BarbaraAllison7911

We have gotten longer term rentals through VRBO or Homeaway to both Spain and Costa Rica. Often you can negotiate a better price when renting long term. Also sometimes renters often offer a discount if you are renting longer than a week!

kerouac

Once the consolidator contacts the owner, I'm sure there is no problem at all in most cases of renting for a longer period than usual. In fact, the only thing that really enters into consideration (assuming there is no availability problem for the period) is when the potential customer asks for a discount due to the longer rental.

AJPeabody

I have heard that long term rentals from airbnb and others are not protected by the sites' guarantees. LTR's may also be subject to local occupancy laws, some of which make it difficult for the landlord. Check all details, and consider moving on after 28 days.

gooster

Both of those platforms will let you rent for longer terms, but I know in the Cote d'Azur you can also go to the local specialists and negotiate a better price directly, in particular in the offseason and outside of a middleman. These are often branches of local real estate agencies or local professional managers with large inventories, bonds/licenses and actual offices. (I know because we use one for our place when we are not there). Some of the mairies (city halls) and tourism departments also put their registries online. . .

MmePerdu

With Airbnb 28 days is the start of "long term" so make that 27. But it can also be the start of the best discounts.

BarbaraAllison7911

Gooster........how does one find the local specialists to negotiate a better price directly?

coolcamden

Because I have tried looking through these sites and so far haven’t been successful. Did you have goos luck?

MmePerdu

With rare exception, I've had good luck with Airbnb - daily, weekly & monthly rentals. You haven't been successful how? Nothing you like or haven't successfully booked anything? Please explain if you want suggestions.

kerouac

It's true that something like 65% of the rentals have gone off the market, but surely there are some acceptable places left.

StuDudley

As I stated earlier, we've stayed in 72 gites. Here is one in the Pays Basque area that was better than most. Just "down the road" from this gite, you can walk on an old Roman road into Sare, in about 30 mins. Or you can drive to the start of this road in 2 mins & walk 20 mins into Sare.

https://www.gites-de-france.com/en/n...16?travelers=2

Stu Dudley

StCirq

March is generally not a particularly pleasant month here in France. I certainly wouldn't want to be based anywhere in the north. Personally, I'd choose the Languedoc-Roussillon - Narbonne, Béziers, Collioure, or somewhere inland close to Carcassonne. Keep in mind that, particularly next year, many things may have completely shut down or won't re-open until the Tuesday after Easter.

I wouldn't expect France to be a particularly inviting place in the early spring of 2021. We're heading into another COVID surge and a lot of the usual tourist diversions are simply canceled, and probably will be well into next year. 2022? Who knows...


You can always contact the tourist office in any town for rentals. They keep lists of places, many of which never appear on the typical AirBnb/Homeaway-type places. Whether you can negotiate a better price using that means, I have no idea. But I doubt it these days because people are desperate.

gooster

For a target village, look at the nearby real estate companies or the local tourism website.
On the cote d'azur, there are several firms like YNA, Nice Pebbles/Riviera Pebbles, Riviera Holiday Homes, Sunlight Properties (these are mostly Nice centric) and more.

As Stu notes, Gite-de-france is another aggregator. TripAdvisor/Flipkey is the third family of listing services, btw. There are three major groups -- they own various submarks.

YankyGal

We actually experienced some closures in Menton in late November (vs. a visit in mid-September) but we were only there for a day.

Love this thread! I have nothing to add to all the wonderful ideas already. Enjoy the planning and let us know where you land.

lrice

Just reading and dreaming and found this wonderful thread!

BarbaraAllison7911 I posted a similar question when I first joined Fodors, but asked about England and France. (Now I know better &#128522 That said, this wonderful community offered lots of great suggestions so it might be worth a read-through:
Month-long stay outside London or Paris

Happy Planning!

BarbaraAllison7911

Thanks.....I will read the link! This community is wonderful........I always rely on it for my travel questions!

vags21

I would choose Antibes on the Cote D'Azur. With a bit of luck South France would have nice weather for this period of time. This is also a great spot as it has prompt access to Monaco, Canes, Nice etc

Christina

the Gites de France organization is not really an aggregator, as that is a term for a website that grabs info from various other places (like Trivago). It is a rental listing website, though, but unlike most, it rates the quality of the listings. Any person can't just decide to get listed on it, they have more stringent criteria than some site like Airbnb etc which really basically accepts anyone and is just a website. They do take a commission, though, they are not nonprofit. Also, they are in more rural areas, I don't think they even have any in Paris. The organization was started to help farmers after WWII get extra income (I think, don't quote me on that, but something like that).

BarbaraAllison7911

Thanks for that interesting info!

Williamy12

Hello BarbaraAllison,

I've been to France several times and it's a country where you'll find cities that are very different from each other, which I think is really great. In the spring I find it's more pleasant to go to the south of France because the temperature is great. To advise you on a city, I would say that it depends on what you are looking for.
1) A small quiet village by the sea (the most flowery village in France): Bormes les Mimosas. Very nice to visit, perfect if you go there in spring... There is the sea and the temperature is very pleasant. It is in the south of France.
2) If you prefer to visit a big city : Aix en Provence is a very pleasant city. You can also visit other cities nearby like Cassis, Marseille or La Ciotat.
3) Last option: the famous Saint-Tropez (not far from Bormes les mimosas, less than an hour by car it seems to me). Not very big but very pleasant village.


I hope this selection will help you. For the airport you have an airport in Nice, in Marseille but also in Hyères les palmiers (near Saint tropez and Bormes les mimosas).

Christina

As usual, the French have an association for this, and this organization tells you the best place to live and rates places. Their recent survey said it was Annecy.
https://www.villesetvillagesouilfaitbonvivre.com/

For small villages, they say it is Peltre which is near Metz.

I think that is like that plus beaux villages label, I imagine that's for tourism but I wouldn't think the above would be on most tourists' radar, but maybe I'm wrong. And of course, it is for living, not visiting. Although it sounds like it may be used for a place to try to get investment or people to move there (as they suggest ways on peut profiter du "label").

anyway, might be interesting to check out wherever you would like to go to see their ratings
I'm not familiar with this website, but it appears to have a summary of that survey
https://www.completefrance.com/frenc...ance-1-6498869