Checking chambre d'hôtes owners

IS SOMEONE who wants to run a chambre d’hôtes subject to any criminal record checks? G.L.

No, these are not required by mairies as part of registering a chambre d’hôtes, nor are they required by Gîtes de France, a popular labelling scheme.

A spokeswoman for Gîtes de France said it would take too long to check out everyone who applies.

An official at the national service dealing with criminal records said checks are rarely required in France, apart from for public service jobs.

However a notable exception is people applying to prefectures for authorisation to work as childminders.

He added that, even though it is possible for checks to be made on records abroad, more often than not they are only done on offences in France.