French gîtes: definition and ratings

A gîte is, first of all, a house you’re lent for a few days: a furnished, self-contained holiday home, rented by the week or the weekend, where you live as if at home. Unlike a chambre d’hôtes (bed and breakfast), you don’t share the owners’ daily life: you hold the keys, and the place is yours.

Photo: Darreenvt — Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Gîte, chambre d’hôtes, hotel: the differences

The word “gîte” covers a specific idea: an entire dwelling, not a room.

• A chambre d’hôtes is a room in the owner’s house, with breakfast, where you share the house with them.
• A gîte is a whole house for you alone — kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms — with no owner on site. You cook, you come and go.
• A hotel or a holiday village is a serviced stay; a gîte is self-catering, closer to renting a house than booking a room.

That independence is the point: a gîte lets a family or a group live under one roof, at its own pace.

The legal framework

A gîte falls under the seasonal letting of furnished tourist accommodation, which in France must be declared to the local town hall. The word “gîte” is not protected in itself, but the Gîtes de France label covers a large share of the supply.

The Gîtes de France rating (épis)

The label rates accommodation from 1 to 5 épis, based on comfort, facilities and setting:

• 1 to 2 épis: simple, functional comfort
• 3 épis: good comfort, well-kept facilities
• 4 to 5 épis: high comfort, refined services and setting

The rating is awarded after an inspection visit and reviewed regularly.

The case of large gîtes

Large-capacity gîtes (sometimes called “group gîtes”) welcome fifteen to more than thirty people, and demand particular attention to safety, shared spaces and facilities.

To see what a large gîte looks like in practice, start with our selection of ten large gîtes in western France.

Sources

• Gîtes de France — ratings
• French Tourism Code, articles L. 324-1 et seq. (furnished holiday lets)