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Quillan

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We have just had a 'Control' by the Department of Tourism as part of their current activity to inspect all Chambres D’hôte, Gites, Hotels etc.

Fortunately we are 99% correct (the pricing panel has fallen down again outside our gates hence 99%) but the inspection was interesting.

Now I would have thought they had contacted the Mayor's office or the Tourist Office to get a list of all establishments in the area but they have not. It seems they have a team surfing the Internet and that’s how they find you.

First things they want to see are a copy of your registration with the Mayor, permit for serving drinks (we have a Grande Restaurant Permit), your last, which in my case as it has just arrived, tax invoice so they can see what regime you're taxed under. The next thing was your copies of invoices which you must keep for three years. Apparently Arrete 25 361 does not indicate how you should keep these i.e. on paper or electronic format (domestic computer based systems were not in existence in 1967 when these laws were first implemented). The invoices must run in consecutive order and in our case he wanted to know why two guests shared the same invoice number so we had to show that they were two couples who were friends so on the same invoice which he was happy with. Also in accordance with the same Arrete the invoice must have the guests full postal address on it. We had a small problem because we have some invoices without the address because the people booked with Booking.com and did not enter their address. I was able to show this via the Booking.com Intranet and he will be passing this on to another department who will be talking to Booking.com about this as it is mandatory in France. Other than that all was OK.

As we all know you must display your current prices outside the property (ours as I said had fallen down as I use double sided tape to stick it to our name panel outside) in the entrance hall and each room.

Next came the rooms. He inspected the quilts, pillows, curtains, seat cushions and mattress protectors so see if they were flame retardant. Now some of our pillows were bought in the UK so its written in English and some might encounter a problem if theirs also in English. Whilst the 'spec' is the same in the UK and France, possibly because it is a EU spec, they have to be able to read it in French. My guy spoke and read English so no problem but when we replace them we must do so with French sourced pillows so that the label is in French.

Next bit was extra services. We loan a couple of bikes if guests want to use them. You must have a helmet and lights for each bike. We offer Table D’hôte so he wanted to see our hygiene certificate and our course certificate. We don't have a pool but if we did he would want to see the DDE book where you fill in the chemical test results each week. He would also want to check the security of the pool.

Each of the above items incur a fine if not adhered to, I have no idea of the value of the fines but was told if you don't pass a list of fines will be sent to you along with payment method.

Personally I am really pleased not just because we passed but because this will level the playing field. We know of other Chambres D’hôte that are either not legal or offer illegal services like selling or giving away booze when they don't have a licence or offer Table D’hôte. It has seemed a bit unfair that they do this to enhance their ranking where as we don't because we are honest and do everything correctly.

The whole inspection took around two and a half hours by the way. I did wonder why us and had we been 'denounced' but apparently not as they need to visit every establishment in France by July 2015.

By the way you must have fire (not just smoke) detectors installed in your CdH and Gite by March 8 2015 (2010-238 - 9 March 2010). In the UK I believe they are referred to as "Multi Sensor" alarms because they detect smoke, heat and Carbon Monoxide alarms. Unfortunately they are not as cheap as the old smoke detectors (£5 each) which we currently use and work out at around £36 each. I don't know that the ones from the UK will meet French requirments either and you can bet your life that the French version will be a lot more expensive if they don't.

If you are a member of Clevacances or GdF you should already have been told about these inspections.

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Phew, Q, I reckon it's time you hung up your apron and take life more easily?[:)]

Another thought has occurred to me.  Do all these new regs mean that owners will be putting their prices up as complying must come at a cost?

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Very few are new, some date back to 1967 and most people comply with them. I don't think you will see prices going up and after the lousy summer we are having you may find them going down. You might also find that there will be less CdH's around next year. The only new reg will be the fire detectors although many of us have them anyway just as a matter of common sense.
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Good for you.

Friends of ours started a gite d'hote years ago and when I asked her about insurance and inspections where she was cooking she took it very badly and said that she was very clean and would not need them. Being imaginative, I suggested that if anyone was ill it may not be her fault, maybe sea food that was not as it should be. She reflected on this and they took out insurance. I doubt that they would have welcomed any inspections. AND she was not what I call clean in the kitchen as she double dipped when tasting and I LOATHE AND DETEST THAT DIRTY DIRTY PRACTICE! As bad as those that drink from the milk box or bottle or fruit juice jar or bottle straight from the fridge.

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An interesting inspection.

We comply on most of the check list (I don't have most of our guests' addresses and I don't know that we comply on flame retardant seat cushions, curtains etc. It's not something I've ever checked though we do have hard-wired + battery backup smoke detectors) but if these checks are carried out across the country, a heck of a lot of the small CdHs (and some of the bigger ones I'm sure) are going to be closing. Several around me aren't registered and don't have licenses... because, I'm told, you don't need them if you are a vrai French person. [:D]

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[quote user="Kong"]Hello Was this inspection by any chance carried out by the DGCCRF or the DDCSPP ; ( Direction départementale de la cohésion sociale et de la protection des populations)?[/quote]

I am really unsure but the name was not as long as either of them, I only remember the words Department and Tourism, I also can't remember the word populations being on his identity card. The biggest problem was the embossed stamp across the words making them difficult to read. He also had a copy of our 2012 French 'tax return' so he must have some form of power to access that sort of information. I did notice it was not his car but a 'government plated' pool car that he drove. Hope that helps.

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http://www.gite-sud-vendee.com/location-329--visite-de-la-dgccrf-en-chambres-d--hotes-et-gites-

And if you can bear to endure more than 60 seconds of advertising (or does that only happen on my computer) you can see my compatriots JPP's report on TF1 on this subject. I was too impatient [:(]

http://videos.tf1.fr/jt-13h/2009/le-13-heures-du-5-aout-2009-4506077.html

just watched it, its at 20 minutes and just the usual media hungry inspector spouting mostly uninformed rubbish in an authoratative manner.

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  • 1 month later...
Was this visit unannounced, Quillan or did you have time to prepare? We have pretty much the same situation as you had re the addresses and Booking.com and our outside tariff list has faded in the sun. I'm a bit concerned about the labels on the pillows etc. Is there a particular symbol that shows fire retardant? I've looked on-line ,but no luck. Also like you I buy pillows from the UK.

As we are with G de France ,I was hoping their inspection would suffice ,as it duplicates everything. Then again the French do like duplication!

We've had a complete pantomime trying to register for a hygiene course via G de F. After arranging the date and price ,they decided to cancel because less than 12 registered for the whole department. Now, the in house magazine says anyone serving table d'hotes before 2009 is exempt .

I wonder why anyone would want to start a chambres d'hotes these days

xxx

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There is no warning they just arrive.

They don't go through the Mayors list, GDF or Clevacances they just search on the Internet for all that advertise in a particular town, village or area.

Bit of a bummer cutting off the tags, still live and learn I guess.

Don't forget from Jan you need fire detectors (as opposed to just smoke detectors) in all the roms, kitchen passageways etc. I did post the forum a while back to the exact date but if you aim for the 1st Jan you will be OK.

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[quote user="Patf"]That's amazing Q - it must cost more keeping things up to scratch than what you take from guests!
Wasn't there an episode of Fawlty Towers where Basil's place was inspected? Sounds like this.
[/quote]

Not really because most Brits running CDH put smoke detectors in anyway just for peace of mind. The new detectors are around £30 each from the UK. We bought ten (so we have a couple spare) and got a discount so paid £220 and got free delivery but you have to ask. Buy them in France and they are a lot more.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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