grants to get 4 a b&b

[J K LJulia]

dose anyone know where to get a grant from to start a b&b in france. I have asked loads of people but no one seams to no where to go or who to ask ????

[Miki]

[quote]dose anyone know where to get a grant from to start a b&b in france. I have asked loads of people but no one seams to no where to go or who to ask ????[/quote]

Gîtes de France, through the Conseil General or regional still give varying amounts in grants for gîtes and chambre d'hôtes BUT the criteria can be stringent.

Area, amount, quality, I could go on but you really need to know that these grants come with plenty of strings.

You will be tied in (pun intended !)for a number of years with them.

The work must not even commence until GDF (or representative) have done a study. and importantly, all works must be carried out by bone fide artisans

Take alook at this part of the site that has the online booklet for creating a gite or B&B.

http://www.gites-de-france.fr/fr/pdf/guideducreateur.pdf

If you want take a look online at their site simply go to :

http://www.gites-de-france.fr/fr/index.htm

There was a good thread on this before somewhere !

[Will]

Little I can add to what Miki says, other than the fact that I've edited his post to make the websites he mentions into clickable links.

When we looked at the same thing three years or so back, we found the first port of call was the mairie. If the maire is in favour of you opening a B&B in the commune, he/she will be helpful, tell you where to go next, and probably put in a good word for you. If the maire doesn't want any B&Bs, more tourists, more English etc then you would be well advised to drop the idea, though you could of course go straight to Gites de France.

You then have to talk to the canton or départmental tourism people. There are areas of France lacking in B&Bs (believe it or not) where there is money, often from sources like the EU as these areas qualify as 'deprived'. You have to ask yourself why there are no B&Bs - might it be because nobody wants to visit?

Any money from the local authorities will most likely be supplemented by Gites de France, and GdF will put some quite stringent conditions on the grant. For a B&B that is properly registered and equipped, totally legal, and run in accordance with, or exceeding, French perceptions of good practice these shouldn't be a problem. Except for the fact that you will probably be expected to pay back the grant should you cease trading before the end of the tie-in period (which I have heard from some sources can be as long as 12 years though I have no idea if this is correct).

[Petrified]

how much can you get a grant for??

Martin

[Miki]

[quote]how much can you get a grant for?? Martin[/quote]

It will depend on what you can put up, where the place is, what kind of money is available in that area and indeed if any more are required ! Some regions offer up to 30% or around 38.000 to 76.000 euros for a gîte, between 7.500 et 10.500 euros pour une chambre.

From GDF

- les conseils généraux et régionaux attribuent parfois des aides allant jusqu’à 30% de l’investissement de départ.

- la rentabilité est limitée vu l’investissement. Les charges accaparent 75% du chiffre d’affaires pour les gîtes (moins pour les chambres d’hôtes).

To a question earlier, the "deal" is tied in for between 3 and 10 years.

Never for one minute, think that this is the easy way to get a renovation done, nothing comes for nowt...

[Miki]

Bill said "You then have to talk to the canton or départmental tourism people"

This is mostly now sorted out, for the greater part through GDF, who then will see if the conseil general or regional will offer a grant.

Bill said "...There are areas of France lacking in B&Bs (believe it or not) where there is money, often from sources like the EU as these areas qualify as 'deprived'. You have to ask yourself why there are no B&Bs - might it be because nobody wants to visit?"

Quite right Bill, steer well clear............

The time scale for tie in etc can be between 3 -10 years. Worth taking a real deep breath and a long deep thought about then !

[Aly]

Going through the process. Sometimes funds are short in a given year particularly from the EU. Also the grant given is counted as an income in terms of being taxable. It can take 2/3 years after the work is completed for you to recieve the funds.

There are also other grants for example for swimming pools?

Equally to asking the right questions abt your area its worth also remembering that some areas have too many CHD and the danger there is that many will not survive.

[Ian Hoare<br>All the best<br>Ian<br>La Souvigne Corrèze<br>http:www.souvigne.com]

Hi folks

Sorry to be slightly contrary.

Agree as to facts.

1 Ask Gites de France in the area which interests you.

2. Money comes from the Conseil General and Europe for "ZDR" Zones de Developement Regionales.

3. You have to promise to be part of GdF for 10 years

4. You have to return the grant (in part?) if you leave or are thrown out earlier.

Opinion.

ZDRs are poor areas not necessarily unpopular ones. Limousin was one, and here in the Correze I think we still have some grant money available, though we're now becoming a fairly well touristed area.

It would always be sensible to make sure your CdH would be of sufficiently high standard to get 3 épis, and that's what the best vfm grants are avaiable for.

Our own experience.

We didn't have to have artisans do the work, though to create the dossier we needed quotes to justify the amount, and then receipts to match. That may have changed now.

When we got our grant (I've no regrets whatsover in having got it and felt it was well worth the exercise) we were granted 40% of the pre-vat cost limited to FF34k. This figure varies, but I've put it in to show you how it worked in practice for us.

If 34k represents 40% then 85k would be 100% and after VAT (it was 18.4% flat rate at the time) that meant that if we could limit our restoration costs to roughly FF104k we would be maximally grant efficient. So we got quotes from the plumber, electrician, maçon etc for the restoration work such as I'd decided to do (with great help from the local GdF people) and that came to well over the 100k. Then we did the work ourselves and kept every bill from the Electrical suppliers, plumbing suppliers etc and so forth, and submitted them - we put in for an intermediate payment after we'd spent 50k. Justified with appropriate bills of course.

Grants work out far better here than in the UK, we found, and if you are _certain_ that you want to be committed to GdF for 10 years and the region that interests you has a grant scheme (contact GdF in the departments) then go for it. Though you MUST speak quite fluent French in order to be able to work your way through the rules and paperwork.

BTW, it's becoming semi official policy now for GdF to insist that their "adhérants" can communicate to some extent in French. So if you don't, don't bother to apply.

[J K LJulia]

Thanks everyone who replied got some useful tips