SimplyOwners.Net a new rental listing site?

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
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GRL
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Post by GRL »

The thing is that for many owners the old OD type sites worked so well yet the new sites don't. I do list on my local Calvados site (French speaking) but have only had a handful of enquiries from it and the UK speaking start up sites specialising in Normandy have brought me nothing. So, yes, I would love to see a "New" OD set up an do well but in the meantime I am exploring all other possible sites to list on.
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Post by Jenster »

I agree with Ben, I am willing to give any new site a chance and I think Tim's post was commendable in trying to put his mistakes right. I would not however pay to list on a new site until it has a proven track record and is on page 1 of Google.
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Post by Quinta das Redes »

Mr Parkes never misses an opportunity (in just about every post he makes anywhere) to suggest that the owners of other start up sites are out to damage his business. From what I see, particularly on the Anti OD fb page, and now here, the only person trying to do damage is Mr Parkes himself when he consistently damns all smaller start ups with limited budget as doomed to fail and promoting himself as the only answer. I do not see any of the names that I know involved in other sites bothering to comment on any threads regarding the simplyowners debate. We are all too busy getting on with our own thing Mr Parkes, and recruiting advertisers the old fashioned way by correct means and hard work.
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Post by AndrewH »

paolo wrote:So if I have understood correctly, this guy has decided to ignore the terms and conditions of Owners Direct and simply scraped property descriptions and photos to make his own instant 'listing site'? Without securing the permission of his 'advertisers' to do this. And the only way for renters to contact owners is by phone, because email addresses cannot be scraped from Owners Direct, only phone numbers.

And some of you are considering going ahead with advertising on this site??

Incidentally this person has joined the jolly band of individuals who have threatened me with legal action because they are not happy with what is being said about them here. But no proper company has ever done that.
Regarding OD's terms and conditions, they are not an edict by OD to the whole world, they are just a part of the contract which exists between an owner and Owners Direct. Tim Parkes says on here that he is an ex-customer of OD, so there is no contract and OD's terms and conditions are just not relevant.

There is nothing that I can see written on these pages, about which Tim Parkes could raise a genuine complaint. I would expect his lawyer would tell him so, and behaving like that will do him and his company no favours with LMHers.

I can't find any existing case law in English law regarding data scraping. There is plenty of it in America I expect, but their rules don't apply in the UK and Owners Direct is an English registered company. I suppose they would be looking at breach of copyright and their hoped for remedy would be an injunction. But this is the internet!
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

Jenster wrote:I agree with Ben, I am willing to give any new site a chance and I think Tim's post was commendable in trying to put his mistakes right. I would not however pay to list on a new site until it has a proven track record and is on page 1 of Google.
You are willing to give any new site a chance but you are not willing to pay any new site money - that doesn't give them much of a chance unless they are hitting the market with airbnb-style funding. And you don't care how any new site is created, whether ethically or not?

Owners Direct tell me their legal department is looking into this new site.
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

AndrewH wrote:I would expect his lawyer would tell him so.
In fact it is his "team of lawyers", it always is with these people.
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Post by Jenster »

Jenster wrote:
I agree with Ben, I am willing to give any new site a chance and I think Tim's post was commendable in trying to put his mistakes right. I would not however pay to list on a new site until it has a proven track record and is on page 1 of Google.

You are willing to give any new site a chance but you are not willing to pay any new site money - that doesn't give them much of a chance unless they are hitting the market with airbnb-style funding. And you don't care how any new site is created, whether ethically or not?

Owners Direct tell me their legal department is looking into this new site.
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Paolo
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I believe the best way to gain inventory is to initially offer a free listing and great service...I would certainly pay down the line if the site proved itself. And I think, as Ben said, That had it been done better, the simply owners approach would have been a good way to overcome some of the main initial obstacles. Mr Parkes has now statedthat he has or intends to contact all owners affected to put things right, so we shall see whether his ethics improve. I will reserve judgement and give him a chance until then.
Wirksworth13
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Simply Owners

Post by Wirksworth13 »

I was one of the owners that had their information lifted from OD and listed on the Simply Owners site without my permission. I don't think there is much difference between the owners of OD and Simply Owners, both have ignored and treated the actual owners of the properties with contempt. They do as they will. I will be glad when my listing has finished with OD in January, as I am tired of explaining to guests what 'THE SERVICE FEE' is for :(
There is a FB page 'Book Direct with the Owners' that I am a member of and I used it 2 days ago to get a short break in a weeks time, without any service fee.............I think I will certainly be using it for booking breaks from now on.
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AngloDutch
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Re: Simply Owners

Post by AngloDutch »

Wirksworth13 wrote:There is a FB page 'Book Direct with the Owners' that I am a member of and I used it 2 days ago to get a short break in a weeks time, without any service fee.............I think I will certainly be using it for booking breaks from now on.
A pity that that FB group only accepts owners with properties in the UK and France. We didn't realize that and were rejected.
Does anyone know of a similar FB group for properties Europewide?
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Post by russellt »

Ben McNevis wrote: Most are on a low budget and, sadly, don't have much chance of getting the explosive growth needed to become viable.
Jenster wrote:I believe the best way to gain inventory is to initially offer a free listing and great service...I would certainly pay down the line if the site proved itself.
QED

Some time 'down the line' won't pay today's bills. That said, I would never deal with a business that has screen-scraped or otherwise filched someone else's data in order to gain a head start on the emerging competition. It's a real quandary.
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GRL
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Re: Simply Owners

Post by GRL »

AngloDutch wrote:
Wirksworth13 wrote:There is a FB page 'Book Direct with the Owners' that I am a member of and I used it 2 days ago to get a short break in a weeks time, without any service fee.............I think I will certainly be using it for booking breaks from now on.
A pity that that FB group only accepts owners with properties in the UK and France. We didn't realize that and were rejected.
Does anyone know of a similar FB group for properties Europewide?
Sorry about that AngloDutch but the admin of the site, of which I am one, decided to limit it to the countries where we ourselves have properties. However there is nothing to stop anyone else setting up a similar group on the same format for different countries and we would be happy to offer advice and ideas.
Wirksworth13
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Re: Simply Owners

Post by Wirksworth13 »

A pity that that FB group only accepts owners with properties in the UK and France. We didn't realize that and were rejected.
Does anyone know of a similar FB group for properties Europewide?[/quote]

Sorry about that AngloDutch but the admin of the site, of which I am one, decided to limit it to the countries where we ourselves have properties. However there is nothing to stop anyone else setting up a similar group on the same format for different countries and we would be happy to offer advice and ideas.[/quote]

AngloDutch - perhaps if you set up a FB page in the same vein then members of the UK/France page could promote/share your page. Or better still, would it not be possible for AngloDutch be added as an admin of the page and then we could encompass Europe wide? Perhaps we should try to work together on this?
First foray into this malarky
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roxytoo
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Post by roxytoo »

I have tried with Spain only but have not had much time to promote it .............

https://www.facebook.com/groups/899040346785146/
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GRL
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Re: Simply Owners

Post by GRL »

Wirksworth13 wrote:A pity that that FB group only accepts owners with properties in the UK and France. We didn't realize that and were rejected.
Does anyone know of a similar FB group for properties Europewide?
Sorry about that AngloDutch but the admin of the site, of which I am one, decided to limit it to the countries where we ourselves have properties. However there is nothing to stop anyone else setting up a similar group on the same format for different countries and we would be happy to offer advice and ideas.[/quote]

AngloDutch - perhaps if you set up a FB page in the same vein then members of the UK/France page could promote/share your page. Or better still, would it not be possible for AngloDutch be added as an admin of the page and then we could encompass Europe wide? Perhaps we should try to work together on this?[/quote]

The reason we have not gone Europe-wide (or worldwide as has also been suggested!) is that we felt the site would become too big to become manageable, based on the way that it works, and the amount of work needed to administer it would be too great. It already takes a lot of time for the volunteer admins to ensure it runs efficiently and only suitable properties and posts are added plus we have spent a lot of time sorting out a FB glitch.

There is also a group for Spain but I do not think it is very active so perhaps someone with property there may like to try and help get that off the ground. https://www.facebook.com/groups/899040346785146/

There is also a group for dog friendly accommodation that is worldwide https://www.facebook.com/groups/dogfriendlyholidays/

I know the admin on BYHD (France/UK) would love to see other groups started for other countries/specialist holiday types and would certainly promote them on our group and work together where we could so please do contact me if you would like any help.
Nigel Goodwin
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Post by Nigel Goodwin »

I will soon be setting up a facebook page for ownerholidays.

My current thinking is that it would be open to view for anybody, but the only people allowed to post would be registered members of ownerholidays. Not sure if facebook can do that.
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