making a living of gites

[Cec]

Hi there

I've some English people who had or will relocate to France and most of them are into the gites business. They said it was easier than look for a job as they didn't speak French and that it is pretty hard even for French people to find work here.
But I'm wondering if owning a gite is enough to really make a living for a whole family. What do you, pros, think ?
Thanks

Ccile

[GRT17]

>But I'm wondering if owning a
>gite is enough to really
>make a living for a
>whole family. What do you,
>pros, think ?
>Thanks
>
>Ccile
I think if you read previous postings most people say it is hard to make a real living from owning gites. The season is not long and what do these people plan to do for income for the rest of the year?
Gill

[Adrian]

I'd say that unless you own lots or there is something spectacularly unique about your gite it is pretty near impossible - especially as the world and his/her wife are trying to do the same. I've always regarded any profit from my gite as a bonus and I'd certainly not like to depend on it in order to live. What is it with these people? Surely life in the UK isn't so desperate that subsistence can be considered an improvement in their quality of life?

[Autismuk]

I wrote a very simple spreadsheet to answer (maybe) some of these questions a few months back

http://www.livingfrance.com/dcforum/DCForumID32/432.html

Basically you throw outline figures at it - income, loans, rental and so on, and it will show your cashflow over a period of years.

[Montcigoux]

All the answers here sound very sensible and realistic. One other thing to consider is the time you actually have available to work if you have children. I would also think about the impact on your family relationships. As well as sitting down and using the spreadsheet for the finances it might be worth also working out realistically how much time you can each contribute to running the gites and part time work. I have observed that those who make a success of their gites tend to have either no children or their children have left home. Even then the childless couples tend to last around seven to ten years before they sell up because of the sheer hard work. Another important factor is the boy-girl split of the children and how well they get on together. The ideal is two well behaved girls who will happily play together for hours while their parents get on with things. The worst combination is a reckless older brother who can torment the younger children or lead them into danger. The peak time for visitors is when the children have school holidays.

With a family of school age children a great deal of time needs to be expended on caring for the children and keeping them happy and safe, socialising with other families with children and the sheer volume of washing, cleaning and cooking that a family demands. Some families I know running gites have children who dislike having the visitors around. Adding in the demands of a major renovation to getting the gites up and running can break some families either the children or the marriage suffers as a result. One partner usually the husband putting in long hours with the renovation while the other ususally the wife looks after the children and feels that her time is just spent on routine household tasks. One or the other may actually be homesick, miss family and friends and even miss the structure and regular change of scene that their job in the UK gave them.

It is worth thinking and talking about these potential pitfalls and working out if realistically at this time in your life you can give the time that a gite complex demands. The availability of free or low cost full time nursery care if you have very young children in the commune that you buy in will also be important and the Mairie will give you information on this. Fortunately France is generally better provided with this than England.

Bonne Chance