France Voila travel and French tourism, lodging rentals and accommodation services

New Trends for Vacation Rentals
New Internet Laws for Buyers
SATH.org
Holi-Swaps
French Property Digest
Car Rental Problems
Recipe from Nizas #7
The Nizas Project - the Fire - "Adieu Carco"
Webcams

Three years ago we started on the Internet by advertising our apartments in Nizas with some Internet vacation rental companies. Many of these have since disappeared, one of the first is about to close < www.wwte.com > having been bought out, (Microsoft), others are getting bigger and stronger, of the established advertising companies I particularly like...

Every week I find many more new sites which are offering advertising to home owners who wish to rent their properties, some are unlikely to last long, others are very slick and efficient and companies have clearly spent a lot of time and money in launching these sites. If you own a property you can get a lot of free advertising this way as many offer 6 months or more free advertising to get you on their lists.

I have never been convinced that just looking at privately advertised sites is the best way for anyone to find the right home for their vacation. There is no way to check on the quality or value being offered. Advertising sites usually have a disclaimer saying that they are not responsible if it does not meet the description. Some advertising companies, Chez Nous for example, have had serious problems with complaints.

We do have some advertising on our sites but the large majority of the properties we list are ones we have personally inspected and where we can answer questions about the facilities and services etc. I turn down most applications for advertising on our sites.

Importantly, we have found that by speaking and writing personally to our clients we can give a better service than just listing lots of villas and apartments. We can tell you if the stairs are too steep, or if the heating is not good enough for a winter let. This means we have to personally inspect the properties we show on our sites including..

So rather than simply adding as many properties as we can for paid advertising, we are selecting properties which we can then let for the owners. We only charge the owners a commission on rentals which they accept. This is much more cost effective for the owners and for the renters as we have the experience to match the right property to those looking for vacation accommodation and we really make sure that everything is correct for both.

Largely due to time differences, our main contact with customers is by e-mail, but we are now looking at better ways of communicating personally, by having buttons on the sites where you can click to talk to us directly, and there is always the telephone.

To give you a larger choice, we are creating a network of other companies like ours who can offer similar services. This is extending to all other regions in France and other countries in Europe.

We believe that selecting a vacation is something which is best supplied by a local specialist. Your local travel agent is more likely to understand your needs and we are on-the-spot here to give local advice and help. With all the resources the Internet offers, together we have the skills to find the right place at the right price.

To facilitate this relationship between your local agent and the knowledge and experience of managers, agents and individual property owners, we have started a new database of private rental properties in Europe. We aim to set standards for the properties and ensure that standards are kept.

Recent judgements (November 2000) have ruled that the contract for anything purchased over the Internet is governed by the location of the computer where the order originated, not the location of the goods or services offered.

This has important implications for vacation rentals. For example, if a property is booked through the Internet and the money is paid by credit card, the person booking can, in theory, take the vacation and then say that their vacation was not what they expected or was not to the standard described and demand that their credit card is credited in full (charge-back). Any further action would then be under the jurisdiction of the country or state of the renter, not of the property owner.

This seems to support the points I talk about in the first article, it is important to work with your local travel specialist together with a company with good local knowledge in the country you plan to visit.

I learnt a lot last year when we found a rental home for a family which needed wheelchair access. Out of over 100 properties we had only one was (we thought) suitable. In fact it was barely adequate and we had to make some alterations to doors and walls for it to work at all for their vacation.

In the last two weeks, the owner, Maurice S. Clarke has put this website and all the business up for sale. So if you are looking for a ready-made Internet business and you like travel and people, this may be interesting.

All the links work, but - there is very little in them. The reason I am writing about it is to ask you to help me. I would really appreciate any comments you have about the way it looks. If the price is right, (the subscription page is working), anything you want to say. My usual reward of a bottle of wine is offered for anyone writing to me. You do have to come here to drink it or you can keep it in your own part of our cellars and collect it whenever you are ready.

Issue number one is scheduled for the new year, but this #0 is to get feedback and comments from everyone (please) to learn what it is you would like to see and how you would like it presented. All of you who said they would like to subscribe should be getting your copy in your e-mail soon.

The aim is to give detailed in-depth information about anything to do with buying, owning or renting property in France, plus information about living in France. Lots of contacts, addresses and links plus a lot of news and up-to-date information on property.

I am looking for more writers about subjects relating to France and French living, the pay is not great - yet - but this is commercial venture and we are not asking for something for nothing.

It is planned to be a paid subscription journal, plus there will be a number of specialised e-books on a wide range of subjects. You will find that the offers and savings available far outweigh the "cover" price and if you are looking to buy or own a property in France, this could save you a great deal of time and money, so subscribe now and get some free offers, build you wine cellar and let us help you make your dream come true.

My mail about this subject is about 60:40 criticism:praise for rental companies. There is clearly a "scam" going on at present with some car rental desks and this seems to be in collusion with some of the rental companies. I have sent details of some complaints to the president of Auto Europe about "unreasonable" charges, mostly to do with Collision Damage Waiver (CDW), or lack of it, insurance. Interestingly Auto Europe have received nothing but praise for their attitude and help, do not confuse them with Europecar who have had nothing but complaints of sharp actions and behavior.

The main trick is that the price quoted for a rental does not usually include the CDW insurance. So the "competitive" quote you got from the agency or over the Internet can double when you check you credit card statement as this "option" is often signed for when you collect the car. If you are alert and decline the CDW, then you risk the delayed damage claim trick. I reckon that $20 a day for collision insurance is pure greed.

I have had an unusually high proportion of claims for "damage" reported, $400 for a scratched hub cap etc. The problem is these claims are made weeks or months after the hire is finished and your credit card is charged with no option for you to complain, any damage, if it ever existed, is no longer available for inspection.

The way the rental companies work is to "block" your card at the time of hiring and you lose the option of a charge-back or complaint. Clearly the rental companies are big customers for the credit card companies so you are the loser, twice. People have written to me telling me they have cancelled their Amex card after 30 years due to this.

The peripatetic Bordelaise (moving barrel) palls into insignificance against the fire on Thursday. The (empty) stables of the Chateau in Nizas were blazing, two fire engines and a large number of vehicles with revolving blue or red lights on their roofs were blocking the roads. Water was streaming in the gutters and the "Sapeurs Pompiers", the voluntary para-medic/firemen were climbing up ladders and wearing wonderful chrome helmets and smart blue jackets.

If only France Telecom was not so expensive, I would have web-cams pointed at this spectacle, I really would like a web cam on our roof to show you the warm sunny days and the wonderful colors of the vineyards in Autumn. But at $5 an hour on-line for local calls, I just cannot afford it.

Andre Carcapino died this week. His family claims to be the oldest in the village, he also claimed to be of a Sicilian bandit family and is famous for taking a loaded gun to the Mayors office in our town hall and threatening to shoot the Mayor if some dispute over land was not settled (it was). I have recent memories of his being forcefully dragged from council meetings when his point of view was not listened too. Actually listening to a mixture of Sicilian and Occitan dialect was beyond most people.

Andre may be best remembered for the "Carco-Mobile". In France there is a special type of car called a "sans permis" which does not require a driving license. They are very small two seaters and usually have a tiny diesel engine with an automatic gearbox. Top speed is about 30 mph. Andre was known for "liking a drink" so if you saw this minuscule menace (the car) coming towards you, or indeed saw it anywhere, you kept well away. The best story I heard about this was when it was hi-jacked last year at knife-point after a particularly interesting drinking session in the bar at Nizas. Andre was forced into the car by one of his "companions" and told to drive to some far destination. When they were just out of the village, Andre was forced out of the car and about 100 yards up the road, his crutches (he had a crippled leg) were thrown out.

It says a lot for the local Gendarmerie that his car was never recovered, (he got a new one from the insurance). I have this image of a 30mph single cylinder diesel mini-car being used in a smash and grab raid in Montpellier late last year.