I have received a quote from someone for Etoile de France to come out and give a star rating to our Gite -
264€ for the star rating and the additional 40€ to give to the inspector as travel costs
This sounds exorbitant to me considering Chancer mentioning EU100 for this.
Can anyone tell me if this seems right or is there someone else I can go through.
EU40 for travelling costs ?$#!
I dont think those travelling costs are unreasonable — though of course it depends where they have to come from. About the lowest mileage rates I’ve seen have been in the region of €0.40 / km, which implies a round trip of 100 km or a radius of 50 km; and I don’t imagine they have that many inspectors all over France!
I really think suggesting this is expensive is a bit cheapskate of you, considering
the potential benefits to your business.
264 euro + 40 euro travel = total 304 euro… and seems a bit steep… need to do some good business to regain that, over and above all other costs etc… is it tax deductible ??
Yes, Stella, of course it’s “tax deductible” — inasmuch as it is part of your business overhead!
€6 a week seems a small price to pay for the potential business to be gained… but all these things have to be assessed by the individual person: is it worth it to you? Is it going to bring in any / many additional bookings you wouldn’t have had otherwise? It might do if customers refer to that as one of their criteria for selecting their gîte etc. Or if it moves you up in the search results…Will having a star rating enable you to charge higher rates?
If as someone said the letting season is only 2 months out of the year (which is certainly the case in some areas / some types of gîte), then it might be hard to recoup, it’s true…
The bottom line is perhaps: if you already have a very good occupancy rate, then you possibly don’t need it; but if you are struggling to fill your accommodation, is it likely to help you do so?
Also, is this an annual fee, or a once-off? If it were the latter, then you can recoup it over several years…
Thanks Stella,
I thought as much so will be getting quotes from several others on the list I have then will be able to evaluate for myself.
It just seems there is a lot of Cash in the back pocket that goes on in France from my experience, as the 40 Euros for travelling was to be paid to him in person at the inspections.
I don’t even know if getting a star rating is compulsory or not, I just thought I would do it.
Bonne Soiree (-:
Personally I would not even bother… booking .com and trip advisor are what most people look at . The first year we opened 7 years ago we signed with the tourists office and their brochure… we felt pressured to sign up for their stars option , but after the first year we hadn’t had a single booking via them…and are so glad we didn’t jump through their hoops , I thought they are so out of touch with today’s market … over the past 5 years with booking .com I have managed to get up to a 9.8 rating which is worth its weight in gold to my business… good luck 
@All, it is unfortunate for those concerned but Booking.com and TA pay a
pittance to their translators who more often than not have top degrees in
linguistics and really struggle.
Anna L
I’ve given up relying on high booking.com ratings as several of the higher rated properties have been awful. Strangely those rated between 7 and 8.5 have all been great.
It all depends on how you look at things.
I pay 20% to my “main” agency and have been with them
from the early days. They do nothing to help me with contracts
or anything else related to operating the little business but they
have a great audience because they market their product extremely
well.
I am unaware that any modifications or improvements to a gite or B and B is
tax deductible…am I and my accountant missing something?
Thanks for your comments gained through experience.
I didn’t know if a star rating was compulsory.
Bonne Journee!
If you use Gites de France, they automatically give a “rating” (epis) as part of their advertising package when they come and inspect the gite/property .
Hi Mark… what do they charge ???
It isn’t obligatory, but if you have a star rating there are tax benefits, ie only 29% of your annual gîte revenue is taxable, as opposed to 50% (non star rated). Depending on your own personal circumstances, this may well be 300€ very well spent, as our star rating lasts for 5 years.
Thanks,
yes I have had the costs and the reason for their cash travel expenses explained so it’s fine now and I can appreciate the benefits (-:
Will you be getting an official bill for the travel expenses, so that you can offset it against tax… ??
No idea, but I doubt it as I always have to push for receipts
ie the dentist - I had to pay a few amounts towards 2 x crowns and asked for receipts when I gave payments to which they announced I would get a receipt at the end?!
They did however, then email me a receipt for a progressive payment I made.
It troubles me because they also wanted cash saying there was a problem with the Credit Card machine (which I know there wasn’t).
All quite shonky or perhaps they don’t have dishonest operators over here …
Personally, if a card machine is playing-up… as does happen… I use my cheque book. I rarely have more than a few euro in cash… 
Last year my dentist’s card machine was playing up. I paid by cheque the following day and I received the repayment weeks before the cheque was cashed.
We had a visit from a lady from the local tourist office and we are registered as excellent for chambre d’hote and gite for free. We only expect a maximum of 8 weeks so paying a large fee is not viable.
The star rating is necessary for Tax deductions I have found out
and I have now found 2 others who will do it for
158EU (Headlight)
and 180EU (2B&G Qualite)
so Etoile is exorbitant at approx. 300EU.