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Can You Run a Gite Part-time?


ali-cat
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My husband, Mark & I are moving over to Poitou Charente at the end of this summer & intend to buy a property with seperate accommdation.  We have both been medically retired from the Civil Service, but as I will be 40 next week (how I feel about that is for a totally different forum!) & Mark's only 43, we are to young to be "retired".  We would mainly have the seperate accommodation for family & friends - but have the option of renting it out as well.  We won't be relying on the income for our living expenses, but I don't know if it is possible to run a gite "part-time".   I have a couple of main concerns.  Would the extra insurance cover, for guests, cost us more than we might make a year - are there other payments we have not even considered?  Can you ask for adults only - no children?  Would we have use of the pool while we have paying guests?  Do you always have to be on hand, while you have guests, in case of any problems?

I hope I'm not looking at everything through rose coloured glasses - I know it's not just meeting guests with a welcome basket of wine & bread, setting up websites & preparing leaflets on local attractions - but what sort of problems could we encounter, if the business is not being run as a full time occupation?

Any advice would be welcomed - please let me know your thoughts.  Thank you.   

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Hi

We have done exactly that over the past 18 months and have really enjoyed it, meeting all kinds of people has been very interesting.

Our insurance is no different at all wether we have guests or not and also the tourism office have told us due to the layout ie. not a seperate building we wouldnt have to pay any tax up to 15k on any income from it.

We have never been called upon for anything, we may have been lucky as a few have told us.

Go for it.

Good luck
Lee & Michelle

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Hi

A few reasons which was a result of a long thread on here last September (ish)

Mainly money, we have none! Also I was told by my previous employers that I was more or less guarenteed a job on our return despite taking redundancy. We returned and instantly decided agianst it, but had rented the house out, so bought a motorhome and went off travelling Europe.

Also, moving here wasn't forever, have to see what the future has in store for us.

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You don't have to be on hand every moment of the day if you run a gite.  I rented a GdF-registered one last August, and the (French) owners immediately went away themselves for 10 days!  I was a bit surprised, but they left me their daughter's phone number in case of emergency.

I used to rent out a cottage myself, and I must say that the changeover days are quite strenuous - you have to get a lot done in quite a short time - especially if the outgoing guests have left the place less than clean. Also you have to be prepared to sort out problems *immediately* (anything from blocked septic tank to swarm of bees).

If you both have medical problems, you just need to consider whether this is within your physical scope...

Angela

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[quote user="Chezshells"]

We have done exactly that over the past 18 months and have really enjoyed it, meeting all kinds of people has been very interesting.

Our insurance is no different at all wether we have guests or not and also the tourism office have told us due to the layout ie. not a seperate building we wouldnt have to pay any tax up to 15k on any income from it.

We have never been called upon for anything, we may have been lucky as a few have told us.

 

[/quote]

I totally agree with Lee and Michelles comments, our experience is that after the initial 'welcome and intro into how everything works' guests like their own privacy and only call on us if they have a problem or they need some extra information. We too, have been very lucky with our guests.

If I had any advice to give to someone in your position, I would say don't underestimate the time and effort needed on changeover days, even cleaning a 1 bedroom gite can take 3 hours by the time you've cleaned the cooker,  the windows, tidied the garden etc.

If you want to aim your potential gite at adults, I would say go for it, our gite is registered for 2 persons and we clearly say on our website and literature that its suited to 2 adults, we don't feel guilty about that as the accommodation is not really large enough for families and there are many other gite owners who can, and do, cater for the family market very well.

Whatever you do, this is a very exciting time for you as you think about changing your lifestyle and moving to France, I wish you all the best of luck and hope you find what you're looking for.

Hazel     

 

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Its your gite and you should run it as suits you, if you don't want smokers, all male parties or kids...whatever.... then thats your perogative.

Also as far as the part time thing goes, again let it when you want, and don't let it when you want, who's to say what you can or can't do with your own property.  How many gite owners are full time anyway,  even if we want to be!!....except peak times when you may be quite busy with changeovers etc.

I think many people are "over worried" about some of the tax and self employed business earnings status hassles that many of the posts on this site discuss. As a single gite owner purely earning some pocket money you will not have to concern yourself with anything worse really than declaring the income, chances are you will never have to pay a penny tax as long as you don't suddenly start booking the place for 52 weeks a year. 

And self catering holiday is exactly that, generally people will just get on with their holiday, and unless of course a problem occurs with the property ....you have no obligation to hang around, provided you are contactable (or someone locally is).Its not a hotel or B&B,  so relax and allow it to be your little enterprise...and not a stressful monkey on your back.

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