Over the past couple of days, Joyce and I have had cause to do more than our usual share of web browsing. Basically, we're looking for a comfortable gite somewhere in the Languedoc-Roussillion region of France, partly for a rest, and partly for a recce of the area with a view to retirement.
Why do people not make proper use of technology nowadays? For instance, far too many sites have very poor photos of the place they are meant to be selling - or even worse, many have no photos at all. It's as though the owners either never thought of what the buyers might really want to see (hint - pictures of the property, not the local village or river or scenery), or even as though they don't want to risk putting people off with an interior that isn't to everyone's taste. Well, wake up and smell the coffee - if I can't see it, I'm certainly not buying it.
Then there's the question of pricing and availability. I did a search on one site based on availability over certain dates. The best gites presented were then researched further - and two out of three were not available on the dates I'd specified. Granted, I might be flexible in my approach to dates, but this isn't going to persuade me to trust the info given.
Finally, prices. No, I'm not going to indulge in email table tennis while we sort out whether somewhere is available, only to find that it's priced out of my comfort zone. If you must use low, mid and high season prices then define the ranges - it may surprise you to know that my interpretation differs from yours, especially when mid and high season prices seem to extend much further than I'd expect. Much better however to be up front and honest - if it costs £x for dates such-and-such then say so.
This is a story of disappointing results. It seems that owners are often willfully not providing the info I require or even need to make an informed choice.
Without that info I'll simply go elsewhere.
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