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Gite Vs Bed and Breakfast


vespa
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Hello I'm new to the forum and hope i can tap into the wealth of experience on here.

Ive just purchased a property in SW France with an attached barn set in

1.5 acres with views. The property needs extensive renovation. I was

hoping to turn the barn into either a large one bedroom gite OR two

very generous size bed and breakfast rooms. I was trying to achieve a

boutique style look. The project is not about making money its to keep

active and ticking over in early retirement and to interact with

people. Is there much call for generous one bedroom gites or am I

better going for the two bed and breakfast rooms? I'm not after the

family with unruly children market..Your opinions would be greatly

appreciated. Vespa 

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There is a fiscal difference in running B&B as opposed to a gite. Have a look at this website which deals specifically with gites and B&B :

www.laymyhat.com

I have noticed a shortage of decent gite accommodation for couples. All too often it is a rather small studio, sometimes without a proper bed, just a click-clack. The worst ones are those that advertise for 4 people where there is one proper bed and a click clack ! Naturally people renting out gites want to cram as many people in as possible - and sometimes guests are happy to split the cost in this way. But there must be a lot of people like us who would like to rent a decent gite for 2 people, which provides a proper bedroom area rather than cramming everything into a small space. In the end, it seems that couples are obliged to rent a gite that caters for 4 people in order to get a little more than basic comfort.

A decent sized gite for two would get my vote. Much easier to manage and taxwise a lot simpler !
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Don't know anything about the kind of taxes you're talking about, Callie.  But I agree entirely about a nice, spacious gîte for 2 people being difficult to find.

Personally, I'd be happy to pay a bit more for something comfortable and furnished appropriately for two.

 

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I actually have a gite + b&b, I find that the clients love the gite, when offered a choice between the b&b and the gite.  It's large, it has 2 bedrooms with 2 mezanine bedrooms.  It can house 8 people in total, and has everything included, fitted kitchen, air con, propper quality beds (nothing worse than people who can't sleep during the night due to the quality of the matreess.  I have started now since 2 weeks, and I've rented pretty much the gite for this period, most of the people  don't want to know when I show them the b&b in the house even though it is cheaper and it's the same quality of beds as the gite.....probably people want to be left alone. 

I have people who go to the gite for 1 day, or 2 days, and they pay me an extra charge for cleaning which is ok.  I have to explain to EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM that I am not allowed to give breakfast to those in the gite, nor an evening meal, but they do try me out.  I am going to continue with the gite until September, then I'm going to rent it out until next year to locals.  I think I'll rent out the rooms in the house to local students for winter also and shut down the business.  I do not want the tax counter running while there's nobody coming in. 

To recap, people prefer a bigger gite, and they will pay more (I charge between 80/90 euro per night) I can't charge too much due to the credit crunch (sounds like a breakfast cerial haha).  The house I fix to 55 euro per night (obliged to follow my fellow b&b owners) and even with breakfast included people prefer the gite, suits me fine, I don't have to worry about them or to feed them!  Win win situation

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Exactly, it's fustrating hanging about for them to arrive, I HAVE to be in for 6pm because people just "drop in" and expect food or various other things. 100,000 questions and just talking until late in the evening.  I'm stoping the gite/chambre d'hotes game in September, I was a lifeguard/swimming instructor in the UK, I am going to re-do my qualifications here and I'm going back to working for someone, it's easier! 

As for the gite, it's going to be rented full time, and I think I'll find some students to take up the rooms.....easiest solution, I don't like the way the gite is destroying my relationship with my girlfriend, I have to "cut things short" to get back to the house and "wait" for people to turn up, it does put a dampner on the "interacting" part of running a gite! lool

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Vespa - I think it depends on the guests ! You can run a B&B and never really have much contact with your guests if they want to disappear after breakfast every day. We have always had a good relationship with our gite guests who are completely separate from our part of the house. We sometimes chat when we cross paths, sometimes share a glass of wine... There are no hard and fast rules, and in the end it's what you make of it.

We have never felt that the gite (2 bedrooms and up to 4 people) infringes on our privacy and we hope our gite guests feel the same. But in the end, they are paying good money for a nice holiday and we enjoy making their stay as pleasant as possible.
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In terms of renting out the gite would you recommend only taking week

long bookings in high season for example?. What I would want to avoid

is all the weekends booked up and then people who want to stay a week I

would be unable to accommodate because I have a few days here and  a

few days there booked or is it best to take any length of booking to

get established?

Vespa 
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I think it entirely depends on where you are. Our area is a lot quieter this year and we do not have any extras like a pool. So we have been happy to take people for, say 10 days, on a pro rata basis, provided they either arrive or leave on a Saturday.

If you are in a good touristy area, you should be able to stick to Saturday changeovers. As you get further into the season, you can start being more flexible so that you can fill the 'holes'.

As I said, it really does depend on the area in which you live. We have noticed fewern tourists in the Saumur area this year - confirmed by the tourist office and local shops.

I think a lot of people chose to go further south after two not very good summers in succession. This year seems to be no better weatherwise, so it remains to be seen whether anyone comes here next year !!!
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I think it entirely depends on where you are. Our area is a lot quieter this year and we do not have any extras like a pool. So we have been happy to take people for, say 10 days, on a pro rata basis, provided they either arrive or leave on a Saturday.

If you are in a good touristy area, you should be able to stick to Saturday changeovers. As you get further into the season, you can start being more flexible so that you can fill the 'holes'.

As I said, it really does depend on the area in which you live. We have noticed fewer tourists in the Saumur area this year - confirmed by the tourist office and local shops.

I think a lot of people chose to go further south after two not very good summers in succession. This year seems to be no better weatherwise, so it remains to be seen whether anyone comes here next year !!!
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"In terms of renting out the gite would you recommend only taking week

long bookings in high season for example?. What I would want to avoid

is all the weekends booked up and then people who want to stay a week I

would be unable to accommodate because I have a few days here and  a

few days there booked or is it best to take any length of booking to

get established?"

Vespa

I think you are thinking along the right lines here. Keep to Sat - Sat bookings in the high season (i.e. July and August) and then during the off season you can be more flexible with arrival / departure  dates.

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  • 4 weeks later...
We,er trying an alternative method of sticking to gites only during the busy summer weeks (we are just about fully booked) and advertising B&B with continental breakfast in the gites in off season times. Watch this space to see if it works. Anybody got experience of offering B&B in out of season times, and any tips. Our website keeps us busy in summer and we have only just added the B&B pages.

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[quote user="Chris Jewell"]We,er trying an alternative method of sticking to gites only during the busy summer weeks (we are just about fully booked) and advertising B&B with continental breakfast in the gites in off season times. Watch this space to see if it works. Anybody got experience of offering B&B in out of season times, and any tips. Our website keeps us busy in summer and we have only just added the B&B pages.

[/quote]

We are thinking of doing a similar thing.  There are a couple of things holding us back:

Bathrooms - my understanding is that each bedroom needs a bathroom to itself - our gites have 2 or 3 bedrooms, but only one bathroom, so therefore could only be let to family groups, or there would be the expensive of heating and lighting a whole house/appt, for one night stays at what, 50 euros/night

License - acquiring a license to serve drinks (even coffee and orange juice) - isn't there a new rule which involves going on a 900(ish) euro course about the the perils of the evil drink before they will issue a license?

Meal service - I understand that if you have a CdH, meals are supposed to be taken in the host's home - not sure how that would pan out if the guests are staying in the gites which are totally independent, even if they are in the same building and trailing round to our "bit".

The CdH in the village seems to have people there all year round - I would like some of that, but I need to think more about the logistics and legalities.

If I have any of the above wrong, I am more than happy to be put right!

Fi

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Hi there,

I started a business up to run my gite/chambre d'hotes, I have a drinks licence and the right to serve food (I only seem to serve people food for breakfast as most eat out).....I ask 55 euro for a couple breakfast included and 65 for 3 people.  I don't think for the trouble it causes that this is a worth while sacrafice.  I'm going to keep the gite going but shut down the chambre d'hotes side of it, people RATHER pay more per night to stay in the gite than stay with us, not that we have a bad house or we are unpolite, but it's the way things have worked out really.  Also, you have to move all your personal stuff out of the rooms and bathroom etc, make it as neutral as possible to avoid people stealing. 

these are just my thoughts [:)] everybody stay cool in this heatwave! [:D]

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Our gite has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  We did it in such a way as we divided the 60m2 directly down the middle, did 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom one side with a locked door, and the same the other side with a locked door.  We have a communal courtyard both sides, 1 with grass and the other just to go out for a smoke.  The gite rental price is not all that high, but is in accordance with the area, I have it at 520euro per week, OR 100 euro per day....I can't say how many times I've had people come in just for the day, I don't mind this.  Quite a few times I've had 1 couple with 2 kids come in one side, and 1 couple 2 kids come in the other side, Dutch and German together.  I asked them around 90 euro each, 180 euro for 1 night....wasn't bad.  The beds are new, and comfortable....the bathrooms are comfortable and clean......good insulation all around and upvc windows installed (from the UK) all through.  People like the quality of the work we've done and I've also stripped my old kitchen from the house, put a new one in the main house, and fitted the old wooden kitchen in the gite.  It looks really nice, would be happy to share photos if someone drops me an email.

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We considered letting our Gite for short breaks but decided against as you still have the same cleaning /laundry costs for 3/4 days as you do for a week and you would receive less for the rental too.

Hasn't made any difference to bookings (ours is only a small gite, max 4 people - 2 double bedrooms) but most bookings are for couples as it's in a town. If you are living in France it probably wouldn't matter so much if you were doing the changeovers yourselves but we are still in the UK.
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I know, but the cleaning part of it doesn't really bother us, I'm happy to rent per day or per week.....I'm not turning anybody away with this crisis!  Ideally, I would PREFER to have someone who stays one week, but sometimes I do not have the choice.

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Good afternoon

Here I am, a rare poster and regular "lurker" in need of some info, please

re: There is a fiscal difference in running B&B as opposed to a gite.

Have a look at this website which deals specifically with gites and

B&B :

www.laymyhat.com

I have had a good trawl and search on Laymyhat but I cannt find a clear explanation of the fiscal difference between a B&B and a gite.

It seems to have something to do with "para-hôtellerie" ?

If you could enlighten me a bit more, I would be very appreciative.

Best regards

Dominique

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