Pauline and I have been successfully renting out properties in the here in Centre-Val de Loire (the Loire Valley) for 10 years and in that time we have seen the rise of the number of accommodation places on offer grow year on year, whether listed as a gite, a vacation rental, holidayhome, holiday rental and now holiday apartment/room. Out of interest I checked on a major listing site and narrowed it down to our little part of beautiful Southern Touraine. Above is a screenshot of the result, with the furthest north around 30km from Barrou.
If you expand it north by 15km it is even scarier and this is without including any large town or city! The official site for Touraine lists 975 properties under 'gites', then there are all other accommodation types!! We often wonder how anyone narrows down their choice when face with so many options.
'Gobbleisation' as I like to call it has meant that every man and his dog seems now, to be offering some form of accommodation to the traveller. Having so many options is no doubt good for them but I wonder if, after all the listing sites take their cut as well as driving down the price, is it sustainable?
