Hébergement à la ferme :Channel Managers, Service Providers

Technical articles - Pleinchamp - Diversification

Tourist reception Farm accommodation

Screenshot of Alloha software

There are a number of services, tools, and networks that are useful to know when launching a farm tourist accommodation offer.

Accommodation brands

Bienvenue à la ferme, Accueil Paysan

Bienvenue à la ferme is the leading network of farm accommodation (originally farm inns). Brand supported by the Chambers of Agriculture, created in 1987. The network has been expanded with solutions around short supply chains (Live farmer, Eat farmer).

Access to the network is paid, requires compliance with a specifications document, and opens up a number of negotiated services and benefits (Alloha for example). Support is provided by a departmental advisor from the chambers.

Bienvenue à la Ferme benefits from excellent referencing, offering increased visibility to its members, and local presence via the Chambers of Agriculture.

Accueil Paysan (InPACT network), created around the same time, offers the same type of service as Bienvenue à la ferme, and may be more suitable depending on the geographical or political proximity of the farm.

Gîtes de France, Abritel, AirBnb, Booking, GreenGo, Abracadaroom

There are many other sites allowing you to list your accommodation offer. Some have a larger market share (AirBnb) but are more expensive, others are specialized (GreenGo, Abracadaroom) and allow you to target potential visitors more precisely. Depending on the positioning of the accommodation, it may be relevant to use one site or another (some sites are more premium than others). Do not forget sites that are not well known in France but are widely used in other countries (https://vrbo.com for example).

See also the “outsiders”: Chambres d'Hôtes.org, Staycation, GlampingHub, etc…

Be careful, being present on multiple sites requires knowing how to juggle or using a channel manager (see below).

Training and support

It is very important to train and get support when setting up the project. Whether for urban planning issues, financing plans, positioning, or even catering… Investing in training is never wasted, and conversely, ignorance of certain aspects can turn a beautiful dream into a nightmare both administratively, economically and organizationally…

Among the training offers you will find the Chambers of Agriculture, within the framework of Bienvenue à la ferme, the Civam (Accueil Paysan), as well as private structures such as Unusual hosts or the Cabinet Alliances.

Many offer access to a first level of training for free, take advantage. It is also possible to start discussions with structures like Parcel to better understand how all this works.

Structures like cocolodge.co provide support from ideation to implementation - including the choice of accommodation modules, urban planning issues, channel manager configuration, or website setup.

Box systems?

There are many box systems (Wonderbox, Smartbox, …) but it has not been demonstrated that they are really interesting from an economic point of view.

Channel managers

Channel managers are tools used to synchronize bookings across multiple platforms (such as Booking.com, GreenGo, Airbnb, etc.). They allow you to centralize the management of prices, availability, and bookings on all these platforms, avoiding double bookings and automating updates.

Some channel managers also allow bookings on your own website, including payment, managing associated services, packages, sending confirmation emails, reminders, welcome, etc… Most platforms provide some of these services (for example emails), so if you use a channel manager the idea is to become more or less autonomous and not tied to any particular platform. A channel manager will also provide you with a dashboard that will allow you to understand which platform works best for you, occupancy statistics, service profitability, etc.

However, working with a channel manager requires being comfortable with a computer management tool - in some cases you can test the tool free for one or two weeks to check that you will be comfortable using it.

Examples include:

• Elloha (partnership with “Bienvenue à la ferme”)  
• Amenitiz
• Mews

Our series of guides on tourist accommodation

• Les différentes formes d’hébergement touristique à la ferme
• La rentabilité d'un hébergement touristique à la ferme
• Hébergement à la ferme : la réglementation et l’urbanisme
• Les contraintes opérationnelles et la gestion du temps de l'hébergement à la ferme
• Hébergement à la ferme : les channel managers, les prestataires de service
• Hébergement à la ferme : le marketing, faire connaître son hébergement, le valoriser, le rendre exclusif
• Hébergement à la ferme : Les services associés

This page was written in partnership with Pleinchamp