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euro

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Everything posted by euro

  1. Hi, we have a well and its full / covered over to keep rubbish out. I am thinking we should use it to water our veg garden but having never used it before suspect the water sitting in it will be a bit yuk ! but presumably it would come cleaner as it was pumped out. is it important to have it tested first ? to be clear we are not going to drink it .
  2. Hi sorry i forgot to say we are in lot et garonne (47) the pool has full sun virtually all day with a little dappled shade from a tree. i was thinking about the solar collector being mounted on my barn roof which sits adjacent to the pool facing south and is generally red hot. perhaps the idea of free "heating " is ambitious for a big pool , i have made a few enquiries with suppliers of the epdm etc smartpool / mats etc and surprised to learn how costly it is at over £1000 to supply ! i had envisaged pricing in the region of a few hundred at most as its little more than pvc drainpipes ! giving a little more thought to a heatpump ................ Euro
  3. hi , we are looking to add some free heat to our pool to hopefully extend the period of use / comfort and i wondered if anyone has experience of using the off the shelf and fairly inexpensive plastic pipe / mat systems for this ? do they work ? much warmer ? do they leak ? etc
  4. i am well aware of lay my hat and have posted there as well.
  5. Nick i think you missed the point i was making. a hotel having hundreds of bookings every week with a large volume of reviews can show a balanced view even with some vegative reviews and as you say people can read between the lines. my volume and many gites / 2nd homes is small (maybe just enough bookings to cover annual costs of utilities / maintainence etc) For me it pans out at around 10 bookings so 2 of these "reviews" = 20 % disatisfaction I offerd the Ebay analogy to make the comparison. re your nimby comment - if a guest raises an issue / has a complaint or requests something not provided as standard then i will always do my utmost to meet their needs swiftly so they can focus on enjoying their hols. what i detest is the guest who does not contact me directly during their holiday , yet is quick to email a complaint listing issues once they get home offering no opportunity to resolve / overcome. There are people who get satisfaction from peeing on someone elses parade and trip advisor is providing a platform / opportun ity for them to do just this. So this is why i wont go along with it. Thanks
  6. hi all yes i have opted out of a "free upgrade " so will not be on the T/A site. this doesnt prevent guests from posting reviews on H/L re the post saying our ads maybe a bit biased - isnt all advertising ? highlighting all the plus points / benefits and positive reasons to buy ? thats the way it is what i have an issue with is the way T/A have set themselves up as some kind of reference site with content that is debatable and controversial. ie a guest can describe your offer in virtually any terms other than using foul language / racism etc. but owner replies can not contain any "personal comments about the guest" so you can have a totally deranged and unreasonable guest writing a review which may contain lies /halftruths or complete rubbish and the owner right to reply is very limited. another concern of mine is even one or two of these negative reviews could form a large % of total bookings eg i only want about 10 bookings per year so if 2 are on another planet then on the face of it i have 20 % rate of disatisfaction ! just think about when you buy on ebay - personally i feel happier dealing with someone with 95% or above. i would be very interested to hear from other "Gite Owners" about this as its something which will affect us all in some way going forward , and right now affects those who advertise on Holiday Lettings. thanks
  7. i have an advert on holiday lettings and today opened an email saying my ad would be upgraded for free to a "premium ad " for the duration of the period paid for. which includes a listing on TA recently i was horrified whilst watching a TV show where b&b owners / hoteliers were being the most ridiculous reviews by visitors with a resulting damage to their business. i contacted hol lettings to discuss who have confirmed if a guest writes a review which is untrue / misleading / malicious etc i would have no right to have it removed from the site( unless i could prove they tried to blackmail money from me !) in the last couple of seasons i have noticed an increase in fussiness and tendancy to seek out some negative point relating to their stay / holiday and believe T/A will only make things much worse. some examples :- belgians who wanted to watch the tour de france live on tv - our freeview doesnt get ITV so not possible.They said there were no TV channels ! their Laptops / smartphones couldnt access Wifi for some reason - my caretaker brought his and it worked fine - they said we lied about Wifi like many of you i could fill pages and pages of ridiculous complaints like this which would be the sort of content one would find in a review. This is what concerns me , people who are just vindictive and not totally truthful writing whatever the hell they want with no checks and balances and no right of removal YET WE ARE PAYING TO ADVERTISE !
  8. As a gite owner i have what i consider to be high taxes ( the 2 combined are nudging 4K) upon inspection / investigation it appears the size in sq metres is a major factor in the calculation. i accept and agree with the general prniciple of paying into my commune who provide services etc.( although as a non resident dont really get to enoy them !) so the fonciere part i can live with. its the other tranche that is bugging me as its a lot of extra tax for the same services / commune.when i queried it with the tresor they said if the properties are habitable ie with electric / furniture the a tax is levied - my point was even if i was a resident i can only live in one property at a time ( the site comprises of three properties) therfore the taxe should be reduced to reflect this but obviously they wouldnt accept this. so i am keen to learn if there is a way to avoid paying quite so much - i did speak to an accountant some 3/4 years ago who suggested the habitation element of the taxe would be exemptable for anyone running a business. But i dont actually know if this is correct or not so any advice appreciated. its pretty annoying especially as the number of rubbish dumpsters has been reduced dramatically along with recycle facilities meaning my holidaymakers have to travel further to get rid of rubbish etc. there is a library which i cant use / my property is en campagne so no streetlighting - i could go on ! it just feels like we are being squeezed dry for having more sq metres of property which do not use more services.
  9. earlier this year i opened a line / internet on the residence secondaire package , the whole point of which was to activate and suspend as reqd. now i want to suspend it for winter they tell me its not possible ! obviously its a mistake at their end , just wondered if anyone else has experienced this ???
  10. we have a gite business with pool for the guests , which we miss in the hot weather and are considering building a 2nd pool just for our own / family use. i wondered how common this is ? as in the future we will sell / downsize and wouldnt want potential buyers to be put off by the extra cost of running a 2nd pool thanks
  11. for simplicity i have divided total costs of all works by the no of m/2 the job is removing old farmhouse beams / roof trusses/ chevrons etc and replacing with a modern factory built roof which will be hidden behind plasterboarding anyway. so any comparisons should be for similair work. hope that helps
  12. just had a devis to replace 140 m/2 roof. including removal of old tiles / beams. replace with a self supporting frame enabling loft space to be usable. new canal tiles laid onto the cement fibre sheets. its working out at 150 euro per m/2 anybody had a similair job recently ? or know the average going rates ? thanks
  13. Bac Acier is metal sheet roofing used on agricultural buildings not houses , its cheaper and lighter etc. can be supplied painted red like terracotta . what are you actually renovating ? as this may help others to point you in the right direction ie metal sheet roofing is no use on a house or dwelling.
  14. hi i have been looking at using this type of product instead of tiles and although my online searches found info / suppliers they were actual roofers - charpentes. there is a similair sheet available at Point P and the like , made of cement fibre which provides the water proofing and you stick the pantiles on top basically for decoration. would be very intersted to know how you get on with it. as i have numerous roofs which are reaching the end of serviceable life and i cant really afford to get a charpente in to replace them. nb french for sheet is Plaques - in this context anyway. the other fixings have specific names rather than a generic translation like a bolt is Boulon. if you search online til you find the product specs / info - fiche technique page right click on your pc and you should be offered a translate with BING (microsoft search engine) and the page will become english before your eyes and the results are pretty good - then print it out for reference.
  15. we are concerned about bookings this year as its been the worst in 8 years - so far ! maybe it will be a very late year for bookings as one member wrote due to various factors. as well as late easter , may holidays , recession ,staycations in home country etc i would suggest the market is in a general state of over supply for example holiday rentals site has 68,848 properties in France. if you search key dates you will find tens of thousands of holiday properties are projected to be empty even in August. In France there are far too many "gites " of one sort or another. new entrants should look elswehere in my view.
  16. Hi all and thanks for replies. to clarify i am looking at alternatives to tiles to save time and money as well as have something which should not need any attention going forward. basically i think we all have better things to do than messing about "adjusting " tiles which have slipped. re the photos supplied by sid , i am assuming the 1st pic is the sheets bolted in place prioer to putting on the canal tile for effect ? various products appear on google ie sheet metal and pvc as well as fibre cement - but they are intended for the uk market. as ever trying to find out about products made for France isnt straightforward !
  17. i have a stone barn in the S.W of France and the roof needs replacing soon. its currently a clay tile roof as is common here. its a job i intend to do and having done small repair jobs with the traditional tiles which are easlily broken and dislodged i am keen to avoid so , rather than replace with tiles i am interested in finding out about new products like the tile effect sheets made from cement fibre or even steel. this seems a more practical option for me to work with and as its held in place with fixings or screws shoukld withstand wethering better. anyone used it ? thanks
  18. Hi Peter thanks for your reply , which was interesting to read and confirmed issues i was vaguely aware of like not showing properties where the commision is split etc. if i decide to do this then its for the long haul, as i am interested in property / architecture / building projects etc. The company in question has a very strong presence in terms of marketing to the uk buyers so i would expect a fairly regular number of clients arriving to view , as yet there has been no mention of me finding buyers - just developing a portfolio of property then matching suitable properties on viewing trips etc. i suppose the key question i should have asked is wether houses are actually selling ? and at what transaction values etc Regards Euro
  19. hi i am in discussions with a large estate agency with a view to moving to france and working as "agent commercial" which entails registering on the AE system. would like to get to hear how active agents are finding things just now ? (a PM is welcome) as its a purely commission based role Thanks
  20. HI we used to live onsite and had wifi ,which only we used. returned to the uk a couple of years ago and still run the gite business. to save money we had the phone disconnected and the internet of course went with it. is WIFI internet becoming a must have for guests ? Thanks
  21. hi anybody got experience of advertising here ? we have a big gite in s/w france and are considering a listing. thanks
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