I have just been sent the definitive version of the document we’ve seen before about good practice guidelines re Covid. (Bit late! We’ve done 4 changeovers now…)
Can’t find original topic so posting a new one.
Link looks weird, hope it works…
VERSION DÉFINITIVE DU GUIDE DE BONNES PRATIQUES POUR LES GÎTES, MEUBLÉS TOURISME ET CHAMBRES D’HÔTES
Afin d’accompagner la réouverture et la reprise de leurs activités, ADN Tourisme a élaboré un guide de bonnes pratiques à destination des gîtes, meublés de tourisme et chambres d’hôtes.
Un groupe de travail composé d’Offices de Tourisme, de Comités départementaux de Tourisme et d’Agences Départementales du Tourisme de France métropolitaine et d’outre-mer s’est mobilisé au sein de la fédération pour en coordonner la rédaction.
Ce guide a été conçu en concertation avec le réseau national des Gîtes de France. Il vient en complément des documents établis et mis à disposition par le Gouvernement.
Par ailleurs, les mesures qui y sont indiquées doivent être complétées par des mesures propres et adaptées à l’organisation de chaque hébergeur.
Ce guide, finalisé début juin par votre Fédération, vient d’être enfin validé par le Ministère du Travail. Il peut donc être diffusé désormais dans sa version définitive.
It’s a choice…we’ve decided to carry on, and are booked through to end October now. It’s been good having people again, and our first two were repeat customers who are now friends, so very relaxed. So far everyone has been really good about respecting the rules we’ve set down.
But changeover this week was not fun! 40 degree heat, and I think I must have climbed a small mountain with running up and down stairs changing all the quilts, pillows, cushions and so on. And our exo-friendly disinfectant has lavender in it, and I hate that smell with a passion…reminds me of old people’s homes.
(I guess in Burgundy you can charge enough a week to make low occupancy possible - we need 5 weeks high season rental to break even).
We’ve got a mixture of back to back changeovers and ones with a week’s gap, hate the former and love the latter. Suffice to say we won’t entertain doing changeovers without a gap if CV is still around next summer which is very likely.
@JaneJones: Thanks Jane. I found your earlier version invaluable when I was preparing for our first guests.
Just doing my first changeover with a week between and am needing every minute of it given that I didn’t touch the cottage for the first 2 days - would have left it for 3 but I’ve broken a tooth so fitting in dental appointments as well isn’t fun and our next guests (Dutch) are arriving on Friday, so I decided I just had to start. I’m only too aware that much as I’m trying to meet the protocols if I had someone in the cottage fall sick I would have to shut. That would be the only way I could be sure of having the time / regime to clean. I keep finding that my clean/contaminated procedures overlap! And as I’m keeping virtually everything within the cottage it just takes time. As I only have one washing machine and a slimline dishwasher. I did bring the swimming towels up to the house as they have been in the sun most of the week and I think are a low risk. Gloves I found useless - too easy to get contaminated/non-contaminated muddled. So now I do a “dirty” task - like loading the washing machine or the dishwasher - and then wash my hands immediately.
@Jane_Williamson I think you’ve been wise Jane, but OH grateful for the fact that we’ll earn a bit of euros this year.
I have OH to help, so we have managed to do 3 beds, 2 bath, kitchen, dining room, living room and garden furniture/equipment between 10am and 4 pm… 4€/hour. Which after taxes etc is about 1€! We don’t use gloves or masks, but have gel at the door and wash hands frequently. I am immune deficient which motivates me to take care!
The guests have been good about airing the house from 8am. And we have asked them to be scrupulous about washing their hands before putting kitchen equipment away, which they say they have been doing, so we are not re-washing.
We’ve found that if we work from top of house to bottom, and if A does the “taking away”, then B cleans that room, then A brings disinfected things back to that room while B moves on to take away from next room it seems to work. Luckily OH had many very tatty T shirts which have all been sacrificed to make a mountain of washable cleaning rags - so there are some positives about Covid.
Happy music, and a nice bottle at the end of it makes it all manageable.
But it will be good if there is better testing, if not a vaccine, by next year…
Hi Jane, you’re lucky you have an OH who can help. Mine is wonderful and offers, BUT (and it’s a big but) he is not visual, so he just does not see things. So it means I finish up doing stuff twice. So I do the cottage, he does the garden. Maybe I should trust my guests more, but I prefer to follow the protocol and wash everything. So I really need the week between.
I agree about next year.
Do take care. I think is like so many projects I’ve seen. on track, on track , on track , on track, total disaster. The speed that this thing spreads is awesome.
Oh I am! My hands have never been so clean…. But neither am I going to huddle at home like a hermit. We had some friends come down from Paris to stay with us and I surreptitiously followed them about the house with a disinfectant spray.
It worries me that we are heading for an ageist\sickist split in life with young healthy people rushing about as normal, and older, ill people being forced to isolate. Yes some of the young people will die, but they are not thinking that way.
. But neither am I going to huddle at home like a hermit. We had some friends come down from Paris to stay with us and I surreptitiously followed them about the house with a disinfectant spray.