In our gites we have the usual challenge when things go wrong – our window of opportunity to put things right only lasts from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm on a Saturday, and only then if the problem is spotted quickly.
Unfortunately people don’t always rush to tell us that the dishwasher is playing up or [...]

I received an email a couple of days ago, the second of its type I have received in the last week. :
Hi, I wonder if you can help. Family friends are currently in France and are extremely disappointed in the gite they have currently booked and do not wish to stay until the end of [...]

A lot of you will have heard of the recent scandal in Spain where someone had advertised villas for holiday rental which didn’t really exist. They took the bookings on the non-existent properties then disappeared with the money.
This makes everyone nervous – people booking vacation rentals, for obvious reasons, but also owners because if the [...]

One thing that troubles me as a gite owner is the lack of good cheap advertising for holiday rentals, chambre d’hotes etc. Owners of gites etc are pretty much forced to pay an arm and a leg to be listed on the main holiday rental sites, and even then there is no guarantee of results. [...]

The following is a note of caution to anyone owning and renting out holiday rental property in France. The story will undoubtedly make 90% of you think we’re idiots, but it might just help the other 10%. So be gentle on me if you’re in the 90%.
When we first started renting out gites about five [...]

In a shock move to many owners of gites in France, the charges imposed on them by the government next year will increase by more than 500%.
OK so everyone knows that owners of gites and holiday rentals in France have a pretty easy life, sitting around in the sun and waiting for the money to [...]

I’ve just got back from my travels around Avignon and the Luberon to find that today is ‘traffic free’ day in our local town. It is the same in quite a few towns across France apparently, with town centres blocked to cars.
This is a great idea I think. I’ve previously written that I like having [...]

We have some friends who come and visit us most years, and stay in various gites, chalets etc in the region. This is always interesting for us, because we get a chance to see the competition and pick up useful ideas. We also get to see the faults of places.
So here is a whistle-stop guide [...]

The gite booking season for 2008 is more or less finished now, and it’s time to turn your thoughts to 2009. Apparently bookings are down this year, and if the state of the economy is anything to go by next year will be no easier.
So now is a good time to make sure your holiday-rental [...]

Mrs B has now returned from her Loire Valley exploration and all is returning to normal. Apparently I was supposed to have prepared a slap-up dinner for her return, not hunt in the bottom of the freezer for old fish fingers, but apart from that momentary lapse all is well.
Her most exciting discovery was this [...]

Every year the gite business brings new challenges, and staying ahead of the game is not always easy. This becomes especially apparent in a year like this one where some potential holidaymakers are having financial difficulties and the overall level of holidays being booked is down.
I don’t know if there is over-supply of gites, perhaps [...]

Each year during March and April I have to tear myself away from the pleasures of the internet and check that our gites are ready for the coming season. This year we are having a couple of rooves replaced, in addition to the sundry painting and decorating jobs I need to do each year, so [...]

Before I tell you where to find free gite advertising I’ll mention some of the problems that gite owners face when trying to get customers in their properties, and holiday rental listing sites in general.
One of the big challenges of owning gites and rental properties is knowing where to advertise a property. A lot of [...]

Our holiday season in the gites finished last Saturday, so this should have been a quiet, restful week. It turned out a bit differently, hence no blog entries since almost a week ago.
To celebrate the end of the season, Mrs B likes to throw a big party, so we had that on Saturday night.
After a [...]

When I’m out and about I see a lot of other people’s gite and holiday rental properties, and I’m always curious to take a look.
Some owners seem to have almost no bookings, even in the summer, and others have no difficulty at all attracting lots of custom. Curiously it isn’t always the least attractive that [...]