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Caretaking/keyholding - advice sought


Carly
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Hello folks - I'm seeking some advice...

My husband and I are thinking of perhaps setting up a business in the Lot/Dordogne offering gite caretaking/keyholding services (cleaning, garden maintenance, changeovers, renovation/decorating, pool-maintenance services etc) to supplement a chambre d'hote income. Can anyone that is already operating one of these enterprises (and I see from the classified sections that there are lots of these businesses out there), give me some guidance as to whether this brings in enough to keep food on the table?

Any advice would be very greatly appreciated!

Many thanks,
Carly
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hi Carly you have not said where you live in lot.I would be interested in your service provided your prices are reasonable. To many try and charge a fortune for doing even the basic work.I am talking about those who have no qualifcations,however I am also not saying that they cant do a good job.
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Hi Carly

First of all - good luck with the move and your new life.

If you are thinking of doing keyholding etc alongside chambres de hotes you may find that it doesn't work, as the problem is that when you are busy with your own place is the same time that people want you to do changeovers etc. The cotisations for setting up even a small business are horrendous (sorry to bang on about this but it is true) and you can actually only do one or two changeovers maximum in any one day even if you are not busy with your own guests.

We started off with the same idea, but now that our chambres de hotes is actually up and running have had to change tack a bit and my husband is going to work for someone else during the autumn/winter to make a bit of extra money.

If you haven't run chambres de hotes before, don't underestimate the work involved. The other thing we found is that people don't want to pay a realistic rate for changeovers - and mostly hope they can find someone to to do it as a 'favour' or cash in hand. Can't understand why anyone would want to 4 or 5 hours of someone else's cleaning as a favour!!! Although you may not want to be rich you certainly don't want to be taken for a ride either.

You don't say whether the chambres de hotes is a going concern, but if not you may of course be able to do the same sort of thing until it is - but may find that gardening (which there seems to be a demand for) or something else is more rewarding.

Anyway, hope all works out for you - we have done the same thing and are enjoying it despite the sometimes rocky ride. If you want any more info e-mail me privately, or come and see us when you get over (we're about an hour and a half from Gourdon)

Maggi
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