Running Gîtes & B&Bs in France
Jo Taylor
Running Gîtes & B&Bs in France is essential reading for prospective ‘landlords’ (landladies?) and provides readers with a step-by-step guide to establishing and running a successful gîte or bed and breakfast business. Whether you plan to do this from abroad, using a local agent or manager, or as a full- or part-time resident in France, this book will prove invaluable. Running Gîtes & B&Bs in France explains everything you need to know, including what property to buy and where; conversion and renovation; obtaining grants, loans and mortgages; legal considerations; record-keeping and taxation; equipment and provisions; advertising, marketing and publicity; dealing with enquiries and bookings; providing extra services; employing an agent; hiring staff; and much, much more.
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Extracts from the book…
People Skills
You must be able to smile and be nice to strangers – even if you don’t like them! This may seem obvious, but you must be realistic about the prospect of sharing your idyllic home and/or pool with other people. You may enjoy socialising, but it’s an entirely different thing to have people staying with you who aren’t your friends – they may have little in common with you (apart from liking France). Ask yourself how you’ll cope with a people-carrier driving onto your lovingly maintained lawn, disgorging a quantity of disgruntled teenagers or tired but overactive toddlers who then run amok in your flowerbeds and start wrenching branches off your beautifully pruned shrubs (having arrived three hours later than expected, when you’d planned a much-needed evening out), or with the reluctant partner who moans from the moment of arrival – he or she would much rather be in a modern apartment on the Costa del Sol than facing two weeks in a 300-year-old cottage in rainy Brittany… Your job will be to smile, welcome them, sympathise, and enable them to make the most of their stay so that, if they don’t return (heaven forbid!), at least they put in a good word for you among their friends and relatives back home.
You must be prepared to deal diplomatically with any badly behaved children, broken appliances, leaking roofs and any other problems, both real and imagined. Whether problems are within your control or not, they’re ultimately your responsibility to resolve, as you’re providing a service for which your guests are paying. In short, you must be able to put yourself in the place of your clients and act as you would expect your host to act. Note, however, that some people will attempt to obtain a refund by complaining about almost everything, including the size of the pool or fridge and a lack of air-conditioning equipment or tennis court. You must decide (in advance) whether you’ll budget for ‘goodwill’ refunds in such cases or whether you’ll refuse a refund and accept that these clients will give you a bad reference (they probably will anyway!).
Drink Licences
If operating a B&B, you must obtain a drinks licence, even if you don’t provide evening meals. This doesn’t mean you’re expected to serve wine with breakfast! A licence is required for any drinks served with a meal, including coffee, tea and fruit juice. Drinks licences are classified into five categories, but only the first two are readily obtainable:
- First Category – mineral water, fruit and vegetable juices, lemonade, fruit syrups, milk, tea, coffee and chocolate;
- Second Category – fermented (but not distilled) drinks, including wine, champagne, beer, cider, Perry (poiré), and alcoholic syrups (e.g. crème de cassis) with up to three degrees of alcohol (if you can find them!);
If you wish to serve spirits (e.g. as a digestif or with the after-dinner coffee), you must offer them free (or ‘lose’ the cost in the overall meal price). You need a licence à consommer sur place du premier groupe to serve first-category drinks (i.e. if you’re serving breakfast only). If you provide evening meals and must therefore serve wine (or other drinks in the second category), you need a petite licence restaurant. You must obtain an application form at the mairie and the licence itself at the local customs office (douanes). If the mairie has no knowledge of such a licence, you must go to your departmental préfecture for an application form. The licence is free.
Drinks may be served only on the premises, to B&B clients, and with meals. You cannot sell alcoholic drinks without meals; this requires a quite different class of licence that’s strictly controlled to protect the interests of bar and hotel owners.
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PRICE: £12.95
PUBLICATION: January 2008
EDITION: 1st
PAGES: 320
BINDING: paperback
SIZE: A5 (210 x 148mm)
COLOUR PHOTOS: 20
