Editorial standards

Decision-first writing

Every important page should help answer a practical accommodation question. We prioritise traveller fit, trade-offs, location and comparison over generic destination prose.

Facts and judgement are different

Addresses, classifications and other property facts require verification. Labels such as best overall, best for couples or main trade-off are editorial judgements, and are written so a reader can tell which is which.

No fabricated experience

We do not claim to have stayed at a hotel unless a genuine first-hand stay has been confirmed. Research-based profiles say so on the page, and must not borrow the language of someone who was there.

No automatic rankings

Being in our database, holding a star class, being available through a merchant or paying a commission does not create a recommendation or a position in one.

Category pages require evidence

A specialised page such as family hotels or luxury hotels needs both a distinct search intent and enough reviewed inventory to give a reader a real choice. Where we do not have both, the page does not exist.

Conflicting information

When authoritative sources disagree about an important factual field, we may omit the disputed value until the conflict is resolved, and say that we have.

Commercial independence

Merchant partnerships provide booking options. They do not influence which areas we recommend, which hotels we select, or the order they appear in.

No invented numbers

We publish no prices, no guest ratings and no availability, because we do not hold them. Our own area scores are editorial and are shown as such. Where a city has been written up without that research, its pages carry no scores at all rather than plausible ones.

Added after the original text, when the site began publishing cities researched to two different depths.