How to Run a Gîte in France and Stay Legal

It is a familiar plan: move to France, buy a house with a barn or cottage alongside, restore it and let it to holidaymakers. A gîte can work well, but it is a regulated activity, and the rules changed substantially with the loi Le Meur of 19 November 2024 and the tax reforms that came with it. In law a gîte is a meublé de tourisme: a furnished dwelling let to passing guests for no more than 90 consecutive days each. Chambres d’hôtes (bed-and-breakfast rooms in your own home) follow slightly different rules, noted below where they diverge. Here is what a gîte owner needs to do in 2026.

Declaring the gîte

Before taking a booking, declare the property to the mairie (town hall) of its commune, using form cerfa 14004 or the commune’s online registration service where one exists. Registering communes issue a 13-character number that must appear on every advert, platform listings included.

That local system is being replaced. The loi Le Meur makes a declaration through a single national online service compulsory for every tourist let in France, including properties previously exempt. The law set 20 May 2026 as the outside date, but the national service is scheduled to open in the fourth quarter of 2026, and owners who already hold a mairie number will have several months to re-register. Until then, keep using your mairie’s procedure. Under the new regime, letting without a declaration carries a fine of up to €10,000, and a false declaration up to €20,000.

In communes that apply a change-of-use (changement d’usage) procedure, by default towns of more than 200,000 inhabitants and the communes bordering Paris, plus any commune that has voted to adopt it, turning a home into a tourist let needs prior authorisation from the mairie, which can now cap the number it grants in each district; letting without one risks a fine of up to €100,000. Most rural gîtes sit outside these zones, but ask before you buy. If the gîte is your own main home, the limit is 120 days a year, and the commune can lower it to 90. In a copropriété (a shared-ownership building) you must also tell the syndic (managing agent).

Classification: the stars that decide your tax bill

Classification is voluntary. An accredited inspection body visits, scores the property against the national grid and awards one to five stars, valid for five years. It was once a marketing nicety; since the 2025 tax reforms the tax and social rules split sharply between classified and unclassified lets, and for most gîtes the inspection pays for itself in the first year.

Tax: micro-BIC or the réel regime

Income from a French gîte is taxable in France whether or not you live here, as BIC (bénéfices industriels et commerciaux). There are two ways of arriving at the taxable figure.

Micro-BIC applies a flat deduction to gross receipts and taxes the rest with your other income. For income from 2025 onwards, per impots.gouv.fr:

• unclassified tourist let: 30% deduction, only while receipts stay at or below €15,000 a year;
• classified tourist let or chambres d’hôtes: 50% deduction, with a ceiling of €77,700 for 2025 income and €83,600 for 2026 income.

Over the ceiling, the réel regime applies.

The régime réel taxes actual profit: receipts less real costs, including mortgage interest, insurance, repairs, platform fees, an accountant and depreciation of the building and furniture. It needs proper accounts, but it wins whenever real costs exceed the flat 30% or 50%, which is typical in the first years of a renovated gîte and almost always true of an unclassified one. Two caveats: losses can only be set against future furnished-rental income, for ten years, and for sales since 15 February 2025 the depreciation deducted is added back when the capital gain is calculated. An accountant will run both calculations before you commit.

LMNP or LMP: the two-part test

Owners are either loueur en meublé non professionnel (LMNP) or professionnel (LMP). You do not choose; the status follows a test applied to your tax household each year. You are LMP only if both conditions are met: furnished-rental receipts exceed €23,000, and they exceed the household’s other earned income, which includes salaries, pensions and other business profits. Fail either and you are LMNP.

Because pensions count, a retired couple letting a gîte alongside their pensions will almost always remain LMNP even when the gîte does well. LMP brings professional treatment: losses set against total income, business-style capital gains rules and compulsory self-employed contributions on the profit. Most gîte owners stay LMNP, and the old idea of “changing status” as the business grows is not how it works; the status simply follows the numbers.

Social charges: what changes at €23,000

Below €23,000 in annual receipts, letting is treated as managing your own property: you pay the social levies (prélèvements sociaux) on the net income through your tax return, but no social security contributions.

Once receipts from a tourist let pass €23,000, classified or not, you must affiliate to French social security through URSSAF and pay contributions on the activity. A classified gîte within the micro-BIC ceiling can use the micro-entrepreneur regime at 6% of receipts in 2026. An unclassified gîte cannot use that regime above €15,000, so an unclassified owner who crosses €23,000 pays standard self-employed contributions on the real profit: a second strong argument for classification. Chambres d’hôtes have a much lower affiliation threshold and a micro-entrepreneur rate of 21.2%. The old “22% social charges” figure describes none of these cases; the current rules are set out on entreprendre.service-public.gouv.fr.

Registration, tax on guests, insurance and energy rating

• Guichet unique. LMNP or LMP, declare the start of the activity on the INPI business formalities portal (formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr) within 15 days of your first let; you receive a SIREN number.
• Taxe de séjour. The commune levies a tourist tax per person per night: a fixed tariff by star rating for a classified gîte, a percentage of the nightly price (1% to 5%) for an unclassified one. Platforms that take payment collect it for non-professional hosts; for direct bookings you collect it before departure and pay the commune on its declared dates. Under-18s are exempt.
• Insurance. No law obliges you to insure, but an ordinary home policy will not cover paying guests. Tell your insurer, extend the policy to seasonal letting with liability cover, and consider asking guests to hold holiday liability cover of their own.
• Energy rating (DPE). The loi Le Meur ends the exemption of tourist lets from the energy-decency rules. From 1 January 2034 every tourist let except an owner’s main home must be rated D or better; the mairie can then demand a valid DPE at any time (€100 a day after two months) and a non-compliant let carries a fine of up to €5,000. In change-of-use communes the rule bites now: authorisation needs a rating of A to E, and A to D from 2034. If your gîte is a stone barn, plan the insulation with 2034 in mind.

The visa question, honestly

An earlier version of this article suggested arriving on a one-year visitor visa and sorting out the right to work later. We no longer give that advice. The long-stay visitor visa (VLS-TS visiteur) requires you to undertake not to carry out any professional activity in France, and the residence card that follows it is a visitor card with the same restriction.

Where a gîte fits depends on what it is. Income from letting a property you own, as a non-professional (LMNP) alongside your pension or other means, is generally treated as managing your own assets rather than as employment. A gîte run as your main occupation and principal income is a business, and a business needs a residence route that permits it. The line between the two turns on your circumstances, and getting it wrong risks a refused renewal rather than a fine. Run your situation through our free visa checker, and if a gîte is part of the plan, raise it in your consultation before you apply, not after you arrive.

One related point for owners who are not yet resident: without a long-stay visa, non-EU citizens are limited to 90 days in any 180 in France, so you will need someone on the ground to run changeovers for you.

The practical side

Running a gîte is a job, not a pension. Beside your own home you are permanently on call, and between guests there is laundry, restocking, cleaning and the garden; a housekeeper comes straight off your margin. Peak season is ten to twelve weeks, but bookings run from Easter to the October school holidays.

The gîtes that fill have a clear audience: pet-friendly properties are scarce, so are single-level homes for less mobile travellers, and a travel cot and high chair let you say yes to young families. Well-insulated properties are in demand, another reason to renovate with the DPE rules in mind. Linda and David’s two gîtes in the Charente-Maritime, with two resident dogs, show what a property with a personality can do.

On pricing, compare the local competition first. Gîtes de France reaches French holidaymakers; Airbnb and Booking.com reach the world and collect the taxe de séjour for you, at the cost of fees for you and your guest. Most owners start on the big platforms for visibility and move towards direct bookings as reviews build.

Set up your gîte with French Connections HCB

Between the mairie, the tax office, URSSAF and the visa rules, a gîte touches most of the administration a newcomer has to master. French Connections HCB handles the residency, healthcare and administrative side of a move, can introduce you to an English-speaking accountant and a bilingual insurance broker we work with, and will tell you plainly if a gîte does not fit your residence route. If a gîte is part of your plan, book a consultation and we will map it out with you before you commit.