WARNING: Rental FRAUD in France
Nov 4th 2001 | 2:41 am
#1
Guest
Posts: n/a
Right now, if you type CASCATEL (the name of a French village) in any search engine,
the first two entries will be representing the property of Grand Guilhem:
http://www.gayplaces2stay.com/europe...m/guilhem.html
http://www.circumvista.com/domainegrandgui.html
It looks quite attractive. It's advertised on several English and French language
sites dealing with House and Villa Rentals. We thought it was great when we found
it advertised for renting in the summer. But this is what happened to us there
this summer:
In January we PREpaid a two weeks vacation starting in mid-August in the Pyrennees.
Prior to that, we had exchanged no less than 19 e-mail messages with the owner, a
certain Mr. Gilles Contrepois, and had asked all the right questions (after all, we
ARE New Yorkers!). We arrived on Saturday, Aug 18th, to what was supposed to be the
beginning of the Pyrenees, to find what was supposed to be our dream house ("petite
maison independente") with pool, in the middle of a vineyard, and a view of the
Pyrenees ("Oui, on voit les Pyrenees et c'est magnifique") only to be whisked down to
the BASEMENT of a dirty farmhouse where the junk in the backyard dated from the
beginning of the century. Other aspects of the backyard included clouds of cow flies,
clothes drying, naked little boys running around, and a dirty table in the middle of
this poetry in action. The view of the Pyrenees was actually view of a dusty street
and a couple of other houses grouped around a wine bottling plant.
When we questioned the entire setup and mentioned our correspondence (in French, at
least one of us is perfectly bi-lingual), the owner accused us of "acting in bad
faith". When we pulled out the e-mail messages that we had brought up with us, he
accused us of making these up!
Luckily, the contract was signed through an umbrella organization for French tourism,
Gites de France, we drove to their nearest location (the beautiful medieval city of
Carcassonne) and they acted promptly, giving us a refund check (which we could not
cash until we come back to the States). We got our money back, but we were "homeless"
for a while (the entire country is in vacation in August and every house and hotel
room is booked). We wasted a week trying to find a place to stay and ended up going
back to Paris where we spent the rest of our vacation.
So much for enchantment, or this particular French had not heard of the French Code
of Honor. It's just not the same as it used to be in D'Artagnan's times…
If you need more details, don't hesitate to send us e-mail.
the first two entries will be representing the property of Grand Guilhem:
http://www.gayplaces2stay.com/europe...m/guilhem.html
http://www.circumvista.com/domainegrandgui.html
It looks quite attractive. It's advertised on several English and French language
sites dealing with House and Villa Rentals. We thought it was great when we found
it advertised for renting in the summer. But this is what happened to us there
this summer:
In January we PREpaid a two weeks vacation starting in mid-August in the Pyrennees.
Prior to that, we had exchanged no less than 19 e-mail messages with the owner, a
certain Mr. Gilles Contrepois, and had asked all the right questions (after all, we
ARE New Yorkers!). We arrived on Saturday, Aug 18th, to what was supposed to be the
beginning of the Pyrenees, to find what was supposed to be our dream house ("petite
maison independente") with pool, in the middle of a vineyard, and a view of the
Pyrenees ("Oui, on voit les Pyrenees et c'est magnifique") only to be whisked down to
the BASEMENT of a dirty farmhouse where the junk in the backyard dated from the
beginning of the century. Other aspects of the backyard included clouds of cow flies,
clothes drying, naked little boys running around, and a dirty table in the middle of
this poetry in action. The view of the Pyrenees was actually view of a dusty street
and a couple of other houses grouped around a wine bottling plant.
When we questioned the entire setup and mentioned our correspondence (in French, at
least one of us is perfectly bi-lingual), the owner accused us of "acting in bad
faith". When we pulled out the e-mail messages that we had brought up with us, he
accused us of making these up!
Luckily, the contract was signed through an umbrella organization for French tourism,
Gites de France, we drove to their nearest location (the beautiful medieval city of
Carcassonne) and they acted promptly, giving us a refund check (which we could not
cash until we come back to the States). We got our money back, but we were "homeless"
for a while (the entire country is in vacation in August and every house and hotel
room is booked). We wasted a week trying to find a place to stay and ended up going
back to Paris where we spent the rest of our vacation.
So much for enchantment, or this particular French had not heard of the French Code
of Honor. It's just not the same as it used to be in D'Artagnan's times…
If you need more details, don't hesitate to send us e-mail.
Nov 4th 2001 | 7:14 am
#2
Guest
Posts: n/a
That's very sad. You were very unlucky.
We've rented gîtes through Gîtes-de-France many times and have been lucky to have
found great places and wonderful owners.
Was this place pictured in one of the Gîtes Guides? We've never contracted directly
with any of the owners -- always gone through the Gîtes organization.
I'm glad the organization refunded your money. Hopefully, that property has been
removed from their listings.
We've rented gîtes through Gîtes-de-France many times and have been lucky to have
found great places and wonderful owners.
Was this place pictured in one of the Gîtes Guides? We've never contracted directly
with any of the owners -- always gone through the Gîtes organization.
I'm glad the organization refunded your money. Hopefully, that property has been
removed from their listings.
Mar 18th 2002 | 10:03 am
#3
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: WARNING: Rental FRAUD in France
CASCATEL
I agree with 'Stelzjr' that Gites-de- France is a fabulous organization having by far and away the largest collection of vacation accommodation on their books. My wife & I have used them over several years to arrange our usually 2/3 trips per year to France. You can browse their extensive offerings on-line, check availability and make the reservation when you find what you want.
Minutely detailed information is available about each property in a completely standardized format that permits meaningful comparisons and there is absolutely no marketing hype in their descriptions. They have a star rating system (they call it EPIS) which is based on what facilities are available at each gite. They have separate listings for gites (self catering) and for Bed & Breakfast establishments.
My wife & I stayed at the CASCATEL gite owned by the Contrepois family last September. We selected it and made the reservation via the Internet. It is Gite # 1048 in the listings for the Department of L'Aude in the Languedoc-Roussillon region.
We found it to be just as described by the Gites-de-France organization. My only criticism is that the garden area exclusively for the gite was not very private being beside a (quiet) roadside. However, a much larger enclosed garden with swimming pool was also available to us. This was used by the Contrepois family & other guests in their Bed & Breakfast accommodation.
We found the the Contrepois family to be friendly & helpful hosts which has been our usual experience in France when staying in gites.
I agree with 'Stelzjr' that Gites-de- France is a fabulous organization having by far and away the largest collection of vacation accommodation on their books. My wife & I have used them over several years to arrange our usually 2/3 trips per year to France. You can browse their extensive offerings on-line, check availability and make the reservation when you find what you want.
Minutely detailed information is available about each property in a completely standardized format that permits meaningful comparisons and there is absolutely no marketing hype in their descriptions. They have a star rating system (they call it EPIS) which is based on what facilities are available at each gite. They have separate listings for gites (self catering) and for Bed & Breakfast establishments.
My wife & I stayed at the CASCATEL gite owned by the Contrepois family last September. We selected it and made the reservation via the Internet. It is Gite # 1048 in the listings for the Department of L'Aude in the Languedoc-Roussillon region.
We found it to be just as described by the Gites-de-France organization. My only criticism is that the garden area exclusively for the gite was not very private being beside a (quiet) roadside. However, a much larger enclosed garden with swimming pool was also available to us. This was used by the Contrepois family & other guests in their Bed & Breakfast accommodation.
We found the the Contrepois family to be friendly & helpful hosts which has been our usual experience in France when staying in gites.
