Bon Sejour en France

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Has anyone used this company to book self catering accommodation on the Ile de Re in France? Properties look great but expensive & there are no reviews...would be interested in first hand experience of them?

Not used them myself, but the Il de Ré is VERY expensive. Looking at that site their prices vary a lot, but I did find one that was an eyewatering 17900? per week [gulp]

My advice is to stay on the mainland and visit the island for a day trip. it is beautiful there, but very crowded in July/August and not a lot to do other than the beaches.

I have booked one with them this Summer (next week half-term in fact!). So I can't give you feedback other than they have so far been helpful & good to deal with. I haven't paid the full balance yet (which seems unusual!) but will do so next week with my credit card so any problems moneywise should be easier to solve (I think?).
PM me after hterm if you want!

Thanks, both. We stayed there last year & do love the Ile de re but are definitely not looking at the lux end of the market there...last time booked through holiday lettings but we've left it so late there's not much left...thx GoAndAskDaddy I will do that, we are looking at Betty in Rivedoux...

I would not use the agency Bon Sejour en France - owner is extremely unpleasant with terrible customer service skills. Perhaps you should try AIRBNB - which is an international site and pricing is much better. Ile de Re is a beautiful island worth visiting if you have the opportunity.

Do not use the agency "Bon Sejour en France" they have a horrible reputation on the island
Overpriced and numerous complaints from clients who never get their security deposit back
Owner is belligerent and treat clients in the rudest fashion
Spare yourself a rotten stay and stay clear of them
Our experience with airbnb was good on Ile de Re but BSF ruined our summer as well as another couple' stay

I have to say we did end up booking with them last summer & everything was fine, we were happy with the house & did get our deposit back. We will be going back to the ile de re agin this year as we had such a lovely time.

I used them last summer and had a trouble free experience, deposit was given and returned in cash so no problem there, very helpful local rep on hand to sort a couple of minor issues.

Hello everybody, the company BSEF rents each year about 1200 weeks and we can have unfortunately some unexpected problems with the holiday houses and with the behavior of the holiday makers.
We have 2 type of clients : the owner of the house and the holiday maker. Towards the holiday maker, the responsibility of BSEF is, when we shake his hand at the end of the stay, is to have a comment like this “Didier, I had a fantastic stay on the Ile de Re and in this perfect house. Everything worked and everything was exactly what I expected and what I saw on the advert”. But we have another big responsibility which consists in keeping the houses in a good state and having positive comments from the owners after the rental season “Didier, BSEF has rented a lot and the state of the house is good.”. If, one day, you buy a house on the Ile de Re and if you decide to rent it through BSEF, what will you think about BSEF if when you check your house, you find on of the mattresses covered of “pipi”, the robot of the swimming pool broken or the electric awning broken. You will certainly tell me, if you are nice “Didier, what is the purpose of the breakage deposit” and if you are not nice “Didier, I stop renting my house with BSEF which is not a serious company”. Didier Peletengeas - director of BSEF - +33 6 03 69 16 06

We have just returned from a holiday on Île de Ré, where we rented a property with Bon Sejour en France. The property was very nice, but expensive. While there, there was a problem with the boiler, and we had no hot water for three days. Th company eventually resolved it, and told us that we would be compensated, however they have ignored our emails to them since our return - we suspect that they hope we will go away if they don't respond. Poor customer service. (Also note that they charge €20 per person for bedding and towels for the week - we assumed that beds would be made, but no; for that price, you do it yourself!) So, in short, we would heartily recommend Île de Ré, but, at the moment, not this company. We will update this post, if we find that their response to us has simply been 'delayed'.

We just saw your post and wanted to point out that you were compensated for the lack of hot water at the beginning of August. The refund process takes time because we have to contact the owners for their agreement. Perhaps we weren't as communicative as we should have been but it is the very high season and we work 7 days a week. For the bedding and towels, it is marked on the website, both the price and what it covers. We think this is an average price on the island. We didn't refund you in order for you to change your post but because we believe that the refund was justified in this case. We have managed around 10000 rental weeks since the company was created and we are sorry if there are a few weeks where problems occur and where customer service is lacking. Didier Peletengeas - director of BSEF - +33 6 03 69 16 06

I can confirm that we have indeed received compensation from Bon Sejour - thank you - so feeling much more positive re customer service. Still reminiscing about lovely holiday on Île de Ré.

We went to Ile de Re this year and had a few properties in mind on their website initially. I contacted them about a year before we were due to go asking about availability for a week for the following July and was told that they tend to release in November. I then contacted them in the November, only to be told that they don't hire for just a week in July and August!

We eventually hired through another website called my home in ile de re.
The towels and bedding issue seems to be normal in that part of France. We paid almost £300 extra for bedding and end of stay cleaning on a £4,000 property.

Having said that, the island was lovely and we would return.

We just stayed with our 4 children in La Flotte on the Ile de Re renting a villa from Bon Sejour en France. If you are planning a holiday with children, I strongly recommend you do not use them.
They are rude, arrogant, and the villa we rented was anything BUT child friendly (although advertised for 7 people, so families!).
This is a family villa and we are told as soon as we get in that we must not touch anything as there are a lot of object which can break!
I am told to pay the deposit. My card won't get through as there is no reception. It is 9pm on a Saturday night (we just drove from London). Valerie told me that I had to pay the following day. By 2pm the following day, I had 2 missed calls, 1 voicemail and 2 texts to pay the balance as she trusted me to pay! Well... the bank had blocked my card as too many attempts to pay had been made by Bon Sejour and interrupted. Nice on a Sunday on your first day holiday!
The hot water operates from a tank which doesn't heat hot water after 6pm if you have used all the water in the tank (great when 6 people try to shower at 8pm.... only ever managed to get 4 showers!).
The bay windows were unlockable and so the villa was opened for anyone to come in. But don't worry. Didier assured us that La Flotte was safe!!! I would love to see what would have happened if we got robbed whilst we rented it! The insurance would have loved that.
The fridge was stuck in a corner with a shelf against it filled with pottery - impossible to open the fridge without your elbow wanting to break at least 3!
And last but not least. Not realising I was French, Didier said out loud when I was listing my complaints 'it's fine, they clearly are the kind of customers who are never happy'.... only to realise 5mns later that I am French and understood what he said.
Didier - I hope no one stays with Bon Sejour - Your attitude, Valerie's attitude... your company doesn't deserve good people's money. As this was anything but cheap.

We have just come back from a family holiday in Ile de Re, staying in the villa Brigitte. We came to celebrate my sons first birthday so it was a momentous holiday for us. The villa is lovely but close to a road so very noisy at night with traffic and drunk people singing their way home. Unfortunately we would NEVER book with Bon Sejour En France again because our host, Didier, was absolutely awful. He was perfectly pleasant on arrival and even agreed to a late check out of 1pm as we had a baby and elderly grandparents with us. However the day before check out he text telling me when had to be out of the villa by 12:30pm. I replied saying he had said 1pm and I had booked the taxi for then (quite difficult to do when you don't speak any french!) so please could we stay in the villa until then. He called me screaming and shouting and even swore at me telling me I could leave at F@**king 10am. I asked him to calm down and that we had a baby and elderly grandparents with us and all I was asking was to stay in the shade of the villa until our taxi arrived (it was highs of 30 degrees while we were there). He continued to shout and actually made me cry. Ended up ruining our last day of holiday and really upset me. Thankfully he did not check us out and a lovely colleague of his did and she was perfectly happy for us to stay in the shade of the villa until the taxi arrived. Didier was absolutely awful and a bully and for this reason I wouldn't recommend using this company.

The above is absolutely accurate - Ile de Re beautiful and expensive and Bonsejourenfeance are possibly the most unpleasant villa agent we have dealt with anywhere in Europe! Tone and information really drops off after you pay the final deposit. Various issues with the property and literally just a really rude email back saying that absolutely nothing will be done. The ‘welcome’ is just a grumpy lecture about the bins after an 8 hour drive - nice! Lots of other rentals either direct or through other agencies so book early and avoid these guys at all costs.

I just wanted to add that we had quite a bad experience with an individual owner on Home Away on Ré. The house was lovely (although I suspect we paid over the odds as we booked quite late), but the owner was quite unpleasant, and I don't think he was all that keen on foreigners... he was very rude on departure and left me a bad review. I left a fair one of his property and behaviour and it still hasn't appeared yet to blemish his rating so I would beware of 5* reviews not being all they seem.
I have rented before in the UK and US (from individuals and companies) and I think I've been very spoilt by lovely people wanting to make sure we had a great time. The security deposits in France are also huge and it's quite scary waiting for it back if you didn't see eye to eye with the owner.
That said I agree that the island is lovely...

Stayed at ACACIA with Bon Sejour en France. Beautiful location and generally well equipped but was disappointed to find cockroaches around the house. When we raised this with the letting agent Bon Sejour en France we were lied to about availability of other houses and then disbelieved - accused of bringing cockroaches with us in order to photograph at the house. Amazing and shocking - never have I ever received such aggressive, insulting lying emails from a company I have just paid close to £4000 to. If you are going to deal with this company, be extremely careful. In our case they tried to worm out of everything, shifting blame onto the owner and even employing 'experts' to state there were no cockroaches present. I feel sad that companies can behave in this way and still continue to operate - but such is the draw of this wonderful sunny island, I suppose. Be very careful holiday makers - the cockroaches are pretty friendly in comparison.