Mark’s post reminded me that I’ve been meaning to ask if anyone has found any authoritative information about what we should plan to do re cleaning once holiday accommodation opens again?
This virus isn’t going away anytime soon, so I feel a sense of responsibility in making sure that the gîte is not responsible for any infections being passed from one set of clients to another.
I read one article which was suggesting that all bedding (pillows and duvets) should be washed between clients as well as all mattress protectors and bed linen!! How is one supposed to do that between 10am and 4pm on top of rewashing all pots, pans, crockery and cutlery at 60 degrees, disinfecting every single surface, door handle etc etc etc ? And what do you do re soft furnishings?
Let alone the extra cost, as our margins are tight as it is.
What are other gîte/chambre d’hôtes people planning?
To be honest, havent thought about it yet. Unless you have spare duvets and pillows (we have a few in case of accidents, but not enough for 8 beds) it’s impossible within the 6 hour timeframe. I suppose we could leave alternate gites vacant for a few days/week between bookings, but that would have to be a last resort.
This is yet another area of great concern… where there is no easy answer…
Please don’t take this the wrong way…as I understand your concerns… but rather than fret… about the unknown… I think it might be best to wait and see what rules are put in place.
If you feel that some sort of battle-plan might to ease your mind…
Could you leave a week between rental-changeovers… would a week give you enough time to do what you perceive to be necessary…???
In the end, we must wait and see what the govt says… and always err on the side of caution.
another aspect is to ensure that guests are not going to contaminate you/yours… so another battle plan might well need to be added to the Instructions for Guests…
Leaving a week between bookings is not possible. If we get any bookings honoured this year then we’re not going to cancel them! That would cost us dearly as the contract we give people says that we will pay extra if we cancel.
Given the difficulty in getting cleaning products at the moment I would like to be prepared and not wait until last minute. And there are rules, and then there’s what we would be comfortable with which may well be above and beyond the rules. Our current thinking is if there does seem to be a potential problem with virus transmission would be to offer guests a reduction to bring their own quilts/duvets, as we have plenty of spare mattress protectors and pillows. So I’d like to know if others have seen anything authoritative about this.
(We’re not worried too much about us, and we do have a key safe so would just use that if need be.)
Of course, it is entirely up to you… but… (sorry, but there is always a but)… this virus thingy is going to be longer term than many people think… and I reckon you might well need to seriously rethink your trading strategy.
Even folk bringing their own stuff… might blame you for a perceived shortfall, should they become ill while staying with you… and this might manifest itself even after they have left …
Whatever happens in life… there is always someone who “must be to blame” … and you need to make sure it is NOT you.
This is something me and the other half have been discussing and are a little concerned about to be honest, although we are allowed a reasonable time to do each changeover doing a deep clean every time is going to be impossible but that could be what is required both for our protection and the incoming guests.
However it’s very much a ‘wait and see’ for now as no one can predict when or if travel restrictions will be lifted this summer.
Prepare yourself to lose August/September as well… with health issues such as this… derestriction/relaxing the rules… is going to be a gamble - which can go either way…
If all goes well August and/or September will be a bonus…
Many of ours are French (or German) so they are asking if they can wait to the last minute to decide without loosing their deposit. Since we had planned to return all deposits anyway that makes no difference. So we may get some guests as the restrictions on French people taking holidays in France may well be fewer than on other nationals. A few bookings would be appreciated to at least cover the fixed costs (we had several weeks in Jan & Feb)
Although in some ways it would be easier if they all cancelled and we just had a year eating baked beans! (although the garden is in a better state than its ever been so hopefully lots of fruit and veg this year).
I don’t think we will be allowed to have guests untill late July at the earliest. We can’t guarantee to be virus free we can only do what is eventually recommended. I think I will probably write the whole season off as for the moment the Gers is very low on cases and I would like to keep it that way. Financialy it’s a huge blow but it is for millions of other people.
Le Tour is going ahead at the moment and as it would be very difficult to stop spectators lining the route I can only assume that the plan is to allow people to watch and they have to stay somewhere.
This virus isn’t going to go away possibly for years, and it could be years before a vaccine is rolled out. After all, there’s not been much success in creating a vaccine for the coronavirus that cause the common cold.
I think there might well be stricter controls than people envisage for Le Tour … might be just locals… rather than allowing influx of “foreigners”… who knows.
… Whatever, I would rather controls were strict enough now, rather than t that we relax too soon and undo any good that Lockdown is having…
This is what a resume of Eduoard Philippe said in his speech the other day:
Of particular interest to international residents in France, there was no further detail given on when international travel will be possible.
Philippe said it was too early to say and, in response to a question on booking holidays for July and August, added that it “is not reasonable to imagine travelling far abroad in the immediate future”.
It is not looking too good for our family to be able to travel from Germany either.
When we were listening to him we were wondering what “far abroad” is!! Surely either you are abroad or you aren’t? And Europe is no less risky than China these days… there was an awful lot of vagueness in what he was saying which is entirely understandable right now, but we also wondered what the imperative was to hold a press conference when there was so little concrete to say.
