I think of it :)

The home i am in now, has a master suite.It consists of a bedroom,2 walk-in closets,a master bath and a master den..All seperate from the rest of the bedrooms..

I think a master suite is a master bedroom with a sitting area and a bathroom??

a master suite doesn't necessarily have to have a sitting room. It may be regional, but our master suite consists of master bedroom, attached master bath and walk in closets. A master bedroom is a stand alone bedroom that is usually the largest bedroom in the home and does not have an attached bath.

Probably "master suite" is not defined the same way in new construction vs older homes with master suites...My daughters each have there own baths in their rooms,and they are called princess suites, and the other bedrooms are called Jack and Jill suites as they 'share' a bathroom attached and accessed from their bedrooms

The "suite" can be simply any BR with its own private bath ("en suite"). A "suite" of rooms is two or more rooms, private from other parts of the house. A "suite" of furniture is a set of matching pieces: a dining "suite" (matching table, chairs, breakfront, buffet, whatever).

Sometimes you will see listings that say some or all of the non-master BRs are "en suite", meaning each BR has its own private bath, accessed directly from the BR without going into a common area (hallway). Every BR has to have a closet to be called a BR -- doesn't have to be a walk-in.

Think of it this way- What do you picture if you were to reserve a stay in a hotel room suite?
I agree that the term "suite" means a bedroom area, seperate sitting room or office, walk-in closets, and a full separate bath. A master bedroom just has it's own bath and is larger than the other bedrooms.
Builders do seem to attach the word suite to what is just a MBR.

This is an interesting thread.

I think a MBR suite has, at a minimum, the largest BR & attached private bathroom.
A guest suite is a smaller BR with a private bathroom.

By private bath, I mean that the door is inside the BR and has no access from a common hallway or another room (like a Jack & Jill); you have to enter the BR to get to the BA.

Now, a "princess" suite is interesting because I have sons and they would certainly never want to sleep in a room called a "princess suite". So only families with daughters buy these homes?

And a hotel is completely different. A modern hotel room in America is assumed to have a private bathroom. A suite usually means that the bedroom portion is partitioned off (usually a seperate room with a door) from the rest of the hotel room. But there are also "studio suites" that are not partitioned off, but have distinct living and sleeping areas.

have seen Princess suites also called "guest suite",teen suite,in-law suite...fortuneately we have all daughters, so the listing didn't create a problem ,lol

Thx. Before this thread, I had never heard of guest suite but that makes sense now. I guess you learn something new everyday.

So what would you call a suite that is not the master, and includes a bedroom, an office or sitting room, and a full bathroom? (When we're done remodeling, our house will have two of these in addition to two 'regular' bedrooms and a master suite.) How best to market these?

guest suite,in-law suite,teen suite,etc...some call it a 2nd master suite

In GB, the BR, sitting room and bath would be a "Bed-Sit" -- sometimes without the bath part, only a sink, and a shared bath down the hall. They are cheaper than an apartment, er, flat, but more than just a single room.

So what do you call my situation. Upstairs off the main hallway there is a small "bathroom of just a toilet, sink/vanity, and shower stall no bathtub. Right next to it is another much much larger bathroom, a full bath, vanity/sink, and toilet BUT there is also another door in there that goes directly into the largest bedroom, which I call the master bedroom. Why they built it this way seems strange to me.. that small shower room /toilet should have been exclusive to the largest bedroom and the larger bathroom should have had only had access from the hallway.

I was just talking with a realtor about this - in my area the enormous master suites (I've had smaller apartments than some of these suites!) with sitting areas and walk-in closets or dressing rooms, multiple bedrooms with private attached baths, and suchlike are pretty much confined to the high end of the spectrum, in either new construction or major renos. In ordinary middle-class houses (like mine), if there's one bedroom with a bath accessed only through that bedroom, even if it's not the largest bedroom, that's a master suite, and you're pretty dang lucky to get one. You might see a modest master suite and a Jack & Jill or hall-accessed second bath in a newer, nicer 3/2, maybe a powder room if you're lucky. Our house has a first floor master suite (I nicknamed it the suite-lette as it totals only about 225sf) and 3 upstairs bedrooms (two of which are almost 1/3 larger than the master bedroom, the third is the smallest of all and well suited to an office or playroom) sharing a bath accessed from the hallway, and a 1/2 bath in the laundry room to boot, and that's very nice for its market "niche". In working-class houses here (which is what we'll be shopping for), the master suite notion is almost nonexistent, and having even 1.5 baths is quite the luxury. "Master bedroom" by itself here means NO attached bath and is not necessarily the largest bedroom - it really means the "best bedroom". It might have the best view, better closets, access to a patio or deck, or a location in the house that gives more privacy.

Another term they use around here is "cheater door" for a hallway acessed bathroom that also has a door in it that goes into one of the bedrooms, usually the largest bedroom. Which is sort of my situation.

in our house, that we built 5 yrs ago, we put a sliding door going from our master bedroom into the bathroom. There is only the one bedroom on the mainfloor, and only the one bathroom. Its nice to have access to the bathroom without having to go thru the hall, especially after bathing.

We have a half bath on the second floor and a full bath in the basement.