Gîte Guru
Fast-tracking you to gîte success
Running a gîte is no mean feat – trust us, we know!
You need to be a competent marketeer and communicator, interior designer, gardener, bookkeeper, cleaner, account manager and guide.
It can be challenging to get the bookings and overwhelming to get it all right, but we’ve got you covered.
We’re Franck and Rupert, passionate gîte owners who have poured our hearts and souls into building a successful business from scratch. Our place is proof that running gîtes can be rewarding and highly profitable.
So whether you’re just starting out, or finding it hard to gain momentum, we can help. With our honest guidance, tailored strategies, and unwavering support, you’ll be equipped to overcome obstacles and achieve the thriving gîte business you’ve always dreamed of.
We also free information about running gîtes!
Optimise your gîte
Creating the best possible product
and service so that your guests
will want to return
Increase your bookings
Creating a strong marketing plan
to extend your season
with good, secure bookings
Save you time and money
Sharing our documents, experience
and money-saving ways
to help you get you further, quicker
Free initial zoom
If you’re interested in us helping you with your new or existing gîte, then contact us for a free, no-obligation zoom. We’ll discuss your property, plans and goals, so that we understand your needs and how we can best help you.
On the basis of this, we’ll email you a tailored proposal detailing the areas we’ll help you with, and our corresponding fee.
Hiring us is an investment, but one that will save you time and money, whilst giving you concrete ways to boost your bookings and keep your costs down.
Whether you have a 1-bed cottage or a rambling château, do get in touch!
Who do we work with?
The gîte hunter
We can help formulate your search criteria and the location, location, location!
We can also advise on the gîte part of a specific property before you put an offer in.
The first-time gîter
We guide you through every aspect of your new gîte business – from the layout, facilities, contents and classification, to how to tell the story of your amazing gîte and where to tell it.
The existing gîter
Do you need us to give your gîte business the once over, like a health check, and give you concrete steps to improve your profitability, bookings and confidence in your gîte.
The hands-off gîter
Some clients who lead busy lives abroad, don’t have the time to implement our advice. So we do it for them. For instance, setting up their comms and marketing plans.
The Sunday Times has published 4 articles about us and some of our clients since 2022, one of which we wrote. The articles are about running gîtes in general, and more specifically about the challenges we’ve faced in recent years, with fiscal changes, regulations and Brexit.
As well as writing for The Sunday Times, we’ve also written articles for Maison en France and for Sawday’s, and been interviewed for an article in The Telegraph. Rupert is also a guest lecturer at NH Stenden University in the Netherlands, as part of their hotel management course.
“Rupert and Franck help other owners make a success out of their business” Channel 4. (Series 1, 2 and 3 of Help! We bought a village.)
Our story and what we do
Our own gîtes
We run Le Mas & Le Mazet in the Dordogne. When we started out we had no experience of running a gîte, we made mistakes and got things wrong. But we learnt, we worked hard on creating two great holiday homes for our guests, a strong marketing plan and a new life for ourselves in France.
We measure our gîtes’ success by our long season, occupancy rate and the number of guests we welcome back every year.
Gïte Guru came about when we were approached to help a couple starting out with a gîte, who wanted to build their business on what we had learned. Since then we have assisted owners of 1-bedroom gîtes and enormous châteaux. Whatever your property, we can help you make it, your service and facilities as good as possible, market it strongly, help ensure your business runs smoothly and your costs remain low.
