In years gone by we used to give clients an all inclusive price. We hate it when we go away and find somewhere advertised at €X per week, and then discover it’s actually X+Admin fee + cleaning fee+ taxe de séjour. So we calculated full cost and offered that.
However our TdS is so high now that including it made our place look more expensive than other places that just say €X plus TdS. So now list it as a separate cost. Which works fine as people pay a deposit, and then the rest including TdS on arrival.
Like Sue we do this via tourist office, which is very simple. One a month we log our “nuitées” and once every three months we pay it.
Since we stupidly accepted a 4* rating, rather than 2*, our nightly rate is high and so adds up to around €700/year since we are usually booked for 20-24 weeks.
(I think Ollie/Barbara is not classified so pays the absolute max - which I guess is why she said €800 which surprised me as thought she only rented a few weeks a year)
it was 10 weeks and no we are not classified yet,
But our weekly rental is not small so therefore a wise move for local gov to work on a percentasge system.
Margaret I haven’t yet looked at the declarations for our “dependances” - barn, garage and gîte. But when I do will look to see if there is a better option for you. Maison secondaire is totally wrong! We have until June.
Edit - I notice you said that you wrote to the tax office to ask about the pool house. What did you call it in French? If you wrote something like “Maison de piscine” then they will have automatically assumed it was a functioning house - hence saying it should be a maison secondaire.
In discussion with my “expert” friends this last week she reckons I’ll have no probs getting classified. I’ve always been wary of this and as my market is the UK it’s never mattered, but, as you say tds is getting to be an issue. Can I choose my rating? Obviously I’d prefer lower, especially if that means paying less tds.
so if you are offered 4 stars the tax is higher. Interesting, So it does not pay to offer exceptionally high standards it seems.
Well we hope to sell one of the houses and provide ourselves with some security…after all we are in the final chapter,
You apply for the rating of your choice, and the inspection is based on a standard set of criteria with points allocated. If you meet the number of points required for your rating then that’s what you get.
We applied for 3*, but the woman doing the inspection persuaded us to accept a higher rating as we had more than enough points. In hindsight this was stupid.
This was 10 years ago, so I don’t know if the system is exactly the same. Logically you can’t be forced to accept a rating you don’t want - but perhaps a questions you need to ask!
You are being penalised for not having gone though the classification system, so have to pay the highest rate. This system is geared to encouraging people to become classified so that tourists can be reassured, and supposedly fair as the tourists pay according to the quality they select. (Actually is ‘t that fair as various anomalies)
I have only had one seaon here so i have not exactly waited long.
So the set up is to ensure quality comes from aiging owners.
This is bazaar. The agency I use do not accept every property which applies.
Can i have a link to your property…curious.
Of course it’s different, it’s a different market. We don’t get people who want to lounge around a pool sipping a G&T, but those who want to go canyoning and climbing and other sports I don’t even like to think about
Our prices are what the local market can take, we are not in a high tourist area. But our costs are also low so the return on investment is pretty good. You say you don’t make enough money at the end of the day, and we feel quite happy that we get enough to make it worthwhile. Covers all our household costs, taxes and charges plus a bit.
And yes, we’ve been meaning to redo the website as put it up ourselves when we started as a stop-gap. And it’s still there!! But there’s little incentive to change - we are already booked through to mid-September which is enough for us. Half of which are repeat clients who are now our friends.
