French Tourist Office Holiday homes in France, self catering holiday cottages in France to rent in the Dordogne, holiday homes in the Charente, Gite rentals in Brittany.

For those of you who love France and enjoy renting holiday homes in the French countryside, you will almost certainly have used France One Call as your preferred means to find suitable available accommodation. Until France One Call was established in 1994, those of us who like to rent Gites were faced with the frustrating task of having to make scores of calls to find a suitable holiday home that was available for the weeks we were looking for.

There were of course agencies who rented out holiday homes at inflated prices but the rent direct market was becoming more popular as owners wanted to retain their independence but the growth in popularity came with unregulated properties and no centralised system to help people find a vacant holiday cottage.

HOLIDAY HOMES IN FRANCE

Back in the early nineties, if you wanted to book a holiday home in France you had to sit down with the Sunday Times or Lady Classifieds and start ringing around. It was not unusual for a holidaymaker to have to make forty phone calls before striking lucky. That was until France One Call was launched. France One Call was born out of chance meeting and a couple who had recently moved to France recognising a business opportunity, being in the right place and at the right time.

Julia Herbert says "Some German friends asked us to place some advertisements in the UK to help them let their Gites in the Dordogne. We started getting calls from people for weeks we had already let from people desperate to book a holiday. Many of them claimed to have made thirty or forty calls and all asked if we knew anyone else who had a holiday home to rent. Of course we did but we didn't know if they had the right weeks available."

SELF CATERING HOLIDAY COTTAGES IN FRANCE

The couple realised that there was a need for a centralised availability information system and France One Call was born virtually overnight with the aid of a ring binder and telephone. The concept was simple; when the owner of a holiday property received a call for weeks they had already let, they would tell the enquirer to ring France One Call. In this way, holiday home owners were all piggy backing off each others advertising, exchanging enquiries for weeks they had already booked for enquiries for weeks they still had available.

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HOLIDAY COTTAGES TO RENT IN THE DORDOGNE

By gathering holiday home owners in France together and getting them to utilise each others advertising, this gave France One Call and enormous advertising spread and budget without having to spend a fortune on advertising themselves. Members of all nationalities were passing on enquiries generated from all over the world. So a member living in New York could benefit from a booking generated from an advert placed by a member in Hong Kong. Holidaymakers, especially those who had been travelling to France for years were amazed by the service with many expressing their gratitude.

Whilst holiday home owners were now finding they were getting enquiries for weeks they had available instead of the frustration of constantly turning people away because they had already sold the weeks they wanted. This was efficiency turned into profitability on a large scale.

HOLIDAY HOMES IN THE CHARENTE

Within months, the couple had the first internet site specialising in self-catering holiday accommodation in France up on the internet. Julia says "This was back in the days when you still had to explain to people what a website was and how the internet worked. France One Call itself was innovative but the internet made us totally unique at the time."

Like all good ideas, there were plenty of ne'er do wells who try to copy their idea and muscle in on the couples unique position in the market. Some of them blatantly lifted text off their website in an attempt to confuse and mislead potential advertisers. However, most of them quickly fell by the wayside and many of the internet sites that tried to copy France One Call have disappeared from the internet over the years.

So why is it that France One Call has stood the test of time and continues to thrive in a market place where so many companies and internet sites have disappeared especially in the current difficult economic situation?

GITE RENTALS IN BRITTANY

Julia puts this down to a number of reasons. "We have stuck to our knitting and not tried to encapsulate other things into our service for one thing. We have also built a reputation for only advertising good quality accommodation. There are plenty of Gite owners who we have declined who are allowed to advertise on other websites; we believe one complaint is one too many. We also monitor the quality of accommodation we advertise based on feedback from holidaymakers who stay in our properties; and owners can gain accreditations in the form of globes. Plus we also ensure our members help us maintain really accurate availability information. There is no point in providing availability info if it's not accurate."

Over the years the internet has changed the way people find and book their holidays in France. One thing has remained constant throughout the last fifteen years and that's the service that Julia and her small team provide. Some holidaymakers and holiday home owners have been using the service from the first day it launched; which in itself is a reflection of how well the service works.

Property owners used to have to field scores of calls before talking to someone who wanted to book weeks they still had available. Nowadays, most enquiries are for weeks they have available. There is no more having to dash to the phone only to be disappointed that it was not an enquiry that could be converted into a booking and most owners report a vastly improved ratio of enquiry to booking nowadays.

French Tourist Office Holiday homes in France, self catering holiday cottages in France to rent in the Dordogne, holiday homes in the Charente, Gite rentals in Brittany

However, things are not all rosy in the garden as far as running a holiday home is concerned as many Gite owners in the Dordogne will tell you nowadays. There are tough times ahead for many Dordogne holiday home owners.