"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at
00:38:18 on Thu, 2 Jul 2015, fred remarked:
Lots of the usual internet scare stories out there but has anyone personal
experience and how did they find it ?

I've used it once and it was good. Turned out to be an upmarket
professional B&B (rather than someone with a spare room, which I think is
more common), and the proprietor had recently given up all other forms of
advertising as they were getting sufficient business from the one site.

since it went "up market" it now seems to be exclusively "professional"
B&B's charging commercial rates

The days when it was "spare rooms for 20 quid a night" has long gone

tim

On 03/07/15 22:17, tim..... wrote:


since it went "up market" it now seems to be exclusively "professional"
B&B's charging commercial rates

The days when it was "spare rooms for 20 quid a night" has long gone

Reminds me rather of ebay. From flea-market to professional store front.

On Friday, July 3, 2015 at 10:25:07 PM UTC+1, Tim Watts wrote:
On 03/07/15 22:17, tim..... wrote:


since it went "up market" it now seems to be exclusively "professional"
B&B's charging commercial rates

The days when it was "spare rooms for 20 quid a night" has long gone

Reminds me rather of ebay. From flea-market to professional store front.

Except their search engine is ****e

On 06/07/15 11:45, fred wrote:
On Friday, July 3, 2015 at 10:25:07 PM UTC+1, Tim Watts wrote:
On 03/07/15 22:17, tim..... wrote:


since it went "up market" it now seems to be exclusively "professional"
B&B's charging commercial rates

The days when it was "spare rooms for 20 quid a night" has long gone

Reminds me rather of ebay. From flea-market to professional store front.

Except their search engine is ****e


True - Amazon at least have a search engine that admits "we are a store
front" and lets you add various parametric search terms, which get very
specific for certain types of goods.

"fred" wrote in message
...
On Friday, July 3, 2015 at 10:25:07 PM UTC+1, Tim Watts wrote:
On 03/07/15 22:17, tim..... wrote:


since it went "up market" it now seems to be exclusively "professional"
B&B's charging commercial rates

The days when it was "spare rooms for 20 quid a night" has long gone

Reminds me rather of ebay. From flea-market to professional store front.

Except their search engine is ****e

Leaves Amazon's and AliExpress for dead.

On 06/07/15 20:55, ratsack wrote:


"fred" wrote in message
...
On Friday, July 3, 2015 at 10:25:07 PM UTC+1, Tim Watts wrote:
On 03/07/15 22:17, tim..... wrote:


since it went "up market" it now seems to be exclusively
"professional"
B&B's charging commercial rates

The days when it was "spare rooms for 20 quid a night" has long gone

Reminds me rather of ebay. From flea-market to professional store front.

Except their search engine is ****e

Leaves Amazon's and AliExpress for dead.

Dunno about Ali but how can you say Amazon's search is beaten by ebay?
Ebay has nowhere near the level of searching features Amazon has.

"Tim Watts" wrote in message
...
On 06/07/15 11:45, fred wrote:
On Friday, July 3, 2015 at 10:25:07 PM UTC+1, Tim Watts wrote:
On 03/07/15 22:17, tim..... wrote:


since it went "up market" it now seems to be exclusively "professional"
B&B's charging commercial rates

The days when it was "spare rooms for 20 quid a night" has long gone

Reminds me rather of ebay. From flea-market to professional store front.

Except their search engine is ****e


True - Amazon at least have a search engine that admits "we are a store
front" and lets you add various parametric search terms, which get very
specific for certain types of goods.

But is completely ****ed because you can't sort the results unless
you specify a category and just ignores the keywords you include
with quite a few of the hits and you can't specify whether to search
just the title or the entire ad and doesn’t include the postal cost in
the results most of the time either.

"Tim Watts" wrote in message
news
On 06/07/15 20:55, ratsack wrote:


"fred" wrote in message
...
On Friday, July 3, 2015 at 10:25:07 PM UTC+1, Tim Watts wrote:
On 03/07/15 22:17, tim..... wrote:


since it went "up market" it now seems to be exclusively
"professional"
B&B's charging commercial rates

The days when it was "spare rooms for 20 quid a night" has long gone

Reminds me rather of ebay. From flea-market to professional store
front.

Except their search engine is ****e

Leaves Amazon's and AliExpress for dead.

Dunno about Ali but how can you say Amazon's search is beaten by ebay?

Yes, particularly in that Amazon just ignores search keywords when
you have more than one, you can't sort unless you specify the category
and it doesn’t show the postal cost in the hits list for delivery outside
the UK.

Ebay has nowhere near the level of searching features Amazon has.

But doesn’t have those problems.

Show me an Amazon search which produces JUST flannelette
fitted king sized sheets with solid colours sorted by total price.

On 06/07/15 20:58, ratsack wrote:

But is completely ****ed because you can't sort the results unless
you specify a category

I'll give you that - it is annoying.

If something fits cleanly into a category like "USB stick", Amazon is
great - full parametric searching.

But it is a PITA when something just doesn't and spreads over umpteen
top level categories.

But I still think it's better than ebay...

"Tim Watts" wrote in message
...
On 06/07/15 20:58, ratsack wrote:

But is completely ****ed because you can't sort the results unless
you specify a category

I'll give you that - it is annoying.

If something fits cleanly into a category like "USB stick", Amazon is
great - full parametric searching.

But most stuff you buy doesn’t allow that.

But it is a PITA when something just doesn't and spreads over umpteen top
level categories.

But I still think it's better than ebay...

Much worse in fact when it doesn’t allow you to specify
that the hits must contain all the keywords you specify.

Ebay is much better in that regard and allows you to
specify which words must be included, which must not
appear, and to specify whether that is just the title or
all the text in the post as well.

Can be a problem tho when you want just say a particular
model of phone and there is no easy way to exclude the
accessories like say a new battery or parts for it. You can
kludge that at times by say including a keyword like
unlocked which eliminates the parts and cases etc
but that only works with a few types of items.

In message , at 08:28:41 on Tue, 7 Jul
2015, ratsack remarked:
But I still think it's better than ebay...

Much worse in fact when it doesnt allow you to specify
that the hits must contain all the keywords you specify.

Ebay is much better in that regard and allows you to
specify which words must be included, which must not
appear, and to specify whether that is just the title or
all the text in the post as well.

That can come unstuck when some joker advertises his car as "Not a Ford,
not a Vauxhall..." etc.

Can be a problem tho when you want just say a particular
model of phone and there is no easy way to exclude the
accessories like say a new battery or parts for it. You can
kludge that at times by say including a keyword like
unlocked which eliminates the parts and cases etc
but that only works with a few types of items.

The way I do that is to set a minimum price - say £20 for a phone. You
may miss a few just-started auctions with a low price, but some of them
can be mopped up by using the "people also viewed" facility.
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 08:28:41 on Tue, 7 Jul
2015, ratsack remarked:
But I still think it's better than ebay...

Much worse in fact when it doesnt allow you to specify
that the hits must contain all the keywords you specify.

Ebay is much better in that regard and allows you to
specify which words must be included, which must not
appear, and to specify whether that is just the title or
all the text in the post as well.

That can come unstuck when some joker advertises his car as "Not a Ford,
not a Vauxhall..." etc.

Sure, but there will always be a few that mangle their ad
by misspelling the word etc. Not feasible to do anything
about that except by rigorously enforced categorisation
and no one does that.

Can be a problem tho when you want just say a particular
model of phone and there is no easy way to exclude the
accessories like say a new battery or parts for it. You can
kludge that at times by say including a keyword like
unlocked which eliminates the parts and cases etc
but that only works with a few types of items.

The way I do that is to set a minimum price - say £20 for a phone.

Sure, that can be viable with some things like phones.

You may miss a few just-started auctions with a low price,

Yeah, I normally concentrate on the buy nows.

but some of them can be mopped up by using the "people also viewed"
facility.

Yeah, but I dont often find that very useful
except with some specialised stuff like books.

In message , at 17:52:46 on Tue, 7 Jul
2015, ratsack remarked:

but some of them can be mopped up by using the "people also viewed"
facility.

Yeah, but I dont often find that very useful
except with some specialised stuff like books.

I was about to say that I didn't think I've ever bought a book on eBay,
but then remembered I ordered a car manual.

The "people also viewed/bought" section of Amazon is perhaps the main
way that I home in upon the item I buy, starting with a more generic
search.
--
Roland Perry

In message , ratsack
writes


"Tim Watts" wrote in message
...
On 06/07/15 20:58, ratsack wrote:

But is completely ****ed because you can't sort the results unless
you specify a category

I'll give you that - it is annoying.

If something fits cleanly into a category like "USB stick", Amazon is
great - full parametric searching.

But most stuff you buy doesnt allow that.

But it is a PITA when something just doesn't and spreads over umpteen
top level categories.

But I still think it's better than ebay...

Much worse in fact when it doesnt allow you to specify
that the hits must contain all the keywords you specify.

Ebay is much better in that regard and allows you to
specify which words must be included, which must not
appear, and to specify whether that is just the title or
all the text in the post as well.

Can be a problem tho when you want just say a particular
model of phone and there is no easy way to exclude the
accessories like say a new battery or parts for it.

you can narrow done the search at that point, by just selecting the
relevant category - so 'mobile phones' if you just want phones. (Some
peopel put things in wrong categories - so some accessories will pop up
but it gets rid of most of the stuff you don't want.

--
Chris French

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 17:52:46 on Tue, 7 Jul
2015, ratsack remarked:

but some of them can be mopped up by using the "people also viewed"
facility.

Yeah, but I dont often find that very useful
except with some specialised stuff like books.

I was about to say that I didn't think I've ever bought a book on eBay,
but then remembered I ordered a car manual.

I've bought some normal books on ebay, not many
compared with amazon and the others like Abe tho.

The "people also viewed/bought" section of Amazon is perhaps the main way
that I home in upon the item I buy, starting with a more generic search.

That is really just illustrating how limited the search is tho.

Can't say I have ever done that except with books.