creating gites: how many bedrooms?

[skelter]

We are in the process of buying a property that we want to convert into gites. The main building measures 29 meters by 7 meters (95x23ft). We will also have a small 1 bedroom cottage, which is seperate from the main building.

Our inital plan was to create 3 (very spacious) gites: two 2-bedroom and one 3-bedroom. We could also create only two gites and make one of them very large (up to 5 bedrooms).

If we would create three gites, we could always rent two as a package for larger groups. However, I like the idea of the large property, especially if we would ever want to sell it; it could then be sold as a large house, with extras (the other gites), as opposed to a collection of small properties.

Does anyone know if there is a big enough demand for large holiday rentals? How many bedrooms are most guests actually looking for? Thanks!

[Thebiga]

We have gites and our largest is 3 bedrooms, We also have 2 & 1 bedrooms also. We did think about knocking 2 together and making a 5 bedroom one but when we looked around certainly our area we found that the larger (5 bed) ones did not seem to have so many bookings as our smaller properties. Also when we looked at the sort of price per head we would not habe really made much more by having a larger on instead of what we already have. 3 & 2 beds work just fine for us and i think give you more flexibility. We have had groups and families come and stay and book several properties next to eachother without a problem.

So look around the area that you are starting with and look at what others have to offer and the bookings they have, Secondly try and work out per head what you want to make and then decide if its worth doing a larger property or not. 

[Cendrillon]

Sound advice from Thebiga. I would add that the larger properties would perhaps do well in the school holidays when they would be booked by families and groups but during the shoulder seasons the smaller ones would appeal to couples who holiday outside of school holidays.

[betoulle]

I agree - there is always an overdemand for the school holiday period, but it is the shoulder period which brings in more regulars & dependent on your region as to how long you want this to be.  For us in the Charente, we can always fill the 6 weeks late July, through August, but have another 10weeks which are taken by couples (mainly in the over 50 age group) who want more luxury & a little more space than the standard acccommodation on offer for 2......they tend to come back year after year...OK you charge less, but as a rule they are cleaner, quieter & generate far less wear & tear on property, so I would go for the 3 smaller properties.  Large groups tend to go somewhere different every year, so repeat bookings are rarer (in our experience anyway..)  This year we have 12 weeks booked already in our family gite - 8 of those weeks are couples returning for the 3rd/4th year running....as already mentioned, look around at the competition & what is on offer in your area + realistically how long the season is.  Good luck

[skelter]

Thanks for the replies! It all makes sense really, I'll go with the three smaller gites.