Frequently asked questions

Every part of holiday let management, under one roof: the audit, the pricing strategy and professional photography before your first guests, then marketing on our own website, where your villa can be booked directly, and on the major platforms. For every stay: a personal welcome for your guests, hotel-quality housekeeping and linen, a private concierge service and teams available to your guests 24/7. All year round: financial management, keeping up with the regulations and, under the management agreement, the formalities (declaring the villa to the town hall, tourist tax) and the preparation of your registration.

Tell us about your villa. We consider every villa personally, then visit it with you, with nothing for you to prepare. If it joins the collection, we carry out an audit, you sign the management agreement online, and we arrange the photography before the villa goes live.

Our fees are set out in our owners’ brochure, together with our approach, our services and the way we support owners. They are then detailed in your management agreement.

Browse the owners’ brochure (in French)  → (new tab)

For a new villa, our specification starts with three essentials: a four-star furnished holiday let rating, or the potential to achieve it, at least three bedrooms and a pool. Beyond that, we look at the interiors, the overall look and the care given to the house: each villa is chosen individually, after a visit.

We recommend opening a villa to bookings in March or April, so that the season starts calmly. We are happy to meet much earlier to talk through your plans, especially for a new build or a renovation. From June to September our team is entirely devoted to our guests, so visits to new villas resume in the autumn.

None for our first meeting. For the management agreement we will ask for proof of identity (or a Kbis extract, the French company registration certificate, if a company owns the villa), the title deed or your latest property tax notice (taxe foncière), your bank details (RIB) and the villa’s home insurance certificate. A villa held through an SCI, a French property-holding company, is just as welcome.

Yes. Mademoiselle Conciergerie is a licensed estate agency: managing property for owners in France requires a professional card, and ours (Transaction and Gestion) was issued by the Paris Île-de-France Chamber of Commerce, with a financial guarantee and professional liability insurance set out in our legal notice.

Your villa has its own page on our website, where it can be booked direct with no platform commission, and is listed across the major international platforms, including Airbnb, Airbnb Luxe for selected villas, Booking.com, Vrbo, Plum Guide, HomeToGo, Holidu, Maeva, PAP Vacances, MyHomeIn, TravelStaytion and Flatio, with synchronised calendars. Depending on its positioning and eligibility, it can also join other carefully selected distribution networks, including Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy®. It also benefits from our magazine, our social media and the reputation of the collection, backed by 740 guest reviews.

We use dynamic pricing, adjusted every day for the season, demand and how close the dates are, by comparing your villa with the rest of our collection and with the market, within the framework we agree with you during the audit. A floor rate, agreed with you, ensures no night is let below its value; above it, we regularly test new rates.

From start to finish. We prepare the application for France’s official star rating for holiday homes (meublé de tourisme) and get the villa ready for the inspection: we know the Atout France criteria and check that the villa meets them before the inspector visits. We then pass the certificate on to you. We aim for at least four stars and, where needed, advise you on the improvements that will get you there.

Of course. Give us your dates, ideally for the whole year: we block them, confirm them in writing, and can change them with a simple message. Each time you come, the house is prepared with the same care as for our guests.

We check its calendar every day and compare it with the rest of the collection. Depending on the period, we fine-tune the rates, open up new dates or suggest a targeted offer, without ever selling your villa short. Guests are also booking later and later, so dates still open are not dates lost.

Every guest is welcomed in person, never through a key box. A full filmed inventory is made before each arrival, and our teams check the villa at departure. Our terms and conditions cover the security deposit, the number of guests and any gathering, which needs our written consent; depending on the house, a noise monitor helps keep things peaceful for the neighbours.

Everything is documented: our teams check the villa at departure, any damage is compared with the filmed arrival inventory, and you are told straight away. We arrange like-for-like repairs; in addition to the security deposit, the agency’s insurance covers furniture damaged by guests, as set out in our terms and conditions.

A network of tradespeople, pool specialists and gardeners looks after the villa, and our teams stay available to your guests 24/7. Anything that affects the quality of a stay is treated as an emergency and we report back to you with the cost; any major investment is always quoted for your approval beforehand. You are welcome to keep your own contractors, and major works are scheduled out of season.

No. We supply the household linen and replace it at our own expense, as we do the welcome touches for your guests: both are included in our fees. Only the laundering of the linen after each stay is paid for by our guests.

Between the 1st and the 10th of the month after your guests depart, once the accounts are closed. It is the departure date that counts, not the booking date: a stay from 28 July to 4 August, for example, is paid between 1 and 10 September.

You have online access to your calendar, your accounts and your documents. You receive a statement every month with your payment, and a review at the end of each season that also covers your guests’ comments. A good suggestion from a guest, such as a piece of kitchen equipment that is missing, is acted on within the scope of the management agreement.

As a rule, no: furnished lettings in France are exempt from VAT, with no option to pay it. The exception is para-hôtellerie, or hotel-style letting: a villa offered for stays of 30 nights or fewer, with at least three of the four hotel services, falls under it automatically, and its stays are then subject to 10% VAT unless the small-business exemption applies. Our article sets out the rules; your accountant will check your own position.

Breakfast, regular cleaning, household linen and a welcome for guests: the four services, of which the law requires at least three. Offered in the owner’s name, included in the price or as an option, they count even if guests do not take them up; cleaning and fresh linen must also be offered during the stay. For the tax authorities, an offer once a week is enough, but a key box on its own does not count as a welcome.

Not necessarily. An owner established in France benefits from the small-business exemption (franchise en base): no VAT is charged as long as takings, excluding VAT, do not exceed €85,000 for the previous year and €93,500 for the current year, per owner rather than per villa; the rules are stricter for owners who live outside France. Under the exemption, no VAT can be recovered, on the purchase or on works.

It is possible, on two conditions: the villa is bought from a professional seller less than five years after completion, off-plan for instance (so its price includes 20% VAT), and it falls under para-hôtellerie, with the owner having opted out of the small-business exemption from the purchase onwards. The VAT is then deductible, in return for a twenty-year commitment. We have already worked with owners on a new build, an off-plan purchase or a major renovation: talk to us before you sign, together with your accountant.

An older villa bought from a private seller has no VAT in its price, so there is nothing to deduct on the purchase, even after a major renovation. VAT on works, furniture and fees, on the other hand, is deductible if the villa falls under para-hôtellerie and its owner is outside the small-business exemption. Works on a para-hôtellerie villa are taxed at 20%, not 10%, even under the exemption.

It remains subject to adjustment for twenty years for the villa, and five years for the furniture. Stopping the services, taking the villa back for your own use, falling back under the small-business exemption, or selling without VAT more than five years after completion means repaying the share for the remaining years in one go; a sale subject to VAT (automatically within five years, by option after that) avoids this repayment.

VAT and income tax are two separate regimes. For income tax, the French tax authorities do not treat a para-hôtellerie activity as furnished letting: the furnished-letting rules (LMNP, LMP) may then no longer apply, with effects on losses and capital gains, to be looked at with your accountant before any change.

We provide, in your name, the services para-hôtellerie requires: a personal welcome for every guest, hotel-quality housekeeping and linen, also offered during the stay, and breakfast as an option. We prepare your invoices and accounts showing VAT, working with your accountant; tax returns and tax choices remain yours.

Let’s talk about your para-hôtellerie project  →