So how was our first ever rental? Well we had spent the last two weeks getting everything ready, cutting back the long grass that the previous owners hadn’t managed to cut, building a wood store, filling in the pond to make it safe, building the trampoline, putting up the shed in the barn to keep all the garden tools out of children’s way and making sure everything was all ready inside and out for all of our guests. Finally we had to leave to catch our ferry, as our first guests were on their ferry to France.

It was quite a nerve wracking week in truth, we obviously thought the place was lovely, otherwise we wouldn’t have bought it, but you never know what other people will think. Our first guests actually lived in the same street as us. They were very good friends with one of Kate’s friends, another mum of twins who Kate met during her twins ante-natal classes and became very good friends with. She had told them about our gite and so we showed them all the photos and they booked. There were going to be the four of them, all adults, so we were very interested to know how they found the gite. We had obviously added a few things to keep the children entertained (trampoline, sandpit and a load of toys) but what about 4 adults?

When they got back we eventually managed to catch up with them over a glass of wine. They had a fantastic time and they all thought the place was lovely and they loved Brittany. It was quite a relief. Being responsible in quite a large part for someones holiday like that was quite daunting. Although the accommodation is only part of a holiday it is a significant part and people only get a small amount of time off so you really don’t want them to be unhappy with anything. Once our next guests returned, a lovely family from Ireland who tested out all of the children’s equipment for us, and they told us what a lovely time they all had we started to relax.

One aspect that I hadn’t thought about when renting out our gite was that you get to know a little bit about peoples holidays which is wonderful, especially when they tell you they had a great time! So all in all our first ever rental was a great success and we started to relax.

2 Bedroom Gite in Brittany, France

Buying, Owning and Running a Gite in Brittany Blog

©Derek Arkwright 2008

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