Property of the Week

In the Heart of Gascony, this delightful 4-star guest house is being sold at the knock-down price of €315,000. 

One of the big problems for Guest House owners is privacy. Gone are the days when a guest house was simply the owners’ house thrown open to passing visitors who were given a room in the family home. Running a year-round guest house is now a business and it is essential for proprietors to have their own private quarters, separate from their guests.

This solid, 200-year-old stone-built house in Gascony ticks all the boxes when it comes to describing a modern guest house business in France. It boasts 4 guest bedrooms, well-appointed and decorated with en-suite bathrooms. One even has a separate en-suite living room. It has a communal living-dining room for the guests. There is a garden, bursting with flowers and colour and equipped with summer kitchen and summer house.

Then there is the owners’ side of the house complete with salon/library, two bedrooms, spacious bathroom, 2 studies and a large farm kitchen. A laundry room, garage and vast utility room make up the rest of the 300m² living space. The whole house is centrally heated with a modern oil-fired boiler.

On the business side, the guest house is up and running for the past six years over which time it has created a reputation and a renown that goes far beyond the Gascon borders. Gîtes de France has awarded it their much coveted ‘4 épis’ label. The guest house is open 10 months of the year and turns over quite enough for a couple to live very comfortably.

Our opinion:

There are quite a few blue-shuttered stone houses for sale in France … you may have noticed … but not all of them have the location, the rooms and the decor to generate a living income. This one does and its track record speaks for itself.

We would probably try and extend the offer to five guest bedrooms by using the en-suite salon of one of the rooms to make a fifth room. Then there is the ‘utility room’ downstairs: we would make this into a rustic and convivial dining area where we would serve a sumptuous table d’hôte each evening.

Other than this there is not much to do: the clientele is there, the space is there … it’s just a question of hard work!

What’s for sale?

– a 200-year old stone house in a ‘bastide’ village in the Armagnac region

– a 400m² garden

– 4 ensuite bedrooms, large living-dining area

– separate owners’ flat comprising: 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 study

– farm kitchen with wood burner

– utility room (32m²)

– laundry room

– garage and boiler room