RosieO

In relation to Gites de France, I have read many comments about the rating sytem ie 2-4 wheat sheaves or not as the case may be and wonder, like some forum members how this works. Renting a gite is a brilliant way of seeing France (where I live), sometimes however, one can make a dud choice as we did for visiting friends. This year, we were asked to recommend a gite in our region (Vienne) which we duly did, noting that this particular one had a 2 sheaves rating and an ingound pool, perfect for our friends. We had not stayed there ourselves and chose this particular gite(being close to where we live) from the Gites de France site. The French owner claimed fluent spoken English in the blurb, but whose favourite phrase was 'I haff not unerstand', Ok so what I hear you ask as language probs can be ironed out. The real issue was that the gite in question was dirty and the owner who lived next door, in addition to being a hoverer, turned into a nasty hoverer on being informed that his gite was not up to scratch. Our friends, who are easy going, left before their week was up. They have rented about 20 gites over a period of 10 years, so are fully cognisent with the ways and wherefores of such rentals. However this was the first time ever that they had struck such problems. I do not want to name names, but I would put a note of caution as on making enquiries in the small hamlet about the gite and its owner, it turns out that he is 'known' for his behaviour and has a fairly unsavoury reputation. The gite in question is still running with the latest disgruntled guests leaving yesterday. So, the lottery of the gites continues.

FrenchMystiqueTours

I don't know how the rating system and inspection works but people do have to register and have their gîtes inspected to be on the gîtes-de-france website so I would say your friends should contact them and perhaps they'll pay a surprise visit to the owner. I'm sure there must be random inspections but with the enormous number of gîtes they have listed it must be impossible to check up on all of them regularly. I bet they rely on complaints as a means of knowing when to make a check-up inspection. To be fair to gîtes-de-france, this could happen with a property rented from any rental website and isn't unique to them.

annhig

we rented a dodgy gite one year not through Gites de France but Brittany Ferries.

Several things that were promised on the website [like a working TV!] did not exist, and as with the one above, it wasn't properly clean. We complained to the agent and to Brittany Ferries but by the time we got home, they'd changed the website.

In retrospect we should probably have jumped ship too, but we toughed it out, reasoning that in July, what would be available would also be expensive.

This one was quite cheap [part of its attraction] as I guess the two wheat-sheaf one was too. Sadly you get what you pay for. a 4 sheaf gite ought to be better than a 2 sheaf one. ours would only have got about one and a half sheaves, i think .

StuDudley

We've rented 39 different gites through Gites-de-France, and all were clean & met our expectations. This year we stayed in perhaps the two best - fabulous. We only stay in 3 to 5 wheatie gites (yes, there is a 5 rating), and I use price as a factor in selecting the gite. I figure the the best gites are also the most expensive (after I make adjustments for those with over 3 bedrooms).

Many times we were sent a "feedback" form when we made our final payment or when leaving the gite. We filled it our and submitted it to Gites-de-France for the department (Gites are administered by the various departments in France). I would contact the Gites de France office for the Isere and ask for a rating/complaint form. You should be able to find the e-mail for the Isere on the Gites-de-France web site, or on the rental form your friend signed if they rented through the Isere office and not directly from the proprietor. The office is probably in Vienne if Vienne is the "capital" of the Isere dept. If so, you could just visit the office to make a complaint for your friends - that's got to have more impact than a form letter.

Stu Dudley

Michael

I can't speak for he <i>gites</i>, i.e. weekly + rentals, but all of the B&Bs I have had through Gites de France have been clean and cheaper than comparable rooms in hotels.