Looking after your pet during the holidays
Sometimes you can’t take your pet on holiday with you and that’s a shame! But how can you leave with peace of mind?
1. For custody in your home
If it is the first time, or if you do not wish to stress your pet more than necessary, you can opt for a pet-sitter at home.
In this case, many pet-sitter websites exist such as :
On these sites, you have the notes of the pet-sitters, their availability and their rates.
Here, you have two options: either it’s a regular visit, or the pet-sitter stays with your pet during your holidays. It’s up to you.
2. For outdoor custody
You can also choose to board your pet. He will be with other animals and will be supervised by professionals. You can opt for boarding with or without a kennel, for shorter or longer periods.
The website 30 millions d’amis refers to many of them. Here again you have two choices, either you have it kept close to your home, or close to your holiday destination! That way you can pick him up on your return!
This is probably the more expensive of the two solutions, but it allows you to leave knowing that your pet will have fun!
Now there’s no excuse! You’ve got all the information you need to make sure your pet has a great holiday too.
And if you’re looking for a nice place to go in France, check out our article on the PACA region.
Garden: what if you added a vegetable garden?
Do you have a house with a garden? Why not add a vegetable garden or herb patch for your guests to use?
1. Why propose a vegetable garden?
Offering a vegetable garden to your customers is a plus for you. Indeed, good food and local culture are increasingly valued. So if you offer your tenants the opportunity to help themselves to your good tomatoes this summer, they will be delighted!
Out of season, you can also offer jams, tomato sauces or pickles, made with products from your garden! It will make a real difference, we promise!
If you have the time, you can create it yourself by putting for example: squash, tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, lettuce… But if not, there are solutions for tailor-made vegetable gardens!
2. No room?
Don’t have enough space for a proper vegetable garden? You can opt for an herb patch!
Smaller but just as pleasant and fun for your customers, it allows you to have plenty of herbs available for the kitchen!
You can plant :
- Chives
- Parsley
- Thyme
- Mint
- Rosemary
To see it flourish, it should be placed in a sunny, open and warm area. You can buy a ready-made one or make your own. If you’re interested, here’s how to do it:
- Assemble 4 wooden planks 1.20m x 20cm to form a square
- Add compost mixed with garden soil. If you have some, you can even add some sand.
- Using a thick rope, form several squares according to the number of plants you want
So, are you tempted by our vegetable garden idea? Don’t hesitate to send us your photos if you are creating one!
And if you also want to adapt your home for children, here are our tips.
Departure gift, why does it change?
Forget about gifts on arrival, now offer gifts on departure to your customers. It will ensure that they leave happy. Let’s take a look at what you can offer as a departure gift.
1. Why a going-away present?
For rentals, we are much more used to receiving a gift on arrival than on departure. And that’s where the interest lies! You will create a surprise and as a result, the customer will remember you for a long time.
The departure gift allows your customers to end their stay on a positive note. Yes, they are leaving, the holiday is over, but they have a present! So they leave with a smile.
2. Some gift ideas
To ensure that your customers leave your home on a positive note, you can :
- Offer a bouquet from your garden or in season
- Jams or compotes from your region, or even better, homemade!
- Local fruit and/or vegetables
- A book about your region to remind them of good memories
- A snack for their return journey
- A personalised postcard
- A tea towel embroidered with your region or the name of your location
- A notebook stamped with your name…
It’s up to you and your budget! Try to think of two things in particular:
- Making it easier for them to return (food for example)
- Daily use in their home to remember you
Now you have all the keys to give the perfect gift to your guests. And if you prefer to stick to the welcome gift, here are some original ideas!
3 zero waste brands for a clean rental!
Do you want to have a clean rental but also pollute as little as possible? We’ve got 3 great brands for you to choose from!
1. Natural Danika
Danika is a transparent brand with natural and biodegradable products. They offer you many products such as natural detergents to make your own, floor cleaners, and dishwashing soaps.
What triggered the creation of the brand? The composition of commercial detergents, which are too aggressive and which, when not fully treated in water treatment plants, pollute rivers and affect biodiversity.
2. Lopa
LOPA stands for Love Our Planet Again. And for this, the brand offers you: a bag of powder to make your own shower gel.
Thanks to it, you will be able to offer your customers zero waste shower gels!
3. Iris Hantverk
This pretty Swedish brand offers a refined design for high quality brushes. The best part? They are made by blind craftsmen according to the classical Swedish tradition.
You will find brushes for all uses: dishes, food, bath… You will see that they will make an ox effect at home!
Do you know of any other zero waste brands? If so, tell us in the comments!
And if you’re interested in being green, we have an article to help you create your own eco-friendly accommodation.
Child safety in your rental property
It is important to think about the safety of children and babies if you are hosting them in your rental! Even if parents have to keep an eye on them, accidents can happen, so it’s better to be safe than sorry.
1. For babies
In order to keep babies safe, you need to make sure that certain things are present in your home:
- Doorstops
- Window guards if you have bay windows
- You also need bars to prevent climbing up and down the stairs
- A few socket covers (giving parents the key to remove them if necessary)
- Finally, locks on cupboards giving access to household products
To go further, you can also provide protections for the corners of walls or furniture, warn parents of slippery places or put your plants up high to prevent baby pulling on them.
2. For older children
For older children there are fewer precautions to take, but you can still think about things like :
- Storing household products high up
- Keeping knives out of reach in the kitchen
- Protecting a staircase from falls with a non-slip mat or simply a gantry
- Marking potentially dangerous places with your StyQR booklet
Have you put all these little things in place? To go further, we had prepared an article for you to welcome them at best.
Animal hair: the equipment to get rid of it
Do you allow pets in your rental property but can’t bear to spend hours cleaning up pet hair? Here are some useful accessories!
1. For furniture
There’s nothing worse than pet hair on a sofa! They get stuck in and are impossible to remove!
Here’s what we use to get rid of it:
- Razors
- The hair brush (also great for clothes)
- A roll of duct tape (an old tried and tested technique)
For hair on furniture, it’s easy, just use a swiffer or a microfiber cloth.
2. For floors and clothes
Let’s tackle the floors now, first of all, to clean the surface we have two options: the hair brush or the special pet hair hoover.
Also remember that animals walk on your floor and lick their paws, so it’s best to be careful and use a product specially designed for them (here is an example).
As for clothes, plaids, sheets, you can wash them using hair catchers like these.
Do you have any special techniques for removing pet hair? And if you want our opinion on pet-friendly rentals, here it is!
Seasonal rentals and hotels: who wins the duel?
The figures for holiday bookings in France are in. We now know whether the French prefer holiday rentals or hotels. Any ideas before you read on?
1. A preference for seasonal rentals
Once again this year, the French are choosing to rent hotels! According to Europ Assistance: “Only 29% of French holidaymakers will sleep in a hotel during their stay this summer, compared to 46% on average for Europeans”.
And this, despite the definite increase in rental prices! +9.4% for houses in the mountains, +7.6% in the countryside and +7.2% for the seaside.
Among the most popular regions, we find, not surprisingly, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (excluding the coast), the region that is progressing the most with +49%, followed by the Côte d’Azur (+37.5%) and Corsica (+26%) (in comparison with 2019).
2. Is it really a dislike of hotels?
According to the agency, the French do not shun hotels, but are very attached to holiday rentals.
The main explanation would come from the impressive choice of rentals offered. Indeed, in France, there are about four million second homes. That’s a lot of possibilities!
More and more people want to feel at home, in a cocoon with a garden, rather than being constrained by hotel hours. If you are going to travel in your own country, you might as well do it in a house!
What do you think? When you go on holiday, where do you choose to sleep?
If you are interested in this topic, we also have an article on the figures for tourist accommodation in 2021.
Montpellier: our good addresses
StyQR moved to Montpellier a few years ago. We fell in love with this sunny city and its surroundings! So we’ll show you around.
1. Where to sleep?
Montpellier is a city full of hotels and Airbnb. Indeed, it is an attractive city full of sunshine, which makes it quite a touristy city.
So here are our top 3 hotels for a great stay:
- The Courtyard Montpellier for a luxurious stay
- The Grand Hôtel du Midi for a historic stay
- Le Domaine de Verchant & Spa for a relaxing and authentic stay
2. Where to eat?
Montpellier is full of good restaurants and coffeeshops to have a good time.
Among the coffeeshops we love are Amazone Coffee, Ma Première Cantine and Bonobo Montpellier.
For those who want a starred meal, we highly recommend: La Réserve Rimbaud. And finally, to eat more simply, you can go to a Sunday under the fig tree or the Carré Mer if you want to eat with your feet in the sand.
3. What to visit in Montpellier?
Start your tour of the city at the Place de la Comédie and the esplanade Charles de Gaulle, then take a look at the Arc de Triomphe and the Jardin des plantes.
Don’t forget to admire the Saint Pierre cathedral and taste the good wines of the city!
Has this little visit to Montpellier made you want to go there? Then don’t hesitate to discover our other articles !
Organic and local: the new values
These are the only words on our lips: organic and local. So if you have a restaurant or offer some products to your customers, opt for these two important values. We’ll tell you how.
1. Why it's important to get started
Why get involved in organic and local labels? Simply to gain new customers, help your region and support the planet.
Indeed, the search for authenticity is increasingly present among travellers. For them, a visit to a country or a region now includes a culinary discovery. People are also increasingly trying to take care of their bodies by eating better, and therefore by eating organic. So if an establishment offers you organic options and buys from a few local producers, the choice will be made quickly.
Think partnership too. If you buy your meat from a local producer, you can specify that he supplies a hotel, potentially bringing his customers to him. It’s a virtuous circle.
2. What to propose
Of course, changing and modifying your offer will take time.
So start gradually, for example :
- For breakfast: offer jams from the region, organic (and local if possible) fruit and vegetables, bread from the baker across the street…
- Lunch: why not offer biodynamic wine? Or wine from the vineyards next door? Meat from the local producer or vegetables from the garden?
- Finally, for dinner: fresh pasta from an artisan, local alcohol, flowers on the table…
All this will allow you to create a link with the shopkeepers, to bring them additional sales by your customers who will have tasted and liked it and finally to make your brand or location spread more widely by word of mouth.
In conclusion, not all your products need to be organic, but offering a few products is already a very good initiative. And if you want to go even further, bet on home-made products!
The most beautiful swimming pools in Paris
With this nice weather and the heat coming quickly, we would like to take a dip in a nice cool pool ! And as we are in Paris for a few weeks, here is our selection of the 3 most beautiful pools to stroll in!
1. The Pontoise swimming pool
This swimming pool in the 5th arrondissement is known for its historical value. Indeed, its buildings (built in 1933) are classified as historical monuments. It was also made famous by Jacques Cousteau with his diving suit tests.
What do we like? The possibility of night baths and its large 33-metre pool.
It costs about 5 euros to enter.
2. The Butte aux Cailles swimming pool
Another swimming pool classified as a historical monument ! It is one of the most famous swimming pools in Paris with its Art Nouveau façade.
Why do we like it? For its spring water supply and its low price : 3 euros.
3. Josephine Baker Pool
Finally, Josephine Baker. Located in the 13th arrondissement, this floating pool has solariums and a 25-metre pool. Very popular with Parisians for its beautiful view of Paris and the Seine, its entrance fee is 3 euros.
4. The other emblematic swimming pools
Paris has many swimming pools, but if we had to add a few to our selection it would be :
- The Keller swimming pool in the 15th arrondissement
- Château Landon and Catherine Lagatu in the 10th arrondissement
Finally, we also love the Molitor swimming pool, but it’s quite a budget! And you, what are your favourite pools?