Dealing with French for Spain

[dublin13]

I have just taken an enquiry from French people for two weeks in August for villa in Spain. They have said they want to book the villa. However they want to pay the deposit by cheque because the banks are closed at lunch to do a transfer and they are also looking for copies of a contract by post. We dont normally issue a contract as such before we have confirmed booking/deposit in the bank. No one from uk, ireland or holland has asked for a contract. Is this just a French thing or poor management on my side?

[Bellywobble]

Be careful about taking a euro cheque from a different country. They are very expensive to pay in and can take weeks to be credited.

I would have thought that guests should be able to see a contract before they pay a deposit. Surely it is your contract that sets out the terms and conditions and they need to be able to agree to them before making the commitment. We send ours along with the booking form.

[Nessie]

As far the B&B goes all our french guests expect to see a contract before they pay a deposit. I normally complete one and scan it to them if they have email

Re the bank yes it is possible that they are closed at lunch , but most in our area are open on a saturday morning

[Topcat]

My experience of French guests is that they are very cautious and do like to scrutinise the contract. My last French guests also wanted me to sign each page in the contract and send it to them. They explained after they got home and everything had been fine, that there had been a lot of issues in the French press about villas/apartments in Spain not really existing.

So you can understand their caution.

TC

[Fifi]

I just send the contract which is returned completed and signed together with a deposit cheque, or notification of a bank transfer. Only then is the reservation confirmed. Can't you guests do a transfer on line? We bank with Credit Agricole and it really isn't difficult or expensive (around 7 euros I think for a foreign currency transfer). Or they could pay via Paypal. I am in the opposite situation in that I don't accept sterling cheques, so it has to be a transfer or Paypal from non-Eurozone guests - not had any grief so far, and most people go for Paypal simply because it is cheaper.

[pepsipuss]

Most of our guests were French last year and this year it is the same and none has any difficulty tranferring money. Cheques are a definite no-no for all the reasons above - unless you happen to know someone with a French bank account who would be willing to receive one and send you the funds by transfer once it has cleared, less expenses of course.

I would be rather suspicious of someone who can't figure out a way to make a bank transfer in this day and age. Don't forget to give them the full details including IBAN and BIC/SWIFT (I speak from experience having forgotten this the first time I dealt with a non-Spanish enquiry!)

French guests are indeed cautious and last year were very worried by the press about the Morairaway scandal in particular. Last year was our first on Homelidays and our first French guests from that source told us on arrival that they had been rather apprehensive as we had no reviews on the site at that time.

[dublin13]

Should also have mentioned that any correspondence with them was through spain-holiday. They made teh enquiry I replied by email, they replied to my email through spain -holidays booking/enquiry form.

[lorca]

We´re in Spain and have lots of French guests. All have paid via bank transfer to our Euro account here - no problem. We send out our T and Cs (which are also on our website) with our bank details by email when they confirm they want to book. When we get their deposit we send them the final contract with their booking details included. All done by email.

[la vache!]

Most of my French bookings want to sign a contract, it is normal for them. And most want to pay by cheque, they don't like paying by credit card and bank transfers are hassle as you still have to go to the bank. It really is normal behaviour!

[Hells Bells]

I have had no problem with any of my French guests paying by either debit card or bank transfer. No-one has requested to pay by cheque.