Serviced tourist residences: should you exit your commercial lease and self-manage?
Thousands of alpine apartments are still locked into a commercial lease signed with a serviced tourist residence operator. At every three- or nine-year milestone the same question returns: accept a rent revised downwards, or take back control of the property. Autumn is when these decisions get made, ahead of the winter booking window.
What a commercial lease actually pays you
The appeal of a commercial lease is simplicity: a guaranteed annual rent paid by the operator, with no management and no occupancy risk. In the French Alps that rent usually sits between 3 % and 4.5 % of the property's value, with service charges and refurbishment costs partly falling on you. The headline yield is therefore rarely the net yield. Three factors erode performance: rents revised downwards at renewal, capital calls for the mandatory refurbishment every nine to twelve years, and the obligation to leave the property at the operator's disposal outside your few weeks of personal use. Add a meaningful resale discount: a unit encumbered by a commercial lease commonly trades 10 % to 20 % below a comparable unencumbered property in the same resort.
The legal windows to take your property back
A tourist-residence lease falls under France's commercial lease regime: a nine-year term with a right of renewal in the operator's favour. You cannot simply take the unit back whenever you wish. The exit happens at term: you may refuse renewal, but that refusal in principle triggers an eviction indemnity, unless there is serious and legitimate cause or the residence no longer meets the conditions of the regime. In practice the most common route remains a negotiated settlement, especially where the operator is under strain or wants to refocus its portfolio. A termination by mutual agreement, put in writing and clearing any reciprocal indemnity, secures the handover. Have your lease and its schedules reviewed by a property lawyer: the clauses on hand-back, furniture and making good will dictate the timetable of your first self-managed season.
The calculation to run before deciding
Always compare net to net, never a guaranteed rent against gross revenue. Start from a realistic twelve-month gross rental income for your property, based on performance actually observed in your resort rather than on its best weeks. Deduct the management commission, unbilled cleaning, consumables, insurance, service charges, property tax and a maintenance provision. On a well-located apartment in Savoie or Haute-Savoie, a move to optimised direct management frequently produces 1.5 to 2.5 times the commercial lease rent, with free use of your property on top. Two trade-offs to factor in: income becomes variable, and the tax treatment changes — VAT recovered at purchase can be subject to a clawback if you stop the para-hotel activity before twenty years. Quantify that point with your accountant before committing.
Getting your first direct season right
Exiting a lease means recovering a property furnished to the operator's standard and with no commercial history of its own: no listing, no photographs, no reviews. Budget for a furniture and linen upgrade, a professional photo shoot, and two to three months of lead time to build your first bookings. This is exactly the transition SmartStay supports across Savoie, Haute-Savoie and Lyon: a rental-potential audit before you decide, property preparation, listing creation and multi-platform distribution, daily dynamic pricing, guest welcome and hotel-grade cleaning. Every month you receive a transfer alongside a booking-by-booking statement. After one season, many owners find the real value recovered is not only the extra income, but the freedom to use their own property.
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