When we bought this place we had no thought of running a Gite business. Our plan was to renovate our house and be retired. When we first moved here England covered our health care as we had paid into the system right up until we left. They gave us two years after which the plan was to enter the French health system. Unfortunately the French government decided to change the rules and we had to work to get the cover. Without a good command of the language we had no hope of gaining employment here other than in the chicken factory....that was never going to happen! So we looked at one of our barns and decided to turn it into Gites! We had the pot of money to renovate our house so used it to build the Gites. After lots of research we came to the conclusion that three two person Gites was the way to go. We signed up for a business regime which gave us health cover and had two years to start earning money and pay into the system. And so Le Tertre Rouge was born!
La Jonquille is almost ready and will be on board for the summer season. Le Beau Champs will come on board hopefully by August.
With the Gites just about there we are now looking at developing our business further. In particular we are doing lots of research on marketing. We have decided to upgrade and will provide a better welcome pack and good toiletries in the bathroom. We will also raise our prices a bit. We think we are priced too low and that couples are willing to pay a bit more for a quality product!
We have other ideas for making this a place to choose but it will take time to put things in place.
The hardest part of this had been regarding this as a business not just our home! We are learning!
What a sensible plan, and it seems to be working! Hope you get lots of bookings this year.
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