Concierge Company Without a Carte G: How to Offer Long-Term Rentals to Your Owners

To offer long-term rentals to your owners without holding your own carte G (the French property management license), the solution is carte G delegation. This setup lets you legally frame rentals with a lease, keep your operational role on the ground, and earn a steady management commission. You secure your business, build loyalty with your owners over the long run, and turn a leak of mandates into a source of recurring revenue. Carte G delegation is exactly what lets you keep that mandate, fully legally.

You know the scene. Your star owner, the one you’ve managed for 18 months, tells you they want to switch their property to long-term rental. Tired of seasonal rentals, of arrivals and departures at 10 p.m., of empty weeks in winter. You get it. But you already know what’s going to happen.

They’ll call the local agency, sign a standard property management mandate, and you’ll never get that mandate back. Not because you did a bad job. Simply because in France, without a carte G, you aren’t allowed to manage a rental with a lease. Period.

It’s a silent problem that affects the vast majority of French concierge companies. You build a relationship over a year or two, you become the owner’s trusted point of contact, and the moment they change strategy, you vanish from the picture. The good news is that there’s now a legal mechanism for staying in the loop, earning from that switch, and even tripling the commercial lifespan of a mandate. It’s carte G delegation.

Why your best owners end up leaving you

The scenario comes up all the time. You manage an apartment as a short-term rental, the owner is happy with their income, and you’ve worked together for a while. Then comes the trigger. A tightening city regulation, a winter season that’s too slow, a life change that calls for more financial stability. And the owner tells you: we’re switching to long-term.

Why you lose the mandate at that exact moment

Short-term and long-term rentals aren’t governed by the same laws. Short-term is handled through a service agreement, a standard commercial framework that doesn’t require a carte G. Long-term is based on a rental lease, and therefore on the Hoguet Law of January 2, 1970 (the 1970 French law regulating real estate professionals). That law requires anyone managing a property under a lease on behalf of a third party to hold a real estate professional license for property management. The famous carte G.

Without a carte G, you aren’t allowed to draw up a lease, collect rent, or sign a move-in inspection report for your owner. The owner knows it, their notary reminds them, and so does their accountant. They don’t even ask whether you can do it. They go straight to someone who can.

Client story: Nicolas, who ran a concierge company in Marseille, lost 8 of his 25 mandates in 12 months between 2024 and 2025. Every owner who left switched to long-term rentals or a mobility lease (bail mobilité, a 1-to-10-month furnished lease with no deposit). None came back to short-term. That’s the equivalent of a third of his revenue evaporating without his being able to do anything about it.

The real cost of this leak of mandates

For a concierge company managing 30 properties at a 20% commission on average rental income of €3,500 a month, one lost mandate means €8,400 a year. When 30% of your portfolio switches to long-term every 24 months, that’s €75,000 a year in revenue walking out the door, versus €0 earned if you do nothing. And it takes a lot of sales work to replace them.

Mistake to avoid

Many concierge companies try to partner with a local real estate agency when an owner switches. Bad idea. The agency becomes the owner’s main point of contact, demotes you to subcontractor, and passes back a marginal share of its own commission. You lose the relationship, you lose the margin, and you have no visibility into the money flows.

The legal trap of long-term rentals

Before getting to the solution, you need to understand exactly where the law blocks you. The Hoguet Law is clear: as soon as a management act involves a rental lease, a professional license is required. And getting your own carte G means a process that puts off most concierge companies.

Why getting your own carte G is complicated

To get a carte G, you have to prove professional aptitude: a bachelor’s degree (three years of higher education) or a two-year real estate degree, or failing that 10 years of salaried experience at an agency holding the license (4 years for a management-level position). On top of that come a mandatory financial guarantee of at least €110,000, specific professional liability insurance, and a dedicated account for client funds that the financial guarantor requires as soon as you collect money for third parties. You can easily count on 6 to 12 months of paperwork and €4,000 to €7,000 in costs before you even sign your first lease.

The risk if you manage without a carte G

The penalty set by law is heavy. 6 months in prison and a €7,500 fine for illegal practice of the profession of real estate agent. And civil liability can climb much higher if an owner or a tenant files a claim. That’s why most concierge companies would rather lose the mandate than slide into a gray area. We dig into this in our article on Hoguet Law compliance.

Client story: Sarah, who runs a concierge company in Annecy, wanted to get her own carte G to win back her long-term owners. After 9 months of paperwork, she gave up. Too expensive, too time-consuming, and impossible to keep her seasonal business running in parallel. She switched to delegation and won back 4 long-term mandates in 3 months.

Carte G delegation, the solution without an agency

Carte G delegation isn’t a fragile legal workaround. It’s a mechanism provided for by law that allows a carte G holder to delegate the day-to-day management of a property to a third party, while keeping legal responsibility for the mandate. The owner signs a property management mandate with the carte G holder, who in turn entrusts you with carrying out the on-the-ground tasks.

How it works in practice

You don’t carry the carte G. You don’t need a financial guarantee or an escrow account. The carte G holder, which in Unlocker’s case is Unlocker Real Estate, signs the property management mandate with your owner. In parallel, you sign an operational partnership agreement with Unlocker Real Estate that defines your role, and a service agreement with your owner that defines your compensation. You remain the owner’s single point of contact for everything to do with the day-to-day running of the property.

What you can manage in this setup

Delegation doesn’t turn you into a mere executor. You still run:

• The calendar and availability of the property
• The pricing strategy and rental positioning
• The relationship with guests or tenants
• On-the-ground organization: arrivals, departures, cleaning, linens, inspection reports
• Follow-up on incidents, cancellations and disputes
• The commercial relationship with the owner

The carte G holder takes care of what falls within its scope. The lease, the regulatory and financial aspects, the split of money flows among all parties. For details on each role, the page on Unlocker mandates and contracts gives the full table.

A mechanism kept up to date

The legal framework of delegation is monitored continuously by Unlocker’s in-house legal team. They keep watch on the Hoguet Law, municipal orders affecting short-term rentals, changes to the tourism code and recent case law. When a legal point moves, the delegation mechanism is adjusted to stay compliant without you having to deal with it.

Mistake to avoid

Confusing carte G delegation with business referrer status. A business referrer earns a one-time commission when they bring a client to a license holder. Delegation is a lasting operational framework that lets you keep managing the property and earn a management commission for the entire duration of the mandate. It’s not the same mechanism at all.

The 3 contracts that secure the relationship

Carte G delegation rests on three separate documents that cover three different relationships. It’s important to understand who signs what with whom, because this trio is what secures your business legally and reassures owners.

The operational partnership agreement

Signed between you (the concierge company or independent real estate agent) and Unlocker Real Estate (the carte G holder). This document frames your role in the delegation. Which tasks you can carry out, how you access the platform, what information you share, what liability you bear. You sign it once, for the entire duration of your time as a partner.

The property management mandate

Signed between Unlocker Real Estate and the property owner. This is the mandate that legally gives Unlocker Real Estate the power to manage the property on the owner’s behalf. You don’t sign this document, but you’re the one orchestrating it on the ground. You’re the one who explains it to the owner and presents it when they switch to long-term.

The service agreement

Signed between you and the owner. This is the commercial contract that defines your compensation as a concierge company. Commission rate, scope of your tasks, length of commitment. This contract stays 100% yours. You set your prices, you keep your commercial margin, and you keep the client relationship.

Client story: Antoine, who runs a concierge company in Biarritz, moved 6 owners to long-term delegation in 4 months. For him, the lightbulb moment came when he realized the three contracts don’t compete with each other. They stack, and each plays its role. Today he charges an average of 12% excl. VAT in long-term management commission on top of Unlocker’s 3% excl. VAT fees. His net margin per mandate is higher than in short-term because he no longer has to organize turnovers.

Mistake to avoid

Trying to get the owner to sign everything at the same time. The partnership agreement concerns only you and is signed up front, before you even have an owner to present. The mandate and the service agreement are signed when you start managing the property, in that order. First the Unlocker Real Estate mandate, then your service agreement. If you reverse them, the owner no longer understands who does what.

Hybrid strategy: short-term and long-term on the same property

Once you have carte G delegation, you unlock something most concierge companies don’t even know they can do. The hybrid strategy. The same property, several rental regimes depending on the season, the owner’s needs or market conditions. It’s the mechanism that lets you triple the commercial lifespan of an owner.

Key takeaway

Hybrid isn’t a premium service reserved for a few owners. It’s the default way of operating that lets you keep the mandate for the entire rental life of the property, whatever rental strategy your owner chooses.

Why hybrid changes everything

Today an owner who wants to rent out their property has to choose. Short-term or long-term. With Unlocker’s delegation, they can switch from one to the other with the seasons without changing contact or platform. Summer 100% seasonal on Airbnb at €180 a night, fall on a student mobility lease at €950 a month, winter as a mid-term rental for business travelers. Over the year, total rental income often exceeds what any single pure regime would earn.

Client story: Lucie, who manages 14 properties in La Rochelle, converted 5 owners to a hybrid strategy in 2025. On a one-bedroom apartment with a harbor view, annual income went from €22,000 in pure short-term to €31,500 in hybrid (June to September short-term, October to May on a mobility lease). The owner is delighted, her management commission rose in proportion, and she no longer has a slow season to make up for. We cover this mechanism in our article on hybrid rentals with a mobility lease.

Steps to switch a property to hybrid

1. Identify the eligible properties in your portfolio. The best candidates are those with strong seasonality: tourist areas, seaside resorts, university towns.
2. Analyze the flows. How many months of full short-term occupancy, how many slow months. Hybrid makes sense from 3 slow months a year.
3. Present the mechanism to the owner with a side-by-side comparison in numbers. The Unlocker simulator on the Carte G page generates this calculation in 30 seconds.
4. Activate Unlocker’s delegation for the long-term periods. The mandate and the service agreement can stay in force permanently; what changes is the rental regime applied.
5. Sync the calendars to block the lease windows and free up the seasonal periods.

Mistake to avoid

Selling hybrid as a simple tax optimization. It’s a valid argument but a secondary one. The real argument is rental income stability and resilience to market changes. An owner who switches to hybrid in 2026 sleeps better than a 100% short-term owner who depends on Airbnb’s regulatory ups and downs.

How much you really earn with delegation

Let’s talk numbers. Unlocker’s delegation isn’t free, but it earns you far more than it costs. Here’s how the money flows are split and how much you really earn on a long-term mandate.

The commission structure

The carte G holder takes 2% excl. VAT of the rent for long-term and 1% excl. VAT for short-term. On top of that, Unlocker (the payment platform) takes 1% excl. VAT. Total: 3% excl. VAT for long-term, 2% excl. VAT for short-term. The rest is your concierge commission, which you set with the owner in your service agreement. For long-term rentals, the concierge management commission is most often around 7 to 12% excl. VAT of the rent, based on practices observed in the French market.

A worked example

Monthly rent of €1,000 excl. VAT. Your service commission, 10% excl. VAT, €100. Carte G delegation, 2% excl. VAT, €20. Unlocker platform, 1% excl. VAT, €10. The owner receives €870 excl. VAT a month, and you collect €100 excl. VAT gross. Over 12 months, that’s €1,200 excl. VAT per mandate. On a portfolio of 20 long-term properties, that’s €24,000 a year in gross margin, compared with the €0 you earn today when your owner switches.

Client story: Camille, a concierge company in Bordeaux, started delegation in September 2025. Six months later, she manages 11 properties in hybrid. Her monthly margin on the long-term side went from €0 to €1,850. For 2026, she expects €22,200 in extra margin from the long-term part of her business alone.

The simulator for your own situation

The Carte G page includes a simulator that calculates in real time what you earn based on your rent, your VAT regime and your commission rate. You can compare short-term, long-term and hybrid in a few clicks and show the result to your owners.

Short-term only or hybrid with delegation

Concretely, your next step is to ask yourself two questions. How many mandates have you lost to long-term rentals over the past 18 months? And how many of your current owners are likely to switch within the next 12 months? Multiply by your expected management commission and you have the size of your annual shortfall. To put a precise number on your own potential, the simulator on the Carte G page gives you the result in 30 seconds.

To go further on the exact legal framework, the guide to Unlocker mandates and contracts details each document and its role. And if you want to understand the opposite logic, that is, scaling by keeping a single owner but managing their entire building, the article on managing income properties as a concierge company digs into that angle.