Steve

Hi Last year was a record year for us & this year we have beaten it by 3 weeks across two Gites. Bookings arrived much later including 3 individual bookings for September over the last couple of weeks. We open 6th Jun - 19th Sept only so very happy with 95% occupancy. I feel next yr will be good because of the Brits who got wet feet staying at home this yr. Steve

[quote user="dave21478"]Why would I make this up? seriously - think long and hard about this steve.....what possible motivation would I have to make up a years worth of comments about imaginary gites? You misinterpreted something I wrote several months ago and have never managed to get past this fixation of me not owning these gites. I have never once claimed I was the owner and am perfectly happy to tell people that I run them for someone else, but you just cant accept this for whatever reason. Bear in mind steve - I dont particuarly care what you think. Some random on the internet doesnt like what I write! well boohohohohoo. Im hardly going to be crying myself to sleep for the next few nights. You say you arent jealous - maybe so, but your last paragraph there, to my mind, makes you sound like a sad, bitter sarcastic old fart who doesnt like it when someone else does something popular. Get over it steve. Read my posts, or dont, Im not bothered either way, but quit your whining. [/quote] Not too long and hard I'm afraid dave....... no idea but sadder things have happened. No fixation at all, you did several months ago state you were the caretaker for the Gites you write about. There was no misinterpretation prior to that. You clearly do care what is thought of you  otherwise why get so touchy and irritated. When you write your book you will need to prepare yourself for the poor reviews as well as the applause. The last paragraph was a parody of your posts paragraph, you know Sarcasm & irony, the stuff you write about all the time. What do they say, if you can't take it don't etc etc etc. Incidentally, we actually have had a record year but the rest, I admit, was made up,.... apart from the great guy thing! Sad, no your getting me mixed up with someone else, bitter, no,  sarcastic, em YOU are accusing me of being sarcastic!!! OK yes, when pushed I admit it I can be sarcastic but I think I cover it up quite well. Old fart, well no, not really. There you go mentioning your popularity again. You really do feel important don't you. Ranked 128 on number of posts.I'm helping you break into the top 100. How many of your 520 posts are about you ? Steve  

[quote user="dave21478"]Dry your eyes steve - Nobody is interested in your whining. Spit it out - whats your problem? 43 posts to your name since 2007, and probably a third of them have been whinging and nit-picking about me and what I write. This is either some excellent deep-cover Troll work, or you really just have a decent sized chip on your shoulder - jealousy perhaps?. I neither know, nor care. Go on steve, enlighten us. [/quote] Jealous?? You've lost me............ Of you pretending to be a Gite owner? or you constantly getting cheap "laughs" from taking the ---s out of the people who pay the Gites owner who then pays you? Enlighten me dave . & please, please, make it witty. There does seem to be a fixation about the number of posts people have done on this forum. A rounding on anybody who dares to question the reality of what is being posted or perhaps that doesn't matter. It is not nit picking about a persons posts if that person accepts that they had been misleading in what they had written. Absolutely  no chips on my shoulder. We've had a record year with our Gites, we are solidly booked through to March 2011 including Xmas & New Years and we are so popular and I'm such a great guy that they all agreed to pay in full, upfront. My book, entitled Truths half truths and darn right Lies comes out next year and the retainer alone  will allow me to buy a hotel on Mayfair & Park Lane. Steve.

To GD.... I'm with you GD, as are quite a few others. Dave21478 is a dreamer and has amused some, with very little else to do, over too longer period. He believes he is a legend in his own lifetime. This thread as he says is, from page one all about him and how he runs the Gites he manages for someone else. Earlier in the year he announced he was leaving his caretaker job to move to new pastures(a loud cheer was heard) but of course due to "popular" demand he didn't, as suddenly he was offered further "couldn't refuse it" work and we have to continue to suffer his brilliant style of sarcasm as he makes us "all laugh" with his boring fictional anecdotes The Gites he is caretaker for are always "full" just about all year round in spite of.........etc etc. Now, various people will come on  and say how wonderful Dave scribbles are and of course that's there opinion. Sarcasm grinds after a while so I'll kept this post short. Steve

We got ours from cash piscine at an excellent price with excellent quality. It is called Securit Pool Littoral Luxe. This is the metal pole type and fully conforms. I would personally avoid floating shutter covers as they collect garden debris etc and of the two I have seen in situ they move in the wind. This causes it to rub on the liner at its water line. This has ended up doing permanent damage to one of the the liners in question. They also seem to keep the water at a lower temperature in the summer. Oh yes and they are expensive. Hope this helps Steve

Guests break items from plates through to beds(Clair) whether they be "lower quality than at home" or not. These cost money to replace and in a lot of cases guests do not tell you about any damages if they think they can get away with it, so that cost is left with the owner. Hence Ikea comes in handy. I'm afraid it is, for us anyway, unrealistic to put high end gadgets in our Gites as they would break or get broken in the same time frame as similar items at a reasonable price. They both make the same cup of coffee & play the same music at a good standard. As I read this thread through and see what everybody offers as free extras I wonder how nett monies are made. I'm just waiting for someone to post that they run a free tucking in at night service or a  brushing sand out from between guests toes free offer!!! and then try to tell me that its their USP and it gets them repeat bookings. Steve Charente Maritime

Clair... I agree with your points of view, this being based on past experiences. We actually only sell to the British market and have only ever offered linen & end of let cleans as an option. Take up on linen is around 75% of clients and cleans around 50%. Over the last two years we have had a pool but still don't offer towels as an option or as standard. Bookings are good, this year being the same number of weeks as last, which was a "record". In our first three years with Gites we offered a welcome pack which was never verbally appreciated nor was it ever written about in our visitors book. So we stopped it and booking numbers never went down.. We decided that the quality of the Gites, our grounds, position etc were far more important than a bottle of Pineau etc and I believe our clients agree. We get around 25% repeat bookings and as importantly around the value of a further one weeks rent from the linen & clean options. It is a business after all! So, as regards the charges, they are 10€ a bed for linen( pillow cases, duvet cover, top & bottom sheet & 40€ for a standard clean. Steve Charente Maritime

[quote user="Poolguy"]Yes your right John But As I've been attacked by one of the above posters for commercial activity on the forum I have agreed to restrict such messages to PM. Its cumbersome and more time consuming for me as well, but hey at least 2 people out of the 000's on the forum aren't offended by this news which is of a commercial nature. So thanks for your question John I've PM'ed you   Andrew   [/quote] Why not just suggest to those wanting to know that you can go to any pool shop in town & buy a water line cleaner. Various brands various prices. The orange/yellow stains can't be got off totally by anything you want to sell them or anybody else for that matter. It's unfortunate but fact. In that way you are offering your "vast" knowledge for free without the twist of a possible sale at the end. I repeat, I have no problem with you passing on your knowledge, its the trade off for a sale that IS against the code of conduct on this forum & of course the others you ply your trade on. I wonder whether you would be interested in passing on your knowledge if there wasn't the chance of a sale at the end of it? You have a website, which is the right place to trade, not here on a forum. Steve Stands back and waits for the bang!  

[quote user="g8vkv"]Blimey - I never realised that there was so much interest in baking soda[;-)] So, given that, here's what I've discovered so far .... Firstly, my measurement of 'Total Alkalinity' (TAC). I've got a Scuba+ which I use as the primary instrument for all measurements. On this particular one, it shows 'Lo' - which, according to the specification, means it must be less than 10ppm. However - the error bar on the TAC measurement is +/- 50ppm - so it could be as high as 60ppm while still showing 'Lo'. I also have some dip-strips which measure (among other things) the TAC. Now I know colour-comparision testing is prone to a host of subjective errors, but this test shows it's at the bottom of the OK range - about 80ppm. So my guess is that it's probably about 60ppm-ish. It's my intention to concentrate some pool water by evaporation and test the concentrate to get a more accurate measure. I had intended to do this today, but got distracted by F1. Secondly, the price/availability of baking soda. It's not widely available - just one of the local Bricos had a single tub, gathering dust, at €50 for 5Kg[:P]. Phoning around indicates that this is about the 'going rate'. It's also available off t'interweb at about €25 for 5Kg, but when you factor in the cost of delivery, it comes up to about €45. The cheapest I've found is at Carrefour, where they have 400g pots (for use in baking) at €2.15, making it about €25 Kg. This is probably what I'll end up using. What _is_ more available is combined pH+/TAC+ (NaCO3 and NaHCO3 at 25€/5Kg) - but raising pH in order to raise TAC and then having to lower pH again seems a bit, well, daft. Finally, does it matter? I spoke to the very nice lady at the local pool shop, who assured me that so long as the pH isn't jumping around all over the place (which it isn't), then don't worry too much about the TAC. So - there you go. [/quote] Nice one G8 Steve

Andrew I'm sorry you have taken the objection so poorly, perhaps you have underlined my point by your reply. Some emotional blackmail in their and couched personal insult. Is quality judged by the number of posts you make ?? Don't understand that one. I don't believe I have questioned the useful information you have posted or others either. This is purely about the code of conduct of the forum. I also don't believe that the length of time you have been posting on a forum somehow makes it right. Steve

Scooby..... Agreed. Forums are about passing free advice & comment that in some cases may help the readers, not as a way of swopping this information for a potential sale or 2. Steve

Teapot..... "You get a far better response than from the majority of pool shops in France." I haven't managed to get into the majority of pool shops in France to be able to post  such a "correct" piece of information as yourself!! "What is your area of expertise"? What ?? The point being ? Steve

Baz..... I don't think I am nit picking.... A code of conduct is just that........ A code of conduct. Putting a link to your website at the bottom of each post is  not overt at all then? Informed information is what we get not necessarily always correct information. There are always two opinions eg mine & yours on this particular point. Steve

Teapot..... Try reading the code of conduct for this forum. Very much like many others it has this line.. Please do not advertise or post your personal details, products or services on the message boards. Any advertising without permission will be removed. Poolguy, has and does sometimes offer up useful info but its mainly so that he can "net up" some possible sales. Forums are for discussion and debate( just as you & I on this subject) not for selling services. Steve

[quote user="Poolguy"]Yes  I can help you. Pm me your contact detials and I'll do my best to get you the Bi Carb Soda Andrew [/quote] Aren't the words sell you Andrew, not get you ? Steve

Yes, I would agree Riemann P20 is the worst. Sold by Brittany on their ferries!! Steve

[quote user="Jane and Danny"]JR there is nothing wrong with your grammar - but when you have an apostrophe or bracket in the user name no one can use the quote facility properly. It is rejected by the forum software. So that means that if some one wants to quote you, they write their post and try to post it and they can't. If they know what the problem is - in this case, your apostrophe - then they can manually edit out of the HTML and post again. But for most of the forum users, I guess that "Non matching block quotes" means nothing so they can't properly quote you. You could of course be "J.R has gone native" and still be grammatically correct and allow every one else to be able to quote you properly. I hope you don't think I am being rude or offensive - just trying to explain why your apostrophe is annoying for anyone who might want to quote you. Danny   [/quote] Perhaps you should start a new thread on your "interesting" topic of "worms and spencences". It doesn't really belong with this one called Difficult pool builder. Steve

Yes J.R,  it is the Tribunal d'Instance. For claims under 4000 Euros Steve

[quote user="Steve"]As an update to this thread ........ The PB has still not replied to our 2nd recommended letter sent in Nov 08 and so we went to the Tribunal d'Instance in Saintes, explained the situation & showed them copies of the letters we had sent to the PB. They gave us some forms to fill in and explained what will happen. In around 4 weeks time both the PB and ourselves will receive recommended letters stating the claim and details of the claim as per the forms we filled in. Both parties will be given a date to attend the Tribunal d'Instance where a judge will hear both arguments & read all relevant documents etc. Both parties then depart and the judge forms a decision which is relayed to both parties by post after a further 4 weeks. Both parties should accept this decision.  If it goes in our favour then the letters to both parties will also describe how payment should be made. If the decision goes against us then we would accept this and that would be that. Our understanding is that there are no costs attached to this process. Its a small claims court which I believe handles claims under 4,000€ [/quote] I promised an update to my last post re our claim for the cost of water on a necessary drain & refill of our pool by the PoolBuilder who had put the liner in with creases & undulatons.(See thread) We went to the Tribunal d'Instance in Saintes this morning. The PB was also present. The Judge listened to our case and clarified with the PB that what we were stating was fact. The PB agreed it was. The Judge then asked if both parties could come to an agreement over the dispute. The PB then said that he was prepared to pay the full amount owing. The Judge then asked  how he would like to pay and the PB said by Cheque and he would write it there in court. He wrote the cheque, the Judge checked it was for the full amount and passed it to us. The Clerk of the court took notes on this, that both parties signed. A copy of this will be sent to both parties and the case was concluded. The action we took through this court was free accept for the Recommended letters that were sent. Our view is that the PB believed that because we were Non French that we would not pursue our claim to the very end. When he arrived at the Tribunal and saw we were there, ready & waiting he knew that his only other option to win the case was to be in the right. He was not in the right and therefore to avoid costs, he paid. We hope this inspires other forum members to pursue their principles and money and stop a few more builders etc of this type from believing they are immune from tribunal action. Steve & Anne

Panda I have no problem at all. Go back to the original question that was asked by Newbiee which was: "Though after reading the long thread full of reasons not to .....!     I have a property next to my home which I'm going to turn into a gite. So, would any of you care to share your top tips?  Anything you wished you'd done differently when creating your gite?  Any tips, serious or funny, would be nice to read" Dave was one of those who gave his thoughts and from these I wrote raising a different approach to Dave's angle, which he feels is succesful for the Gites he looks after.I'm sure it is. He suggested that he was cheaper than all those Gites around him and ended up turning potential guests away. My comments as an alternative tip for Newbiee vs what Dave suggested were: "It is likely that revenue could be lost and workloads increased with this type of  business approach. For some people running Gites are a way of balancing a more relaxed lifestyle with a potential for some additional income. Selling volume of most things at cheap prices is not difficult, however the knack in  balancing  the price you charge versus the market that is available is a different skill but one that can deliver you far more avg revenue per week and with the added bonus of no more or even,slightly less work." A bit of general chat on Gites etc passed by and then you came in with your first You seem to have a problem with Daves success, post. Followed by a paragraph on what you call target marketing and also exchange rates. I did reply to your post with my thoughts, all of which were polite. I think forums should include areas of debate and factual information. If you own Gites then you will know that owning a Gite or Gites is completely different from running a Gite or Gites for someone else and therefore information offered up onto a forum by anybody who is  running Gites they don't own without the running costs or  the need to maximise income is not neccesarily the only top tip that is right. As Dave by his own admission did tend to suggest that the Gites were owned by him then the top tip of being cheaper than all the others didn't to me, seem like a top tip at all for a Gite owner. I aired my thoughts. If you track back through the posts you will see that I accepted Daves decision that he didn't want to post his website. Some other post continued to ask for it. Steve

Dave: You wrote: No, I don't own these gites. I am given carte-blanche to run them as I see fit by their owner, who lives at the other end of the country. In my time here, I have turned it from a "hobby" with 4 - 5 bookings per year into a successfull, profitable business which I am still expanding. I plan to leave at the end of the 2009 summer season, but will continue to work hard till then, and plan on having the third and possibly fourth gite finished by August. I have a very low boredom threshold, and the time I have spent here has been profitable and good experience, but its time for me to move elsewhere. Steve wrote: I'm confused, the Gites belong to owners who live at the other end of France, who, because of this, give you free rein to do, what exactly? Use you own money to fund "facilities" as per your quote below?:.......... "However, the few hundred I spent on a table-tennis set-up, table football, badminton nets etc and a load of basic mountain bikes has proved to be a fantastic success." So, you are a caretaker for the two gites then? and your good work has made it a profitable business for the owners? You said in an earlier post that:..... "I have 2 gites - one sleeps up to 7, the other up to 4". You can perhaps understand some of the confusion........... Are these yours or are these the Gites that are owned by the person at the other end of France? and where does Gite 3 & 4 come into it. You said:.. " and plan on having the third and possibly fourth gite finished by August" Sorry you won't gives us the owners Gites website link but perhaps you could clear up some of the above confusion. Steve

Le Jars How long is the form you have been given to fill in? Steve

Panda I don't have a problem with Dave's "success" I don't believe I have said that.I queried advice that Dave had given suggesting that being the cheapest in the area was some how a good strategy. This might be the case for Dave but the thread was started by a "Newbiee" to the Gite world and so cheap might not be the only or best approach. So....I don't have a problem with your exchange rate views but.......with the credit crunch being felt across the world, including Europe then I suspect that an effect will be felt whether advertising in French, Spanish or English. There is a tighter marketplace, whether you are selling to the Brits or/and the European mainland. As we know job losses are being felt right across France, Spain etc  Also not sure where you think those Brits who would normally go to France on holiday and who are still looking to go on holiday are going to go. The pound is poor at present against most currencies. The difference against the average Euro rate of last years summer period  is around 11%, enough, but not perhaps as much as is being hyped. Job security may be a bigger factor than exchange rate in the decision making of families and although it will be a tough year I still think there may be a late booking "surge" whether they be Brits,French or Spanish. I do agree with your last paragraph and in fact I thought that's what I said in my original post in reply to Dave's views & thoughts and remembering the first post that started this thread. I quote myself from my original post below: "For some people running Gites are a way of balancing a more relaxed lifestyle with a potential for some additional income. Selling volume of most things at cheap prices is not difficult, however the knack in  balancing  the price you charge versus the market that is available is a different skill but one that can deliver you far more avg revenue per week and with the added bonus of no more or even,slightly less work." There is more than one way to skin a cat (Where did that saying come from!!) Steve

Betoulle: I certainly don't doubt you when you say that a family come over from Ireland  purely to play giant chess but you have to wander why they don't just buy there own giant chess set back in Ireland and save themselves the cost of the holiday, after all they certainly would get the rain. I think with two Gites, as we have, the sound of a table tennis ball being pinged from bat to bat would potentially drive the other guests barmy. We have a Tennis court 1.5kms away in the village but I don't believe any guests have used it since 2002, when we first started with Gites, although it is part of the nearby facilties that are on both Gites advertising blurb.. I guess with your court being on site it makes things easier. We only use the pool when Gite guests are not onsite and they are aware of this before they book.Even with two gites we could go in the pool most days if we wanted and with our guests knowing when they book that the pool is shared with one other Gite then the privacy thing does not really exist. Kids from both Gites very quickly make friends and the pool is the ideal play area. We have beaches close by so the guests do go off for the day. I think running Gites can come at a premium especially when you are on site but it beats working. Steve

Le Jars We filled ours in in June 2007 so I doubt it has changed at all since then so I guess you are talking about the Déclaration de travaux Exemptés de permis de contruire ou déclaration de cloture. You don't need to fill in the  SHOB & SHON boxes(no 33). Leave it blank. You put your name, tele no & address in the 1 Déclarant area on the form. Line through 2. Terrain Put your cadestral numbers into the 22. cadastrales box and your total surface area of your land in the Superfice box. Put a cross in the Non box in 23. Situation juridique du terrain & line through Nom du lotissement Line through 3.Project, thats both boxes. In the next block put a cross in 322 and in 328 write something like PISCINE and 12metres  x 6metres  Dont touch the cadre réservé boxes as the Marie will fill that in, normally with a cross in the sans opposition, assuming they don't object. As I have already said ignore the 33 Densité de la Construction boxes as you are not involved in buildings. Reply to Le Jars Sign & date 4. Engagement du Déclarant Leave the final box area Demande D'Arretté empty. Attach a copy of commune map,a plan of your land along with showing where the pool is going, a drawing of the pool  with its dimensions including its depth. Take a copy of the lot for yourselves and thats it. Take it to your Marie and unless they have any queries you should get  your Marie stamped "certificate " back in a short while. We filled our form in on 19.06.07 & got the ok back on 21.06.07!!! Hope this helps Steve