Initially, these rooms were intended as the bedroom for one of the family's domestics, and the name originates from the colloquial name for such maids: a "bonne à tout faire".
Today, chambres de bonne are usually the cheapest rung on the Parisian letting market, and are primarily rented by less well-off workers and students.
They are also in high demand among workers who wish to maintain a small room or postal address in a big city, especially Paris.
[1] Due to the social level of the envisaged occupants, chambres de bonne are characterised by their tight proportions.
In recent years, landlords have attempted to rebrand their chambres de bonne by advertising them as studettes, a hitherto-unknown category of housing for smaller studios (broadly, those of 12 m2 (130 sq ft) or less).