If a visitor selects a house on Gites on the basis of a certain period and capacity, the system makes a smart calculation of the price for the requested period. That is, if it has been entered correctly. A number of variables play a role in this.

Minimum stay

We see that many hosts choose to have a minimum stay of 7 days, the traditional holiday week, often combined with the Saturday as changeover day and a fixed weekly rate.

However, many visitors to the website are also looking for shorter periods, for example people in transit or those who are not bound to school holidays. Especially outside the high season, when there is a lot of competition and a large offer is available, we recommend your to allow a shorter stay.

Our advice: choose (outside the high season) to allow a shorter stay to increase your rental opportunity.

Flexible changeover day

If you opt for a flexible changeover day, visitors can in principle arrive on any day of the week and leave on any desired day, as long as they meet the minimum stay. Traditionally Saturday is a much-chosen changeover day, but Saturday is no longer such an ideal travel day: the black and red Saturdays are the reason for this.

The disadvantage of a flexible changeover day is that you may get 'broken' periods. The one leaves on Saturday, the next one arrives on Tuesday ... everyone prefers connected rented periods. However, there are important periods of the year in which renting out is more difficult and you can, with a flexible changeover day, pick up that one guest who wants to come on a Wednesday.

The combination of a minimum number of days for a stay with a fixed changeover day is the least flexible: for someone who wants to book 23 days, no price can be calculated and can not be booked directly (only applies to the booking module).

Our advice: choose (outside the high season) flexible changeover days to increase your rental opportunity.

Day price or weekly rate?

If you enter the pricing periods on Gites, the weekly rate is a mandatory field. As soon as you have opted for a different minimum stay or a flexible changeover day for a specific period, you must also state a daily rate. Suppose you have a minimum stay of 7 days and someone wants to book 10 days, this is possible if you have a flexible changeover day. If you have entered a daily rate, the system calculates a weekly price plus three times the daily rate. It is logical that the daily price will be slightly higher than the weekly price divided by .

Our advice: fill in as much as possible a daily price (1/6 of the weekly price?) To increase your rental opportunities.

Price per capacity

Visitors to Gites almost always enter the requested capacity when they search for a holiday home. You have the option to vary within the given price range with your prices. If you do that, the search will show the price that fits the capacity. You may be more competitive with this: the capacity is perhaps 6, but you can offer a special price for two people. If you use this possibility, you must enter an amount for all possible capacities, even if the prices are the same, so: if you enter prices for different capacity, enter all fields even if the prices are the same.

Our advice: vary your rates by capacity via the yellow button in the price period system to increase your rental opportunity.

Extra costs or yet 'all inclusive'?

At Gites you have the possibility to add extra costs for traditional bed and bath linen and cleaning. The origin of this is the desire of some hosts: the rental price shown seems lower that way.

In practice, however, this custom has become a big visitor annoyance, especially if it becomes a long (and expensive) list of extra costs. 

According to the French tax authorities, when reporting your income from furnished letting, you may include one additional service that is included in the flat-rate deduction for costs (eg cleaning). What is not allowed is to deduct the resale of electricity and water, bicycle and boat rental etc. By calculating what the average costs are you can include these into the rent. You can then specify all services that are included and benefit from the favorable flat rate.

Our advice: use all-inclusive prices to increase your rental opportunity.

Would you like some personal advice? Please feel free to contact us.