So you’re first guests are coming in a few weeks, what do they need to know before they get there and what else should you tell them once they are there? Well obviously the first thing to know is where is your gite and how can they find it. Most people will have a large road atlas of France but it probably doesn’t really show the detail they need to find your lovely gite set in a small quiet hamlet, that won’t even get a mention on most road maps. We send our guests a document with various levels of map, gradually getting more detailed, that shows exactly where the gite is. You really don’t want to be getting a phone call from people who are lost and you certainly don’t want your guests starting their holiday by getting flustered and stressed that they can’t find your gite.
Once there they need to know how to get in. We use a key safe which means people can get there at anytime, day or night. So we obviously tell them the combination and some pictures of how to use it. If people have had a long journey even the simplest of things, like opening a key safe, can become tricky if your tired.
The next thing we send them prior to going is a cut down version of the information pack that’s at the gite. As we have a septic tank this warns them about the do’s and don’ts of a septic tank before they get there. This means that hopefully some of the information will stick in their minds once they are there. We also explain where the nearest supermarkets are and what their opening hours are. As we do a Saturday to Saturday rental people may arrive Saturday evening and leave there shopping until Sunday. This is more difficult in France than it is in the UK as the Hypermarkets are generally shut. If your guests know this in advance they may do their shopping on Saturday when they arrive, or at least know that they have to go to a certain supermarket before 1:00pm on Sunday before it shuts.
Finally we tell them the contact numbers they might need of our management company, just in case. It’s obviously a lot more comforting to be travelling to your holiday destination knowing that there is somebody you can call if anything goes wrong. This hopefully puts peoples minds at rest about travelling to the gite and they can get there with no problems.
Once at the gite we have an information pack for the guests that has the same information we have already provided, in case they don’t bring it with them, along with some further practical information. The extra information covers things like: emergency telephone numbers, rubbish and recycling facilities, location of the fuse box in case anything goes pop, where the stop cock is and information on the gas bottle in case it runs out. We also provide the kitchen inventory. This isn’t so that guests think we’re checking up on them, it’s so that they can see a list everything we provide and where it is. Often you don’t realise somewhere has something until you leave and then think “I wish I knew that was there as that would have been really handy”. We then have some more information on places to go, things to do and places to eat nearby, to start to point people in the right direction on what’s around locally.
In a separate folder we have the tourist information leaflets, organised by the type of activity / place it is. This gives a broader picture of what’s around and organising it, rather than just having a large pile of leaflets, means people can actually find things that they might find interesting.
Finally we have the guest book, where our guests have put recommendations on restaurants, places to and things they have done, as well as lovely comments on our gite. This is a great source of information for guests, especially the comments on things people have done outside the core summer months, as it lets people know if things are very busy at certain times of day or shut early or on certain days.
Hopefully this sort of information will provide guests with enough information to enable them to make their own choices about what they would like to do and to have a stress free and enjoyable holiday, as in the end, that’s what it’s all about.
Self Catering Cottage / Gite near Dinan, Brittany, France
Buying, Owning and Running a Gite in Brittany Blog
©Derek Arkwright 2008
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