Do you dream of buying a property in France, and renting it or a part of it out as a gîte? Read the expert guide to registering a gîte in France first…
Gone are the days when you could just list it on one of the many rental sites, sit back and wait for the bookings to come pouring in. The French government is working hard to regulate gîtes and collect the correct taxes from short-term rentals, especially with the DAC7 EU law ensuring Airbnb and Booking.com share your annual rental revenue and occupancy with them. The days of flying under the radar are long gone, any gîte revenue generated in France must be declared in France.
The expert guide to registering a gîte in France
We asked Rupert Springfield who runs Gîte Guru – a company that helps gîte owners run successful businesses, to share his steps for setting up your gîte administration.
Tip 1: Register your gîte with your local Mairie
The enormous rise of short-term rentals in France has led to a shortage of local housing in some cities and tourist-saturated areas. The government has given Mairies powers to limit short-term rentals, including the number of nights they can be rented out per year. Therefore it’s a good idea to check with the local Mairie before you make an offer on a property if there are any restrictions on your renting out. In rural areas, there aren’t normally any such restrictions.
You can then register your gîte with your Mairie with a CERFA 14004*04 form formulaires.service-public.gouv.fr/gf/cerfa_14004_04.do. This has nothing to do with tax and is just an administrative document that asks for details of your gîte, including how many it can accommodate, what periods of the year it will be available, if it’s already classified (see below) and your contact details.
Tip 2: Register yourgîte nationally
France has caught up to the brilliant idea of having a national register of holiday accommodation, with each place having it’s own registration number. This allowed Spain to force Airbnb to remove 66,000 listings which had incorrect or false registration numbers.
France’s national online registration should be operational by May 2026.
Tip 3: Find out about the taxes that apply to running your gîte
There are multiple options for the form of the company you register: micro-BIC, Régime Réel, SAS, SARL, EURL. Each has pros and cons depending on your property, its revenue potential and your global financial situation. My advice is to discuss the choice with an accountant.
The easiest business form for the majority of gîte owners is micro-BIC, whereby you pay social security contributions on your revenue, and income tax on a flat-rate calculation of your profit – meaning that you don’t have to do any bookkeeping for your costs to calculate your profit. If your gîte is classified and you’re micro-BIC there are some amazing tax advantages.
If you have high running costs (you live abroad and pay a property manager, changeover team, marketing agency charging 20% commission etc.) and/or high property and renovation costs, then it might be better to be Régime Réel. You are then taxed on your actual profit, so you are required to do full bookkeeping.
Tip 4: Understand the rules and regulations
There’s a myriad of these to get to grips with – collecting taxe de sejour (tourist tax) from your direct bookings, pool security, professional liability, what’s in the small print of your business insurance, declaring your smoke detectors, protecting yourself from criminal behaviour on your wifi network, having a rental agreement for direct bookings.
There is a lot of information online about these, alternatively you can contact Rupert to discuss all the ones pertinent to your business.
Tip 5: Classification
Classification is being awarded a star-rating via the Ministry of Tourism. The inspector will visit your property and answer 133 questions about the amenities, facilities and location. To read these and to find out how to apply for classification, go to the part of your départment’s tourism website for professionals and search for ‘classement’.
For micro-BIC gîte owners, there are various tax advantages to being classified, including a halving of your cotisation for social security contributions, a more generous calculation of your costs, and if you earn over €15,000 p.a. (2026) and aren’t classified, you can’t be micro-BIC, but have to be registered as Régime Réel.
For the majority of gîte owners, whichever form of business they are registered, being classified makes the calculation of tourist tax much easier.
Gîte Guru
Rupert recognises how complicated the rules and regulations for fellow gîte owners are, and how staying up to date with the continual changes is difficult. He posts regularly on Instagram @gite.guru with updates and important info to help you, and in The Gîte Podcast (on YouTube youtube.com/@TheGitePodcast and all good podcast platforms) he discusses the ups and downs or registration and running gîtes with other owners. All this information and inspiration is free!
However, for advice tailor-made to your gîte and plans, you can find out more or book a consultation with him at giteguru.com
