An often underestimated task when owning a property in France is the bureaucracy that comes with it. It takes many years of experience to fully understand the system and master the best way to tackle situations – made even more difficult if you’re not fluent in the language.

Thankfully, our trilingual team can navigate these tricky waters for you, certainly as most of us have lived in the South of France for over 20 years and have rental properties, so have been through the entire process from beginning to end. This experience has also enabled us to build up our large network of trusted professionals – from accountants and notaries to builders and landscapers.

We are also on hand for other administrative situations, such as translating and questioning a water bill or obtaining planning permission from your local Mairie. No matter what you need, we’re here for you.

Keyholding, third-party liaison works, and access to our vast network all come as part of our contract. Please note that certain works may be billed.

One of the biggest worries of owning a home abroad is that something may happen to your property when you're not there. Worse, you may not find out that anything is wrong for months! Because of this, we propose regular surveillance visits for us to inspect the property for your peace of mind. This is especially important during the winter months when weather can cause serious damage. We advise to do these visits on a regular basis, as required by some property insurance policies. This is a service that we can provide ad-hoc, or as part of our contracts.

During these visits, we will check the interior and exterior of your property, ensure that everything is in order, flag up any issues, and advise you of any needed replacements or upgrades for the following season.

We can also organise an in-depth property inspection before, during, or after the rental season and advise of any works that may need doing, accidental damages done by renters, or general tips and tricks to make your rental even better. As we don't only offer property management but are also a rental platform, we can give you the best professional advise.

As we all know, works to a house are never really finished, certainly when letting your property everything needs to be in good order. We can carry out ad hoc minor repairs ourselves, which is something we strive to do as a general rule to minimise costs. For any specialist work, we can provide quotes from our network of trusted local artisans. We can put you in direct contact with the artisan, or we can liaise and follow up with appointed professionals before, during, and after the works.

We can also arrange for frequently reoccurring tasks to be completed. Consider for example pool maintenance and gardening as well as boiler and aircon checks. To minimise costs, we generally prefer to put you in direct contact with the local professional and for this to be invoiced directly to you. But if you prefer a hands-off approach that is also possible.

If you are letting your holiday home, or if you are thinking about it, then cleaning and laundry services are perhaps the most important aspects of property management. Cleanliness must always be top-notch – something we guarantee.

We only use fully registered professional cleaners, reviewed and vetted by us, to ensure that you or your rental guests find the property spic and span on arrival. Below are the services we offer:

• Opening of the season
• Standard changeover services
• Deep-cleaning services
• Laundry services
• Mid-stay cleans and linen changes
• Departure checks
• Closing of the season
• Shopping service and welcome baskets
• Hire of baby-equipment

A deep clean before your first rental guests is imperative in order to provide a good basis for further standard changeovers. If your rental season is long, we advise having another deep clean at least once mid-season, if time allows. Tasks for the deep clean will be discussed beforehand but generally include jobs such as cleaning windows, cleaning out all kitchen cupboards, cleaning kitchenware, deep clean bathrooms, etc.

We are on hand for your rental guests in case of any questions or emergencies at your house. Some things can't be foreseen, for example, a power cut, water leak, or faulty keybox or lock. What you can control is how these issues are being dealt with. We are on hand to do just that - be the point of contact to resolve any issues quickly and efficiently. We can even serve as translators in the unfortunate event of medical emergencies. This service is for your guests, whether they have booked via us, privately via yourself, or via a platform that you manage privately.

We can also help your guests with a myriad of concierge services such as booking a restaurant or excursion.

South France Holiday Villas started as a seasonal lettings agency and remains so to this day, which means that our team has first-hand knowledge of how best to sell a villa and of exactly what holidaymakers are looking for. We are also up to date with the latest technologies to market your property to its full potential. We can:

• Write detailed descriptions to really sell your property
• Take non-professional photos of the property ourselves to minimise costs
• Put you in touch with a professional photographer (incl. drone shots, videos, virtual tours, etc.)
• Analyse your local competitors and help with pricing, stay-length, etc.

Once you have excellent marketing material, it is time to look at the myriad of platforms where you can advertise your property. For first-time letters, it can be an onerous task attempting to make sense of the thousands of different advertising platforms and their dashboards, commission schemes, terms and conditions, payout schemes, etc. Once you’re finally all set up, you then need to monitor your listings and make sure to answer all emails, questions, and booking requests whilst keeping all of your calendars up to date and making sure that all prices match – it’s all a lot more work than anticipated!

That’s where we come in – we can either advertise you solely on our own website, or we can branch out and also add you to our SFHV Partner Network, therewith taking on all of the hard work and worry. The SFHV Partner Network covers all the large platforms such as Airbnb, VRBO (HomeAway, Abritel, ...), HomeToGo, Holidu, and many more. We work on a pick-and-choose basis so you can choose where you would like to be advertised, and where not. On the following page, you can find all information on letting your holiday home with us.