purelyfrance

The match up: Bed and Breakfast versus Self-Catering accommodation

If you have the choice between these two types of accommodation you are in a good position. If you are a tiger for punishment you can of course offer both!! This Post explores the differences between operting a B n B and Self-catering accommodation whether that be a Cottage, Apartments or Gites. We will look at the characteristics of each as well as their pros and cons. Each of them have both!

We cut our teeth on a small B n B in Provence with 2 double bedrooms and an attic style single room. We then graduated to a 5 bedroom B n B here in Burgundy, eventually added a self-catering Apartment to our portfolio. Last year we switched to an all self-catering operation offering two apartments and a Cottage, 5 bedrooms in all.

Why did we change?  The key reasons revolved around time, demand and simplicity. We suspect like many starry-eyed B n B owners, our loose plan was, step 1, get the B n B created and operating. (12 months hard work skipped over in those few words!) Step 2, look around for some other income related activity to occupy ourselves in our ’spare’ time.  The slight miscalculation we made was how much, or rather how little time we would have available.

A relatively ‘normal’ B n B day for us went something like this. Between 0600 and 0630, Elle, our Australian born, pure breed maine coon cat would let us know it was time to get up and feed her. (while a totally appropriate name for a cat living in France, Elle was named after that other Australian of the same name - mainly as I admire Elle Mac’s business acumen) First task was to prepare for le petit dejeuner. Breakfast itself would occupy us until 1030.  Understandably, guests are always in holiday mode so are quite happy to sit around and chat. It was at least 1100 before breakfast was cleared away, dishes washed and dried and the table reset.

Then the cleaning session began, which we did every day. Towels to be laundered, beds to be remade, bathrooms to be cleaned, hoovering, dusting et al. You can count on 45 mins per bedroom, plus the common areas. So together with a hurried bite to eat for lunch, the clock rolled around to 1400 before we knew it. Then there is always one errand or another to run. Shopping for provisions, posting mail, paying bills, sourcing material from the Tourism office, or just having your haircut!

We specified to new guests an arrival time of 1500. So from that time on, at least one of us needed to be on ‘duty’.  We rarely knew the arrival time which could be between 1500 and 2100. That excludes the occasional guests who would telephone to say they were lost!  Around 1700 our existing guests would arrive home so you would spend time talking with them about their adventures for that day. Then there may have been restaurant bookings to make. So when you throw in emails to be answered, an occasional aperitif with the guests, cooking our own evening meal and French language lessons, you can see the amount of ’spare’ time amounts to precious little!

Contrast that with self-catering accommodation. Saturday is usually ‘change over’ day. So it is full on with departing guests, and preparing the Gites for your new arrivals. But bathroom and bedroom linen are only changed weekly, and no further cleaning is required until the next Saturday comes around. So you can see immediately, self-catering is definitely not as time absorbing as a B n B operation. This once weekly servicing also has a big impact, i.e. reduction, on your costs. So while with self-catering your income is likely to be less, your costs will be substantially lower and therefore produce a better bottom line.

Another interesting difference is the nationality make-up of your guests. For our B n B, guests were roughly split 25% British, 25% American/Canadian, 25% Australia/New Zealand and 25% rest of Europe and Asia. For our self-catering accommodation, 50%  come from the UK, 30% from Australia/New Zealand, 10% rest of Europe and 10% from North America.  We were surprised to learn how much market demand exists for self-catering, particularly as Burgundy is not a ’sun and sand’ type of destination. The B n B season starts earlier, but for June through September we have little trouble filling our apartments. To help attract bookings for the earlier months, March, April, and May we do accept stays of less than one week.

We find generally, self-catering guests tend to be more experienced holiday makers. This particularly applies to our British guests, many of whom have some French language skills. Consequently they require a much lower level of assistance and therefore occupy less of your time.

But the biggest driver to determine whether B n B or Gites are ‘right’ for you is your own motivation. If you thirst for people interaction; if you thrive in social situations with interesting people from a range of countries; if it is your sole business activity; if you want to provide table d’hotes then a B n B is likely to be the right recipe for you.  But…….we suggest you ensure your personal living accommodation is separate and private from your guest accommodation.

If on the other hand, your time is at a premium, you have other commercial activities, you are seeking to supplement your income and/or make more productive use of your assets then you may well find the self-catering scenario is more suited to you.

In our next Post in our B n B & Gites for fun and profit series we will be discussing the not so easy task of setting your tariffs. (rates)

A Bientot,

Bruce.

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