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Jo Taylor

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Everything posted by Jo Taylor

  1. AFAIK letting agencies - the ones that do the whole package such as Brittany Ferries Holiday Homes and Country Cottages in France - include all relevant insurance in the package for their customers. I had this situation arise last year when a teenager blocked the fosse with tampons despite all the written and verbal cautions (Monsieur le Fosse Unblocker was leaping around the garden shouting  "Look, I've found some mice!!"). I was advised by their regional agent that I could put in a claim to the company (French Country Cottages) as it was too late for me to deduct from their deposit on leaving - as is the nature of these problems it surfaced (I use the word carefully...) only a few days later when the current occupants were two rather too elderly ladies who would not have required the said items. Didn't actually put in the claim, as I was only charged €20 or so. Yet another reason why we no longer bother with private lets, after 15 years of running our gite. Another insurance-related reason - some friends wanted to let the gite. We said they'd have to book through the agency. Duly done, all paid for. Arriving next week, but then our friend had a stroke, can't drive for a month, and had to cancel. We've been paid, the agency's been paid, and friend will be reimbursed from the insurance. Had he made a private booking with us we'd only have had the deposit by now, which, being a friend, we would have refunded. HTH Jo
  2. "Bourse d'Échanges" is usually used for collectors' meets - the equivalent to a UK "swapmeet". Models (railways and cars), trade cards, phone cards, etc. etc. They began as venues for enthusiasts to meet, talk, swap items and sell a bit. Mostly now just selling. Jo
  3. Hello Patrick, Yes, that's how it works. They can go into their nearest agency (usually in convenience stores in the US), do the biz, email you the reference number (& their name and address), you go into your nearest WU agency (usually nearest main La Poste here), fill in a form with said details and get cash. The last payment I received in this way was about 45 dollars, I gave the lady (who didn't "do" PayPal) the option of sending cash by registered post (not strictly allowed) or WU. Reg. post from the US costs about 8 dollars, so I can't see that the WU fee can have been any (or much) more than that. Jo
  4. Funny story... but please don't attack them! Hornets are not dangerous. Scary, yes, but not dangerous. We lived with them in between our floors for a few months last year, weren't able to locate the nest but they came through the chimney space into our living room. Cup-and-glass, evict. They leave the nest in November and do not return to it the following year. Hornet stings are no worse than a wasp, and not as dangerous as a bee. They get a bit dozy towards the end of the life cycle, one morning my other half got up, fulfilled normal functions (get up, dress, wee, downstairs, coffee) then sat down at computer and let the cat in. Cat goes in kitchen, knocks butter dish on floor. He kneels on kitchen floor to sweep up mess. Hornet crawls up his trouser leg and stings 3 times. He comes upstairs shouting and showing me his bottom. A couple of Nurofen later and all was OK. All you ever needed to know about hornets: http://www.muenster.org/hornissenschutz/hornets.htm Jo
  5. Good grief, A4 at 600dpi ?! You will find that many people won't even be able to receive a file that large, let alone want to spend non-broadband time downloading it. Rather than have a long technical explanation here, go to www.scantips.com - an excellent site which explains all you ever needed to know about scanning, file types, compression, and getting smaller file sizes without sacrificing quality. HTH Jo
  6. The Western Union fee can't be anything like as much as that - I've had people send me relatively small amounts of money (less than 50 dollars) from the US to France. Their website probably has the details. PayPal is of course easier and you can deduct any fees from the clients' total but some people prefer not to give their banking / card details online (WU can either be done online or at one of their agencies). Anyway, glad you sorted your particular case, Diane! Jo
  7. I'll second the PayPal method, but if you or your potential clients don't have a PayPal account another way is to use Western Union transfer - the sender pays a fee of about 4 or 5 dollars, you recieve euros in cash at your nearest agent - usually La Poste in your nearest big town. All details are on their website at www.westernunion.com Jo Taylor
  8. Just the one cottage. We are in a popular area: "location, location, location" is the first and most important key to a successful letting business. (Second is having attractive photographs in your advertising, it's the first thing people see.) (And third is, possibly, do not overprice!) Jo
  9. We're in our 4th year with them and they're wonderful. Excellent service both for owners and clients. We were with Gites de France before, and Brittany Ferries, and several years letting privately. French Country Cottages are part of the group that owns Chez Nous and Welcome Holidays (amongst many others) and have a reputation to maintain. Thoroughly recommended. We had 32 weeks let last year... Let me know if you want any other info. Jo
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