Renting companies

[ChrisnJules]

Hello,

We have a house in the Vendee which has a Gite attached. Renovation of the Gite is nearing completion and we are looking to rent this out next year.As we are living and working in UK we were thinking that it would be easier to let a company advertises and manage bookings/change overs for us.

Does anyone have any experience /knowledge of this kind of enterprise,and if so have you any feedback or observations?

Many Thanks

ChrisnJulie

[ben]

Dear ChrisnJulie,

 

We also live in the UK (Bourne, Lincs) and will start letting our house in Lower Normandy as a gite from next summer.  Our best idea so far is to use a recommended lady (just a lady, not a representative of any agency) to do the cleaning on changeover day and see that the newcomers get the key.  It does seem a bit precarious, but I have not come across anything else. I wil let you know if we do come across anything and would be glad to hear what conclusions you come to,

Ben and Tamara

[bannie]

Also still in the UK so happy to use professional companies. We have used Welcome cottages (not sure if I'm allowed to mention them by name) for about 4 years - excellent, lots of bookings and they sort out all the insurance etc. You may get more money by doing it privately but it's no good if you don't get the bookings. They do not do the changeovers though.

We had a one man operation doing changeovers but recently had problems but we're just about to meet a new changeover company when we're over next week, they seem very flexible and all their fees are set out so no surprises, again may seem slightly more expensive but want to avoid problems with not being able to clean and leaving us stuck!

Will let you know about new company if you are interested when we get back, they seem to operate in several areas.

[tawny owl]

Notice it is quite a while since your post and wondered what happened? Also how did you find the company who would do the changeover cleaning. We have an end of our farmhouse ready we hope in May and have been considering a long term let as with being in England it seems so challenging to run a holiday let.

[ChrisnJules]

We have just finished our arrangements for rental starting in March.We have used cottages4you( I think they are also part of welcome cottages.)They check out the property and advise on price bands.They will sort out all the bookings and they have a service team for people to contact.They seem very professionl so we will see how we get on.

They do not arrange change overs,however we contacted a group called 'Les bons voisins' and they have a local agent in our area so we have arranged the change overs with them.They are English people.

This will be our first attempt so we'll just see how it all goes.

Chris n Julie