I'm thinking of doing gites!

[dave21478]

As I said previously, no, I wont.

Do you honestly think I would make all this up?

 

[suein56]

[quote user="Wilko"]

Dave

Let's have a look at the website..............or is it all a figment of your imagination ??

 So give us a look at that cool pool, chess board  and all those other "facilities "

Have a great season

Wilko[/quote]

Wilko

Aren't you confusing Betoulle, who has the giant chessboard, tennis court, pool etc, with Dave who has the small above ground pool and table-tennis?

Sue

[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

[dave21478]

Heh, I didnt expect the Spanish Inquisition.

I am paid to run these gites as I see fit. They are located in a hamlet, the owner owns the entire hamlet. I spend my own money on whatever is needed, which is paid back in full by the owner. I have recently finished rebuilding two ruined farm buildings and am in the final stages of decoration and finishing for the first one, final work on the second will follow shortly, these will be the third and fourth gites. The "facilities" (why does that have to be in inverted commas?) are various things I have chosen and what have turned out to be the most in demand, and are not limited to the few items I listed previously. ( those were mentioned in the initial pool discussion as parts of a much cheaper range of alternatives to a proper pool, which have been used and are much more in demand than a pool would ever be). The owner currently has little or no interest in directing the development of the site himsef, all he is concerned about is the profit margin, which he is happy with. From what I can gather, he is rich beyond what us mere mortals can comprehend and has several different projects going on all over France, all run in the same way as here - ie he pays someone to run it entirely in his absence. With this particular hamlet, the gites being so profitable is a nice bonus for him as he is more interested in the asset value of the site when it is comlpeted. When he hired me, he briefed me on the project plan - the two initial gites, which were just about useable, were to be refitted and once complete, rented out as much as possible to partly offset the costs of rebuilding the two other buildings. He told me to do whatever it takes to finish the place to a high standard. The rental income has far exceeded my projections and taken everyone by suprise, including him and the local tourist office. Once the work is fully finished, he intends to keep the gites running for two further seasons, then make a decision himself whether to sell the entire complex or keep it on for himself. Either way, I am leaving once I have finished the refit, as I have no interest in solely running the gites once the project is completed.

I refer to the gites as "mine" in my postings,as although they are not mine either legaly or financially, every single ounce of effort required to build the business has been mine, sorry if that confused you[8-)]

[Panda]

[quote user="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
[/quote]

Steve what is your problem? Dave is without a doubt one of the most entertaining posters on this forum and you are trying to imply what exactly  with your questions??

As has been said before, there's a life out there for you, now why not go and  try to find it and leave the rest of us to laugh at Daves antics!

[Chancer]

Seconded.

[Wilko]

Panda

I don't think Steve has a problem. Like me he is just curious as to Dave's motives for not wanting to post his site address, after all it is free advertising and he says he is in the gite business, so ask yourself why no web site address ????

Perhaps it is all  really a figment of Steve's imagination and posting on here is his way of getting a life ! Each to his own.

Wilko

[dave21478]

My website has my full name and address, home and mobile phone numbers and my business email address. Whilst I am happy for potential guests to find this information, I will not post this information for perusal by nosey randoms on an internet forum. A few years ago I learned the very hard way that posting traceable personal details needlessly is a very silly thing to do.

Someone on another forum I use once took exception to comments I made regarding a used car they were selling. Foolishly (i say that with hind-sight) I had posted enough information about myself on the forum to be quite easily traceable. This person started a one-man hate campaign against me. It started off as an irritation - spam e-mails, silent phone calls etc. and progressed to me being signed up to everything from medical research trials to gay and swinger websites. However things took a more sinister turn when I found that most takeaways and taxi services localy had blacklisted my address due to false orders etc supposedly coming from me, and someone had tried to aply for various store cards etc in my name. This chap even went to the effort to crap in some cellophane and post it to me in a jiffy bag. I called the police when he emailed me a photo of himself standing on my front doorstep holding a kitchen knife. He lived almost 200 miles away. No charges were brought due to a lack of real evidence. He was supposedly warned off unoficially by the police, but I have no real idea of the actual outcome.

Most people on the internet are relitively normal, but I still occasionally feel the effects today of the nutters than do frequent various forums.

 

I have no reason to lie about my activities here in France. Equally so, I have no need to prove myself to anyone either. If someone chooses to believe that my postings are made up, then they are free to do so, its not somthing I will be loosing sleep over.

 

As for posting the address here being free advertising, I would strongly disagree. The exposure an address would get here for potential guests is absolutely minimal.

 

[Poolguy]

I wanted to offer some advise to Potential Gite owners concerning swimming pools to be used as part of the rented facilities.

Not sure if its been mentioned before, but these pools are classed as 'public' for the purposes of the Health Department DDASS and as such must be operated within the guidelines set out in their norms. Although it happens to mostly larger enterprises, the DDASS have the right and should in fact visit every Pool so defined and conduct a water analysis one a monthly basis to ensure that it is safe for the Public to swim in.

The test is looking at 26 different parameters, most of which is beyond the capabilities of most Gite owners to test for and control themselves. The consequences are quite grave if any Public pool fails the test (is outside the parameters), for the Officer has the right to insist that the pool be closed for public use, drained or in serious cases, the proprietor might be fined (along with the previous).

So if you decide to get a pool as one of the facilities you offer, then you need to acquaint yourself with the norms, and ensure that the pool is equipped to comply with the norms. This equipment is not the same as would be supplied by most Swimming pool installation companies as it is necessarily much higher and a lot have no idea what it entails but will insist that its nothing special – that’s wrong. It specifically excludes for example salt chlorination systems, as there is no norm for that even though I know of proprietors who continue to operate these systems and inspectors who do not insist that they be upgraded... this is France after all.

So the message I can offer, is that you need to be not only informed about the requirements concerning public pools but also be prepared to invest more into the water quality than you might otherwise have spent... as well as things like Showers and footbaths etc. Another issue that seems to be very frequent is that the pool should be heated, as no one will really enjoy a dip in April with a pool temps at 10°C unless they have serious personal issues. In the main, pools need to be above 22°C up to 28°C for the time of your booking season. To achieve this is not as simple as you might think and relies on a combination of excellent insulation and continuous input of a large amount of energy, either solar, electric or another source.

If anyone needs more information on this regards, please contact me.

 

Andrew

[Panda]

[quote user="Wilko"]

Panda

I don't think Steve has a problem. Like me he is just curious as to Dave's motives for not wanting to post his site address, after all it is free advertising and he says he is in the gite business, so ask yourself why no web site address ????

Perhaps it is all  really a figment of Steve's imagination and posting on here is his way of getting a life ! Each to his own.

Wilko

[/quote]

Yes but who gives a flying you know what.. if it is in Steve imagination then he has missed his true calling!  As for not wanting some of the weirdos on here ot be able to trace him, who can blame him!!

EDIT, It should be noted I do actuall like some weirdos on here!

[Steve]

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

[oldgit72]

I have a 2 bed cottage that I was thinking of turning into a gite. I am now thinking that I would be better off renting it out as a long term let to someone living in France. I would probably only get 250-300 euros a month but once rented, it would be semi permanent income with less hassle than a gite.

[just john]

Return On Investment  is of course the key element to any business, so quite a cute idea to get a builder to rent out the gites to offset the renovation and living expenses. Equally, competitive prices must be a key driver in comparisons on destination; being cheaper does not mean being too cheap or cheapest, and all other things being equal (all ''facilities'' being the same) why would you pick the most expensive? It seems to me what Dave says stacks up completely. (wanna do another one Dave?[8-|])