Good morning,
Are clevacances and feathers the same meaning as "stars" ? Also how do you go about obtaining them for your property.
Thanks in advance.
Paul
Clevacances / Feathers / Stars
clevacances have updated their logo and is now keys.Depends on whether you have a gite or chambre d hote; the maxium keys you can get for a chambre d hote is 4 and for a gite 5 keys.
You have to under go an inpection, first contact your local office who will send you an information pack listing the requirements for each key etc.Send off the application and they will contact you for the inspection we have chambre d hotes , our inspection lasted about 2 hours.
You have to under go an inpection, first contact your local office who will send you an information pack listing the requirements for each key etc.Send off the application and they will contact you for the inspection we have chambre d hotes , our inspection lasted about 2 hours.
Nessie
Have you found being rated beneficial to your business? - as most, especially gites don't tend to go for ratings as you would in the UK. Does it cost you anything to be inspected? Are there any other benefits i.e listings/advertising with them? Were there any things you were picked up on - good or bad - that were unexpected or unusual?
Sorry for all the questions, but would appreciate clarification!
Thanks
Sorry for all the questions, but would appreciate clarification!
Thanks
We are listed 3 épis with Gites de France. Initially I think we needed the grading for ourselves to make sure that we had hit the quality level we were aiming for. The inspection was painless and she did give me a few tips. They do ask you to have a few things especially french like a pressure cooker for instance but we had already bought white tableware adding colour with the place mats and serviettes and this went down well. She advised always buying three times the number of items for the table so that the gite has double the place settings for its occupancy and you have spares.
We only had one booking through them last year - the problem is that all the high season weeks are booked before the French get their act together - this year I have three French families and a Belgian family but not through gites de france. They are expensive too so I will really have to reconsider keeping them in my advertising portfolio for 2007.
But it has given us a quality mark and reassured us that our property compares well to other like properties.
We only had one booking through them last year - the problem is that all the high season weeks are booked before the French get their act together - this year I have three French families and a Belgian family but not through gites de france. They are expensive too so I will really have to reconsider keeping them in my advertising portfolio for 2007.
But it has given us a quality mark and reassured us that our property compares well to other like properties.
Hi.I asked a company ( I can't remember their name now but they were well regarded!) to come and inspect my property too just so that I would have an idea of how the property compared to others in the area. It came out with flying colours and would have been ranked as the top of it's category but once I had the report I decided not to go with them as they were too expensive! It was a really useful exercise though as it gave us a benchmark,really helpful when you're starting out!! 
www.thepetitmanoir.com
www.thepetitmanoir.com
Initially I think like Enid we needed the grading for ourselves, it was something we had always planned to get round to. I also think it depends on the type of market you are aiming for, if its only English you want then I don’t think its so important, however I feel that the French Belgium’s and Germans do put more of an emphasis on booking a place that is graded, in the case of chamber d hotes that is I cant speak for gites.
We found the French are more choosey when booking a B&B and we have found that they tend to go for a graded establishments, this was another reason we have gone for grading as we were told last year by a couple of fellow B&B in the area that tried to put business our way when they were full, they found the French did not what to know as we had no grade.
We also found that our local OT in the Tarn et Garonne did not want to know or have our details as we had no grading. However the one in the Gers was very helpful and in our first year we got a lot of our bookings through them. Having said that things have now changed and last year we found that because we were not graded then we were at the bottom of their lists all graded B&B they would try to fill first.
Chambre d hote is a totally different ball game to Gites and villas. This is our fourth year in the business and apart from a few repeat bookings and couple of forward bookings we find most of our booking come in about 6 to 4 weeks before commencement of the holiday. As we only got the grade last October it will not really be to the end of this season to see if it has been beneficial to our business.
We missed the maximum of 4 keys because of 3 factors, the rooms did not have TV one of the beds was 140cm instead of the 160cms and the showers needed to be thermostatically controlled. We were picked up on 3 points as well one bathroom needed a coat hook and one needed an extraction fan, the third thing which we half expected was the banisters were too far apart and they were concerned a child would fall through them.
We end up going with clévacances, as we did not like the attitude from GDF, also the costs were much higher, we have 3 rooms but are only classed as having 2 as one is a family suite. The approx cost with GDF was 650 euro where we paid 130 euros with clévacances which includes being in there brochure and on their web site along with the panel for the house and all your booking paper work etc, this years fees will be 70 euros so I was told as part of the initial payment was for the inspection
We found the French are more choosey when booking a B&B and we have found that they tend to go for a graded establishments, this was another reason we have gone for grading as we were told last year by a couple of fellow B&B in the area that tried to put business our way when they were full, they found the French did not what to know as we had no grade.
We also found that our local OT in the Tarn et Garonne did not want to know or have our details as we had no grading. However the one in the Gers was very helpful and in our first year we got a lot of our bookings through them. Having said that things have now changed and last year we found that because we were not graded then we were at the bottom of their lists all graded B&B they would try to fill first.
Chambre d hote is a totally different ball game to Gites and villas. This is our fourth year in the business and apart from a few repeat bookings and couple of forward bookings we find most of our booking come in about 6 to 4 weeks before commencement of the holiday. As we only got the grade last October it will not really be to the end of this season to see if it has been beneficial to our business.
We missed the maximum of 4 keys because of 3 factors, the rooms did not have TV one of the beds was 140cm instead of the 160cms and the showers needed to be thermostatically controlled. We were picked up on 3 points as well one bathroom needed a coat hook and one needed an extraction fan, the third thing which we half expected was the banisters were too far apart and they were concerned a child would fall through them.
We end up going with clévacances, as we did not like the attitude from GDF, also the costs were much higher, we have 3 rooms but are only classed as having 2 as one is a family suite. The approx cost with GDF was 650 euro where we paid 130 euros with clévacances which includes being in there brochure and on their web site along with the panel for the house and all your booking paper work etc, this years fees will be 70 euros so I was told as part of the initial payment was for the inspection
Nessie
Thanks for the replies - very helpful. We used to have a holiday let in the UK adjacent to our house so we had some idea as to what we should be aiming for. We were with the local tourist board which operated a star system and listed the various ways you could achieve each grading, so we have pretty much used that as our guideline.
Did the inspectors specify only white tableware then - or is that specific to B&B?
I hadn't appreciated that other nationalities might go more for the listings. We have only had one season, all English, but we have a repeat booking already wanting 3 weeks instead of the 2 last year, so a good start to this season.
I'll certainly think about it. I assume it's not a legal requirement - anyone know if it will be?
Did the inspectors specify only white tableware then - or is that specific to B&B?
I hadn't appreciated that other nationalities might go more for the listings. We have only had one season, all English, but we have a repeat booking already wanting 3 weeks instead of the 2 last year, so a good start to this season.
I'll certainly think about it. I assume it's not a legal requirement - anyone know if it will be?
No, we have patterned china, we had to set the table for breakfast before the inspection, they must have liked it as our table is on the front of the tarn et garonne brochure.mitsi wrote:Did the inspectors specify only white tableware then - or is that specific to B&B?
If you contact them they will send you a list of the requirements for each rating level, also for 4 keys with a chambre d hote you have to change the bed every 2 days.
I assume it's not a legal requirement - anyone know if it will be?
not at the moment
Nessie
Hi
just worth noting the position here.
The local tourist office require a rating before they will list properties in their local brochure.
Local B&B people tell me that the tourist office has been a very good source of visitors.
The tourist office also has a db on the web allowing direct contact with owners : http://www.ot-sommieres.fr/sejour.aspx
Peter
just worth noting the position here.
The local tourist office require a rating before they will list properties in their local brochure.
Local B&B people tell me that the tourist office has been a very good source of visitors.
The tourist office also has a db on the web allowing direct contact with owners : http://www.ot-sommieres.fr/sejour.aspx
Peter
