Being a skilled writer, what is the best approach to solicit free stays at the finest bed and breakfasts or resorts in exchange for a detailed and thorough 5-star review of said places?

You're on your own with this one: work it out however you can work it out, with whatever B&B owner.

It may sound like I'm being unhelpful (depending upon what you had in mind, maybe I am — frankly, I’m a little skeptical of your intentions), but I'll help you with this much: hotels get no end of requests such as this (involving either cash payment or comp rooms) from both vendors and from people who think they can provide some 'service' to the hotel having “public relations” value that would have people flocking to us. A hotel manager might probably view even a potentially workable scheme skeptically and with some cynicism.

One of the most annoying things about the “hospitality industry” for people working in it is that everyone has an idea that’ll make a million bucks — so long as it’s someone else’s million bucks. As a matter of policy, we don’t publish our fax numbers, and give them out at all only very selectively; because every month, a tree dies to make enough paper to print out the junk advertising faxes that show up (cheap linens and terry, used furniture, directory listings in hotel directories that no one’s ever heard of, used furniture, secret 5-star review formulae, Nigerian fraud schemes, etc.) at hotels that do. I’ve been able to put up with having the same e-mail address for the last ten years only because I use anti-spam and Gmail filters religiously. And it’s hard for me to be polite to salespeople who call me two or three times a month at random times (usually interrupting something I’m doing) just to “touch base”.

Who owns a hotel's social media accounts?

If it were my franchised hotel, and there were nothing in the franchise agreement to the contrary, I'd rename the Facebook and Twitter pages to reflect my new brand (whether the new franchise or my own brand developed in-house), see that there would be no further references to the old brand henceforth (other than a brief and to the point announcement of the flag change), keep the accounts and pages (as well as the customer data); and the departing brand and/or management company could kiss my royal, half-breed, Moravian/shanty Irish . . . (whatever) if they have any objection. 



Any deviation from that drill would have to be specifically provided for, chapter and verse, in the old franchise agreement - if the old franchise agreement even anticipated such a thing as social media. Ethics? I honor my agreements. I might go beyond the letter of an agreement in order to honor a relationship, but franchise changes and management company changes, like divorces, frequently do not happen under the happiest of circumstances.