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Lodging in France for 3 adults

My wife, adult daughter, and I are planning on going to France in June 2022 for roughly 3 weeks. Paris lodging will not be an issue since my daughter will be staying with her best friend while we are there. But, I know the three of us traveling after that will have space issues. Our plan right now is to spend time in Loire Valley and in the Rhone region. From what I can tell, it appears AirBnB will be the best/most economical way to book lodging. We will more than likely have a car so we can stay outside of larger areas (i.e. Tours, Amboise, etc) and to be able to go where we want, when we want.

My question is to ask for other options, opinions, etc on lodging choices.

Thank you.

Posted by
10228 posts

The Gîtes de France site sounds perfect for the three of you.

Posted by
124 posts

Congratulations on your upcoming trip! When our family visited the Loire in 2019 we didn't have trouble finding family rooms for 4 in Tours. Quite a few hotels will have a triple or quad room. I prefer a hotel than an apartment rental as someone else is cleaning up. Additionally, try looking for an aparthotel (apartment hotel). They will usually have a kitchen and living area in the room with a complete downstairs reception to check-in etc.
Good Luck!

Posted by
21 posts

Thank you for the answers so far. I knew, but forgot to add Gites to my post.

Hotels/apartments in Tours...thank you. Plus many Airbnb's do not include sheets/towels. Also, why is this a thing? Is it a cleanliness thing or they don't want to deal with laundry?

Posted by
2709 posts

Gîtes are typically rented for a month to families on vacation from either in France or a neighboring county. They drive and are more or less self-contained with soaps, food basics, and sheets/towels. Visitors staying for shorter periods used to prefer chambres d´hôte or hotels, where sheets/towels are supplied.

Posted by
7304 posts

The lack of automatically-provided sheets and towels is indeed a quirk of French vacation rentals. My parents used to have a couple of spare sets of sheets specifically for vacation homes with bed sizes different than theirs! I have no explanation to offer...
Now, these days, my experience is that most owners will be able to provide them for a small fee. Worth asking, if you see a rental you like!

Posted by
1155 posts

Also check booking.com for apartment rentals. We've rented apartments for our upcoming December trip, a couple via booking.com and a couple that I found on booking.com but rented directly from the source, which I prefer when possible. Be sure to pay attention to the cancellation/refund policy! I found AirB&B to generally be more restrictive on cancellations so buyer beware.

Posted by
2916 posts

The lack of automatically-provided sheets and towels is indeed a quirk of French vacation rentals.

We've mostly rented gites through GDF for the last 30 years or so, and while sheets and towels are not automatic, we've always been able to arrange them. It used to require phone calls or written communications with the owners, but for along time now it was generally arranged through the GDF web site right from the start. As far as AirBnB in France2 goes, I haven't encountered on where sheets and towels weren't routinely included, although i haven't stayed in that many.

Posted by
10635 posts

Someone wrote recently that some Gîtes de France rentals are cross listed on the Airbnb platform. That would explain why the linens are not automatically included on some.
I have always found Gîtes de France easy to deal with and that linens can be furnished for a few extra Euros.