Rental Companies

[Sutterhome]

LAST EDITED ON 10-Jan-04 AT 10:25 AM (GMT)

We have a house in Burgundy and this is our first year of renting out. We have joined up with French Connection, but have only had one booking so far - lots of enquiries, but not taken up - any ideas?

The area doesn't seem to have a lot of British visitors, but loads of Dutch and German. We are thinking of advertising with Gite de France - does anyone have any experience of them? Alternatively, are there any other good European sites out there?

We've heard from friends that all bookings seem to be down this year, what are other owner's experiences?

Thanks

Gill

[Suandpete]

Hi, this will be our first year and we have advertised with Chez Nous and we have a web site. All our bookings so far have come via Chez Nous and we have 18 weeks booked (15 weeks confirmed). We are not in a particularly touristy area but we have installed a pool which seems to be making a big difference. So far we could have filled August and July about six times (2 enquiries this afternoon while we were at Leclerc!) Our first booking is the week before Easter but we are fully booked from the end of May until third week in September. Chez Nous certainly seem to be doing the biz for us. It's all a bit scary to be this fully booked in year one - we certainly didn't expect it. Maybe a big learning curve? We'll see. How is this year panning out for every one else?

Su

[Richardk]

Hi Gill,

Last year was our first year and we rented our property from August. We don't have a pool and the house is a village house located in Prades (Pyrenees Orientales - 66. www.languedocholidays.com). We found that almost all of our bookings were fairly last minute, say a max of 4 weeks in advance. Like you we were worried, but it all panned out OK in the end.

It's a similar story so far with only 4 weeks booked to date. We advertise with both French Connections and Holiday Rentals and in our analyse of the figures Holiday Rentals gives the best return. Certainly, we get more enquiries from French Connections, however, most of them are useless as the week has either already gone or we simply don't hear from them again. Holiday Rentals lets you include availability which we believe heavily cuts down on those useless enquiries and makes any enquiries which come through a lot more 'serious'.

So in short, don't worry yet! It seems completely reasonable that properties with pools will go first as there are fewer of these. People will get to you in time though.

Good luck.

Richard

[JudyM]

Last year was our first (half) year of renting out our cottage, and I was a bit worried at first, as people on here were saying then that 2003 bookings were down. But apart from 3 weeks in Nov/Dec, we were fully booked from June through to New Year. We have people in now for 2 weeks.

As for 2004, well, I've just taken a booking this morning for our 24th week this year - and there are still a couple of high season summer weeks available! 5 weeks are repeat bookings, 3 are word of mouth, 3 are from a magazine I advertised in (once, last year!) and the rest are via French Connections. We have had very few enquiries not followed up by a booking.

I always reply to enquiries promptly, with a copy of our leaflet, and a few more details about what is available at the cottage and surrounding areas.

I've also had enquiries (17 so far) for weeks already booked - although I always point them to other properties in this area.

We don't have a 'top of the range, posh' maison, just a small cottage, but it is pretty, clean, (and that's pretty AND clean, not pretty clean! ), pleasant, welcoming and well equipped. We could probably charge a little bit more, but I'd rather have 24 weeks booked at a reasonable cost, than a few weeks for a higher rental.

One thing which goes down really well is that we provide a 'Welcome Pack' - I never spend more than 10 on it, and ususally a lot less, but I provide bread or croissants, butter, fruit juice, home made jam, coffee, milk, a piece of local cheese or half a dozen eggs, and a bottle of cider (this is Normandy after all!). It has always been much appreciated by guests, and one or two have said it was an attraction in our advertisement.

I hope this is helpful to you - we're obviously very fortunate with our bookings!

JudyM

[Liz]

I have a friend who is with Gites de France. As has already been mentioned you would be too late for their brochure this year and your customers would be mainly French but with a number of other nationalities to whom the organisation is well known. They inspect the property every 2 years I think and they charge for any extras, eg changes to copy; those little sign posts you see on the roads seem quite expensive. They take a percentage of your rent. They would expect the property to be equiped 'french style' and my impression is that the French do not expect to pay as much as the British for a holiday place.

Why not try some of the free ad sites that are around at the moment? You've nothing to lose except a bit of time to set them up. A lot of people say they are rubbish but I have had more enquiries & bookings already this year from some of them than I had last year from paying sites. Look out for Villas-France, Holidaylets or Visitfrance for starters. All these will give you at least a 3 month free trial.

Liz(29)