A tangent, if you will.
Databases have been around for a long, long time. First they were used for businesses but now consumers have access to them in a wide variety of environments.
Imagine one is searching for someplace to "holiday" in Florida, near a beach, during three or four specific weeks in February-March.
In an ideal world, such a person would go to a centralized website, identify his
- Preferred location
- desired dates - exact or flexible,
- desired amenities,
- price range, and
- Special shit (pets, wheelchair, etc.).
Then, using a comprehensive database, the program would spit back ALL of the options for that set of criteria, PLUS, alternatives for slightly different dates, nearby locations, and slightly higher prices.
While there are several websites that purport to do this, none of them actually does. After searching your criteria, they send you details on EVERYTHING BUT what you are looking for, and for the ones that do appear to be available, you dig deeper, only to be told that it's not available for the dates you have chosen. Could they suggest some other dates? No. A nearby location? No. At a price that is MULTIPLES of what you have suggested? SURE!
There are many businesses around that do nothing but search the internet for stuff one might need, and spit out the results of the search. It is a search that you could do for yourself, but these services charge you a small fee and do the looking for you. They exist for car insurance, life insurance, and a lot of other things, but for travel, I haven't found any that actually do the search properly and spit out useful information. It is
nearly useful, but not
ultimately useful.
I've put in quite a lot of time looking for a vacation spot, with no success yet. And I only need one place.