“ALL” !!!
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Is this a personal recommendation or do you have a link to the company?
Wow! That sounds to good to be true! But can you vet the potential guests or is it ALL done without your input? I’m going to look at them.
How much do they cost? Annual fee, set price per booking or percentage. And if a percentage, how much?
Thank you Julia. They’ve visited the house and I’ll sign up with them. May I ask if you have personal experience of working with them? Thanks.
This should be interesting. 
I have run 2 gites in france for 17years and have used several companies over the time and have found booking .com is the best . Best website for clients ,good scoring and fair . They will deal with all complAints and back us up when needed. Do not make mistakes .translation of advert very good… you can reduce charges by doing more. They do cost but when we use to do our own advertising cost lot more. Chris
Sorry for the delay in responding. Yes, I’ve recently started to work for them as a reservations associate. I joined as I felt it was a great idea for gite owners, having someone else take away the hassle of all the booking enquiries, and that they could handle all the payments (eg no need for an owner to get a credit card reader, no delays in bank transfers, no worry that a cheque will be cancelled). They charge a 17.5% fee. All properties are inspected in detail to make sure they meet the company criteria - eg if a property sleeps 6, there are proper beds for 6, not a sofa bed, that there’s enough crockery and cutlery for several meals if there’s a dishwasher, quality of the beds, bed linen…
Owners can set criteria in advance (eg no group bookings, no bookings by under-35’s, no children) so there’s pre-vetting. Prestige double checks bookings - eg if the inital enquiry was for 4 adults (in a property that sleeps 4) and then the next stage comes back with 6 adults we would query/reject the booking. But we can only go by the information we receive.
Sorry for the delay in replying Gail. I have recently started working with them as a reservations associate in Gascony.
First off I’ll say that I have no experience of Julia’s new employer whatsoever so this is just my personal opinion.
The company is no more than an ‘agent’ who will simply advertise your property on your behalf for which they’ll take 17.5% of the weekly rental figure so for owners this is an easy but very lazy way to rent their property.
Entirely agree…17.5% fee is to my mind extortionate. And no doubt some small print that allows them to wiggle off the hook when a client turns into a nightmare. “We can only go by the information we receive” is really not much of a vetting!
Seriously, it’s really not difficult to exchange a few emails with the potential clients, send out a standard contract and check a virement has arrived or pop a check in an envelope. We prefer to have contact with people ourselves so we can get a feel for who they are and what they might like to do so can make sure the right info is in place. And charge 17.5% less!
For a top of the range gîte that could be €350 euros for no more than an hour’s work….