What you need to know to open a Gite
There are more and more gites available all over France with 43,800 gites and 10,000 bed and breakfast inns. If you plan to open a gite in France, there are few things that you need to know in order to open a touristic building and to enjoy your new job as a host. This type of project needs to be clearly defined. It is a good opportunity to get additional revenues and to increase the value of your heritage.
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First of all, in France, it is possible to have gites or “chambres d’hotes” (bed and breakfast “B&B”). Both are available for renting. On one hand, a gite is a fully equipped house with its own kitchen available for a week or a longer period in a separate building. On the other hand, a bed and breakfast inn doesn’t have a kitchen because the guests share the meals with their hosts in a common place. This one is booked for shorter periods of time, generally from 1 to 3 nights. More and more often, owners of B&B inns propose also a “table d’hotes” service (table service) which provides meals with local products for an average cost of €17 by meal. The only restraint is that you can only serve meals to those who sleep in your home. Otherwise, you will not longer own a B&B inn but a restaurant.
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Most of the time, gites and B&B inns are mainly booked from March to September for an average of 16 weeks. But don’t be afraid, it will be a good opportunity for you to relax – it is a really demanding job – and to make some works in your gite. To give you an average, €42,000 is the price for invest in a B&B inn and €58,000 for a gite. The revenues should be considered only as an annex activity since 30% should be deducted for different charges such as electricity, water or even property tax. Although there are some financial aids available from the department or the region, they will only cover building works which are only 25% of the total work. So you need to have a capital available to start your business as a host.
In term of regulation, it depends if you are a professional or not. If you are not, you only need to certify it to the town hall. But if you are a professional, you need to get a registration number from the trades and companies register; you need to make a declaration in your department; you need to choose the status of your company. But you should know that if your annual turnover is higher than €23,000 or 50% of your revenues, you will be considered as a professional.
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Finally, in order to bring visitors to your gite or B&B, you can choose to create your own website or to advertise by means of websites and local newspapers. But you can also be registered with the Gites de France Federation. You will have the label of approval “Gite de France”. Various requirements are necessary in order to obtain it. For example, a gite must be fully equipped and a B&B must have no more than five bedrooms. The system of classification of the Gites de France is defined from 1 to 5 ear of corn (best quality) and is reviewed every 5 years. These ears of corn are attributed regarding the quality, the comfort, the environment or the services offered in the gite or B&B. So if you are ready to open your gite, there are plenty of properties available on Sextant Property website like a charming property with three gites and an indoor pool near Vire in the Manche department or a typical stone house with a gite near Saint Jean d’Angely in Charente-Maritime.
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