One more week!

[Chancer]

One more week of work and I can go back to my previous existence.

 

4 months ago I switched from long term rentals to tourist rentals for the summer period, it took off way beyond my wildest expectations, in the whole time I have never had a night without customers in one or both apartments, I have never had a day off, every day has had at least one arrival or departure, average stay one night, a few for 2 nights, maximum stay 6 nights, I did get one day to myself when there were two overlapping multi day stays, my new washing machine has recorded close to 300 cycles in that time, the tumble drier the same.

 

In the time between the departures, the cleaning and the arrivals I have managed to build and fit out the laundry room, drying room, an adjacent annexe and move flats 3 and 4 nearer to completion, in fact I have had someone staying in flat 4 for 4 nights a week for the last month with it only partially finished, I rushed ahead and finished the bedroom, bathroom and put in a temporary kitchen, if I had all the flats finished they would all be let.

 

As of this Monday I let one of the studios for 10 months to a student at the aeronautique lycée and it has worked out really well so far, the other is taken for a month in one more week and then I can finally relax and take stock. I will take whatever comes along  after but would like to let that one as well on long term but 4 nights a week leaving the 3 weekend nights for tourists in the season, all the bookings that I am getting at the moment are reps and people working on the road so it looks like that will be an all year round market except for the summer months where tourist demand is high, I started at 80% occupancy in May which quickly rose to 90% peaking at 98% in August, I had one night vacant in one apartment.

 

Tonight I went running training for the half marathon on Sunday, as I had ran it on reconnaissance on Sunday I took it easy, after the first 2 circuits I waited by the lake for the others to do the last 4km, sat on the bench watching the ducks I realised that it was the first time in 4 months that I had nothing to do but relax!

 

And for all that, I dont feel tired but instead rejuvenated, what was at first really hard work and a shock to my system has now become routine, for the first time ever I have overcome my habitual lying in in the mornings, had no choice in that one but now its become routine, I could not sleep in if I wanted to.

 

How some of you do tourist rentals all year round cooking breakfasts and evening meals is beyond me, chapeau to you, rather you than me.

[WJT]

That wears me out just reading it! Well done on your success Chancer, it sounds like it is very well deserved indeed. :)

[Quillan]

[quote user="Chancer"]

 

How some of you do tourist rentals all year round cooking breakfasts and evening meals is beyond me, chapeau to you, rather you than me.

 

[/quote]

 

So would I. The last thing I cooked for a guests breakfast was a boiled egg about six weeks ago and I made such a cockup of that they never asked again. [;-)]

 

Didn't realise you were washing and drying in machines, just washing and freshining up in the drier I thought. Having researched your machines with the idea of buying them I worked out that although quicker the electricity costs would be much higher than the ones I use now. During the summer only the towels go in the dryer for about 10 mins a room just to 'fluff' them up.

 

How did you get on with the recomended gadgets by the way, the windows cleaner and steamer, are you happy with them?

 

We have always used Ajax Power Shower to clean the showers (strangley enough [;-)] ) but experimented with the Aldi one and I have to say pretty good they are to. Will be using theirs in future because they are much cheaper, just as good and leave a nice smell.

[Chancer]

I just dont have the time to dry 2 loads of bedding every day on the line , we dont get the sun and heat like you do and it makes the terrace look like a Chinese laundry, I compared my summer electric bill with previous years and also set the meter to read how many units used and I'm using 40cts a day more for both washing and drying  which is less than I thought, the drier being so powerfull at 6kw is very efficient, when it had the 2kw element in it took hours and the auto-dry feature didnt really work, most of the time its not heating but tumbling or on the air fluff/press care cycles.

 

I bought a Thane X20 steam mop as its what my family have in the UK, its excellent, the parquet doesnt need it every day so i do it once a week or is there are marks or stains, it gets used much more in my apartment which has a white tiled floor.

 

The Karcher window vac is excellent but I am again not using it every day because one day a bright idea dawned on me, something which would be obvious to someone with common sense, I was lugging a panier of cleaning materials, window vac etc up and down 3 flights of stairs then doing the same with the bedding, I found that the micro-fibre towels made a good if not better job of the mirrors, shower screens and tiling than the cumbersome window vac, now I have the cleaning products in each bathroom and I clean the bathrooms,  kitchen, apartment, dry the dishes etc using the towels before they are laundered for the next changeover, this means I go up once with the laundry basket, do all the work then come down again with it and the bin liner.

 

The Lidl cleaning products are great but the anti calcaire does leave a peculiar smell which IIRC one of your guests complained of, I had one from Netto but it really smelt unpleasant so refilled the spray container with the Lidl one that comes in a less convenient bottle.

 

Recently I bought very cheaply from Gifi a Chinese steam mop and window vac, they are pretty much identical to the marque ones in fact the steam mop has a better handle, they will be used in the UK.

 

I have no regrets on letting to the student, he is a great chap, very quiet and from a really good family, I see or hear nothing from him, would not even know he was there but for him putting out his rubbish, taking fresh bedding and towels and leaving the others to be laundered when he leaves on a Friday . Money wise I could get the same on 7 or 8 nights rental over the month but money isnt my goal.

 

 

[Gardengirl]

It's good to read that your summer has gone so very well, Chancer. Hard work, but you seem to have enjoyed it and keeping fit with it all is a bonus.

[Quillan]

I nicked a plastic basket on wheels from ED (now Dia) years ago and put my cleaning stuff in that, works very well as I can drag it around after me plus it has a handle to carry it upstairs.

[alittlebitfrench]

Location, location, location.....your story is a lesson to everyone looking to open up such a business in France.

How far from a motorway junction are you Chancer ?

We have a 'gîte/chambre d'hote' type business a couple of streets away. Every time I pass they seem to have customers. The local hotel is always packed to. There is an architect house advertised on AirB&B you can rent out at 325 euros a night at the top of the road. Whilst my area is a nice place to live, no one would come to this urban noisy sprawl for a holiday. LOL.

Mind you, Gîte owners in the Dordogne could only dream of the custom you could have here.

[Chancer]

Well in terms of location you would be hard pressed to find a worse one than where I live, when I bought it was probably the most undesirable place going, my property abandoned for décades, a squat for druggies, the terrain to the side now my block paved car park had been just waste land for the 75 years it had been used as a bar restaurant hotel, flytipping and dumped cars, my side wall continued to be used as a public pissoire by one and all and was in danger of collapse because all the mortar had been dissolved up to the height of the tallest persons arc, an EDF concrete transformer bunker to one side covered in tags and with over an inch of peeling flyposters hanging off it mostly from the CGT and extrême droit, no doors on the garage and it full of discarded needles and drug taking paraphenalia.

 

I have done my bit to bring my place up to scratch, one other neighbouring building followed, the others remain as always, unfurnished rentals for cassoces, the large Airbus factory opposite. Then last year coinciding with my launch the commune spent a million euros completely redoing the road, trottoirs, creating a cycle path to the new science park and planting lots of trees and creating grasses areas and planted borders, before that cars were parked on the pavements the length of the road on both sides, often you could not even step out of my front door, that urbanisation is what really chnaged things.

 

Location wise I am just outside of the rocade where all the new developments are, the shops, restaurants etc, the town centre like many others rapidly becoming deserted, people can walk to the shops and restaurants, walk to work or walk into town, I am 30 minutes or so from the A16, A26 and A29, too far i thought for peoples overnight stops, all the budget hôtels are right beside the autoroutes but I was wrong, the majority of the foreign guests, Dutch, Belgian, German, Spanish and English use it as a stopover and may spend some time visiting the battlefields, others come here doing the Vimy/Somme/Normandie battlefield visits. The guy last night was working in St Pol sur Ternoise yesterday and Amien today, I would have expected him to have spent the night at Amiens, I am actually out of his way but he chose here.

 

It may serve as a lesson but none of it was planned, it was just impulse and instinct and the decision was made in 30 seconds without any research, I wasnt even looking for a property at the time as I was going away travelling for a couple of years 7 days later, what I have done though is kept my nose to the ground and my eyes and ears open, Learning French facilitated that, and along the way I have adapted and changed completely from what was then the boom market (unfurnished long term rentals) but thanks to idiot Scellier investors is now completely saturated, I try in everything I do to allow flexibility to change operations in the future and I experiment and adapt as I go along, I think that is essential to survival, I see so many businesses struggling to continue doing something that may have worked 40 years ago but not for the last 20, in any other country they would quickly go bust but it amazes me how long they can limp on in France and after liquidation that prime position business premises can remain empty for décades while the owner tries to extract blood out of a stone from the bankrupt lessees rather than move on.

[mint]

Chance, you are selling yourself short!  Those of us who have known you for years on the forum realise how hard you have worked for all this.  All those hours you spent working, learning what to do, dealing with officialdom, physical and draining graft in sub zero temperatures plus, of course, working in dangerous conditions as you were without Health and Safety...[;-)]

I am delighted you are now doing so well and even expanding your empire!

But what's really impressed me is how you have managed to continue training.  You'd know that I am a bit of a health and fitness nut myself and I have to admit that all training went by the board from about mid May because I couldn't stand the heat and couldn't even join the regular walks because of les travaux chez nous.

Now it's cooler, I HAVE done some walks and without too much difficulty and I have managed to avoid some of the lunches that nearly always accompany the walks.  But as for the rowing machine, mon dieu, it's very depressing!  I can barely manage 5 minutes at 3/4 speed before I feel my lungs bursting and my heart pounding.

It's morale-destroying to be made to realise how far my fitness level has dropped, not to mention all my fav trousers and skirts that are now all more than un peu juste[+o(]

[Chancer]

Mint, you are one of the few people who know how the fitness and health thing started and who I owe so much to.

 

What has kept me training or stopped me from saying, "oh I"ll just miss the one session" I believe was the hypnotherapy and the psychotherapy behind it, I know what its like to live for a lifetime in an overweight and unfit body and god willing I will never go back, those that have always been that way naturally take it for granted and then when it changes be it through injury, depression, medication, illness, Relationship breakdown whatever it must hit them very hard.

 

I now have a lot of empathy for people who were fit and active but are now sedentary and obese, when they were fit and healthy they would not have had empathy for me, its normal, they could not percieve what it was like for me any more than I could for them.

 

One thing that I have really noticed is that the athletic types especially the older ones now are much friendlier towards me, its like I now am part of their clique, its very flattering on the one hand especially when they are shocked to see how I was and say I look like I have always been athletic, form somepeople there is a sub-conscious discrimination or wariness towards overweight people and I'm ashamed to say I sometimes now feel it creeping in, its not hard to supress because I have walked in the other persons shoes all my life.

[mint]

Unlike you, Chance, I have never been overweight in my life.  A bit flabby, yes, but not overweight overall.  I love being musclée and I only achieved that in my 50s when I had a personal trainer and did weight training.

Now, I am sort of OK, a bit of muffin top, but nothing too serious.  I am NOT satisfied with being unfit because my asthma is always worse when I am not in top form.

This autumn, I will grind myself back to very little abdominal fat and feeling like a million dollars.  Took me a long time after I acquired the rowing machine but I know it can be done.

Unless people have mobility problems, I am afraid that I am not overly sympathetic with the overweight and unfit.  I always feel like saying get off your backside, shift yourself, cut down a bit on your food and voilà, it's that simple!

No, I do realise that it's neither simple nor easy but even so, you need to keep trying!

Sorry to go off topic but, Chance, you know that we love talking health and fitness though I am nowhere near as motivated or disciplined as you obvious are!

[Théière]

[quote user="mint"]Chance, you are selling yourself short!  Those of us who have known you for years on the forum realise how hard you have worked for all this.  All those hours you spent working, learning what to do, dealing with officialdom, physical and draining graft in sub zero temperatures plus, of course, working in dangerous conditions as you were without Health and Safety...[;-)]

I am delighted you are now doing so well and even expanding your empire!

[/quote]

Seconded!  Incredible conversion work whilst still fitting in guests, some of whom turn up at the most ridiculous hours. [:$]

[idun]

Well done Chancer with your fitness.

Isn't about time you joined the British Masters in your chosen sport(s). Quite a community and competitions all over europe and the world.

[WJT]

I have sadly gained weight over the summer and now working hard to loose it. Chancer please do tell more about the hypnotherapy you said helped you so much. :)

[Chancer]

It was done at a high end "boutique" boot camp in a château in France as an expansion of an existing UK set up, they no longer run it in France except for large group bookings, another victim of the French desire to crush anything successfull.

 

They still operate in Devon and I went there recently to do a video testimonial, the hypnotherapy is the glue that holds together the new regime of fitness and healthy eating, they are not just hypnotherapists that read a text telling you to eat less and exercise more, they really go deep down to find what is is Inside from the past or present that makes you turn to food for comfort, help you deal with demons that you may not have known have been there for décades.

 

I think for me the hypnotherapy was the strongest influence, its what kept me on track and what made healthy food taste like the best meal I have ever eaten in my life, maybe it no longer has an effect perhaps I am now self sustaining but because I remember a lot of what was said in the séances (I was not 100% in the trance) I am aware of some of them still having an effect, when I run or even walk, when I come to a hill I attack it with everything that I have got, I'm not showing off, its just a deep desire Inside that I cannot resist and it goes against me on our very hilly half marathon or a maratrail I did recently where we had to scramble up a quarry face within the first KM when you should just be warming up and no more. I also attack challenges in life in the same way, I would not shy away before but now I really am on the attack and cant help myself.

 

You would need to be hypnotised in your own language so you need to look in the UK, several French friends have asked me recently if I know of anyone for them, I told them to look in Paris or Lille. 

 

[Chancer]

[quote user="alittlebitfrench"]Location, location, location.....your story is a lesson to everyone looking to open up such a business in France.  Mind you, Gîte owners in the Dordogne could only dream of the custom you could have here.[/quote]

 

I was reflecting on this today, really it was nothing but my usual good luck, I dont think its a case of what I have done right rather than not doing things wrong, the trap that many seem to fall into is to fall in love with a chocolate box property with loads of land for very little money compared to the UK values, to visualise themselves being so happy and contented in the percieved rose tinted life whilst earning a living at the same time, ergo the aforesaid gîte owners.

 

No-one in their right mind would have chosen to live where I bought, I was under no illusions and yet the reality was still far worse, I told all my friends from the UK exactly what I had and what I was letting myself in for yet those that visited were visibly shocked, they had convinced themselves that I had bought a water mill  [:-))]

[WJT]

[quote user="Chancer"]

It was done at a high end "boutique" boot camp in a château in France as an expansion of an existing UK set up, they no longer run it in France except for large group bookings, another victim of the French desire to crush anything successfull.

 

They still operate in Devon and I went there recently to do a video testimonial, the hypnotherapy is the glue that holds together the new regime of fitness and healthy eating, they are not just hypnotherapists that read a text telling you to eat less and exercise more, they really go deep down to find what is is Inside from the past or present that makes you turn to food for comfort, help you deal with demons that you may not have known have been there for décades.

 

I think for me the hypnotherapy was the strongest influence, its what kept me on track and what made healthy food taste like the best meal I have ever eaten in my life, maybe it no longer has an effect perhaps I am now self sustaining but because I remember a lot of what was said in the séances (I was not 100% in the trance) I am aware of some of them still having an effect, when I run or even walk, when I come to a hill I attack it with everything that I have got, I'm not showing off, its just a deep desire Inside that I cannot resist and it goes against me on our very hilly half marathon or a maratrail I did recently where we had to scramble up a quarry face within the first KM when you should just be warming up and no more. I also attack challenges in life in the same way, I would not shy away before but now I really am on the attack and cant help myself.

 

You would need to be hypnotised in your own language so you need to look in the UK, several French friends have asked me recently if I know of anyone for them, I told them to look in Paris or Lille. 

 

[/quote]

Thank you Chancer , that is very interesting, I will look into it. My problem is I'm either off or on and this time around I'm finding it very difficult. It's fantastic that it has worked so well for you.