Bed & Breakfasts

Bed and breakfasts are furnished rooms located in private homes, with a view to welcoming tourists for a fee, for one or more nights, accompanied by services. (article L.324-3 of the tourism code).

Renting a guest room includes the bundled provision of one night’s accommodation and breakfast. The person who offers guest rooms can also offer meals to his guests.

The main regulations

Whether you want to make it a main activity or a supplement to your income, the bed and breakfast activity is subject to regulations.

• The declaration in Town Hall is compulsory (under penalty of a fine of €450) – article L324-4 of the tourism code.
• The rental is accompanied, at a minimum, by the supply of household linen and breakfast.
• The rental complies with regulations on hygiene, safety and sanitation.
• Maximum 5 guest rooms per structure for a capacity of 15 people max.
• Perceive the tourist tax.

The completed form must be submitted to the Town Hall of your municipality, the Town Hall will then issue you with a receipt. This receipt must be given to the Tourist Office if you wish to register your guest room on the tourist database.

To enable you to successfully carry out your project to create a tourist structure, Vendée Expansion offers training for accommodation project leaders: taxation, budget, choice of structure, profitability threshold.

Price display

The guest room rental company is subject to the same transparency obligations as hoteliers towards the consumer in terms ofprice display and rating discount. The lessor must carry out the triple display prices he offers:

Outside of his house or property, clearly visible,interior customer reception and in each room. Prices are shown as below:

• The price of each room (breakfast included) with the “mini” and the “maxi” depending on the period and the number of people
• The price of additional services to the rooms, for example the table d’hôtes
• The price of the tourist tax (per day and per person), those exempt must also be mentioned.
• Information relating to the internet connection (free or paid service)

Qualify/label your guest rooms

Your guest room can be qualified and/or certified. This is a condition for appearing on Vendée Bocage communications media. Indeed, unlike other accommodation, guest rooms do not benefit from star ratings or tax advantages.

The reference Bed and Breakfast qualification

This system is implemented at the level national by French Tourist Offices and is relayed in Vendée by your Tourist Office, which can carry out the visits. This qualification pay is vaild 5 . The paid visit is based on 60 objective criteria focusing on common areas (breakfast, services, etc.) but also on rooms (cleanliness, respect for the environment, surface area, bathroom, etc.).

You want to be qualified Bed and Breakfast Reference contact thethe Tourist Office of your territory.

Once you have obtained your qualification, you can receive financial assistance of 50 € initiated by the tourist center.

The guest table

A B&B owner may offer a meal such as supplementary benefit. However, the activity must meet the following 4 conditions:

•  Constituer a complement of the accommodation activity (the table d’hôtes must only be offered to customers staying in a bed and breakfast)
• Propose just one menu (without the possibility of choosing starters, main courses or desserts) and quality cuisine composed oflocal ingredients
• Serve the meal at family table
• Offer reception capacity limitée to that of accommodation.

If any of these conditions are not met, the table d’hôte becomes a restaurant.

Table d’hôte regulations

• Le meal price is not included in the bed and breakfast rate, it is an additional charge.
• La beverage license : only owners of guest rooms offering table d’hôtes must hold a license. This is either the “small restaurant license” or the “restaurant license”. They both allow the sale of drinks, but only as accessories to meals.
• Le license to operate : Owners of guest rooms likely to serve alcohol at the table must undergo training. During this one-day training, owners address the rules on the management of a drinking establishment, the prevention and fight against alcoholism as well as those on the protection of minors.
  For more information on the organizations that issue the operating license.

Declare the tourist tax

Declare the tourist tax