Comments on: Gite bookings down this year? http://www.francethisway.com/wp/gite-bookings-down-this-year/2008/05/ Living in France and daily life for a UK expat in the French blog! Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:42:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Jon http://www.francethisway.com/wp/gite-bookings-down-this-year/2008/05/comment-page-1/#comment-14908 Jon Sat, 09 Aug 2008 09:00:13 +0000 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/gite-bookings-down-this-year/2008/05/#comment-14908 Dear Sir Before we can talk realistically about whether Gite business is up or down can we make the distinction between Gites run by Brits for Brits who perhaps cannot speak French well or do not offer suitable cuisine for the French and in comparison Gites that are run for the French. My wife and I run our Gite primarily for the French (over 90% of our trade), we speak French and offer cuisine that is considered exceptionally good by the French. My wife is a true linguist speaking six languages and the remaining 10% of our trade tends to be Scandanavians, Germans etc - the economic situation in England has hardly touched us at all. We see no downturn, indeed this year is our best ever, our average client has not flown and often has travelled no more than 400km by road. I am not passing negative comment on Gites run by Brits for Brits but please lets not lump everything into one basket. Jon Dear Sir

Before we can talk realistically about whether Gite business is up or down can we make the distinction between Gites run by Brits for Brits who perhaps cannot speak French well or do not offer suitable cuisine for the French and in comparison Gites that are run for the French.

My wife and I run our Gite primarily for the French (over 90% of our trade), we speak French and offer cuisine that is considered exceptionally good by the French. My wife is a true linguist speaking six languages and the remaining 10% of our trade tends to be Scandanavians, Germans etc – the economic situation in England has hardly touched us at all.

We see no downturn, indeed this year is our best ever, our average client has not flown and often has travelled no more than 400km by road.

I am not passing negative comment on Gites run by Brits for Brits but please lets not lump everything into one basket.

Jon

]]> By: mrs w http://www.francethisway.com/wp/gite-bookings-down-this-year/2008/05/comment-page-1/#comment-14885 mrs w Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:14:37 +0000 http://www.francethisway.com/wp/gite-bookings-down-this-year/2008/05/#comment-14885 I live in the deux sevres in the poitou charentes region and I have been talking to many gite owners in the area and they have all seen bookings up from last year. A local gite has got 18 weeks and many have got 10-12 weeks. We have just opened a chambres d'hotes and did not start advertising until May this year, but have had a lot of enquiries and quite a few bookings, especially from people enroute to other parts of france. So I think people are still holidaying but perhaps closer to home. I live in the deux sevres in the poitou charentes region and I have been talking to many gite owners in the area and they have all seen bookings up from last year. A local gite has got 18 weeks and many have got 10-12 weeks. We have just opened a chambres d’hotes and did not start advertising until May this year, but have had a lot of enquiries and quite a few bookings, especially from people enroute to other parts of france. So I think people are still holidaying but perhaps closer to home.

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