Is this normal for small hotels in France?

[tinygreengrass]

Last year I stayed in a beautiful, small, family run hotel by the coast in SOF! It was slightly old fashioned and dated. But perfect location overlooking the ocean and perfect for families. I’ve gone to book again and the website says the hotel closes from Nov-April. You try and book and their booking platform is not working and although you can find them on big sites like hotel.com when you put in summer dates they say there is no availability. I tried to call and email and no response. I am hoping this is because they are shut until April. Has anyone heard of anything similar?

Yes it’s very common in France especially for smaller family run places. They may well reply to your email while they are closed, but they will take their time over it!

@abricotineoh this is good to know. I thought they had maybe closed or sold as they don’t seem to be on booking.com but then when I saw about shutting I suddenly thought, I bet when they say they’re closed they are closed and won’t start working again until April! I have a glimmer of hope I’ll get back there

Sometimes they also don't release their dates very far in advance so it could be they'll open their bookings once they open again

@Nn9011this is great to hear! I know there are bigger problems in the world, but was such a perfect little find would be sad if it had been sold or closed down!

No I get it, sometimes you find somewhere so lovely you just want to go back and enjoy it again!

Haha this is bringing back memories. Also country restaurants that only open 3 days a week and then take a day off at v short notice. Always ring before turning up. I’m a Francophile but I often find french small
business websites less than intuitive or even informative.

Yep pretty typical. In the past I’ve worked with some small hotels in Brittany and when asking for their rates in November for the following summer it’s not unusual to get either an auto response saying they’ll be back in March, or for replies to take a week or more as they only check emails occasionally.