Foreign Perspectives

When the Brits are moving to France their first thought, usually, is to set themselves up in the gite business.

It certainly sounds like the ideal lifestyle choice. You only need to work one day a week and you don’t have to see the guests at all apart from when they arrive and when they leave. For B&B you’d have to deal with the guests every day and that would be an awful hassle, wouldn’t it?

What’s frequently forgotten about in this equation is that a typical gite will have around six or seven rooms whereas a B&B room has only two (counting the bathroom in both cases). So you’re looking at around three to four times the amount of work cleaning up a gite compared to a single B&B room (although most gites specify that it’s left in a clean condition you’ll still need to check it and wash all the sheets etc.).

Don’t forget about that business of washing the sheets & towels, maintenance, etc.: a gite business is never a one day a week job.

The other difference that’s usually not even considered is the profitability. We have a small four person gite and when rented out as a gite, the income is around EUR 50 per day. When the same space (less the kitchen and dining room) is rented out as a B&B room then the income is EUR 100 per day and if we do an evening meal as well it’s more like EUR 200 per day.

To be fair, that separation of you from the guests is valuable for a number of people but it’s possible to buy a B&B place that allows you to lock the door and keep the guests from mingling with the private section of your house.