How I Verify
How these reviews are made, and what “verified stay” means when you see it.
Most hotel coverage is written by someone who didn’t pay. Press rates, comped nights, hosted trips, and gifted upgrades are standard in travel writing, and they’re rarely disclosed in a way a reader can act on. This page exists so you know exactly what you’re reading here.
I pay for the room.
Every stay reported on this site was booked and paid for by me, in full, at checkout. No press rates, no comped nights, no discount in exchange for coverage. Nobody hosts me.
I book through public channels.
Rooms are reserved under my own name at publicly available rates, with no arrangement made with the hotel in advance. Some bookings are made through American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts or Virtuoso — programs any traveller can use through an advisor or an eligible card. These are the hotel’s standard rates, but they usually include a room upgrade when available, breakfast, a property credit, and late checkout. Where those amenities materially shaped a stay, the review says so. Assume a room booked without them will differ in those specific ways.
What I publish about cost.
Each review tells you two things: that I paid in full, and which rate or program I booked through. What I don’t publish is the figure on my own statement.
That’s a deliberate choice, and not only a private one. Rates swing by season, night, and channel, so one traveller’s number is a poor guide to what you’ll pay — and it goes stale the week it’s printed. The channel is the durable, useful part: it tells you which door to walk through to get a comparable stay. Current rates are on the hotel’s own site and will always be fresher than anything I could print.
If you’re weighing the same hotel and want to know more about how I booked it, just say hello — I’m happy to talk it through.
The hotel doesn’t know I’m coming.
I don’t identify myself as a reviewer before or during a stay, and I don’t ask for anything an ordinary guest wouldn’t get. What I describe is the service a paying guest receives, which is the only service worth describing. If that ever changes — if a stay is arranged with a hotel’s knowledge — it will be stated at the top of that review, without exception.
The photographs are mine.
Every image of a room, a suite, a restaurant, or a public space was taken by me on the stay described. Nothing comes from a hotel’s press office. The occasional aerial or exterior establishing shot that isn’t mine is licensed stock, and never a hotel’s own photography.
Nobody buys a verdict.
No hotel has any say in what appears here, and nothing on this site is sponsored. This site is a business and will eventually earn money — most likely through booking links or advertising. Two commitments hold regardless: any commercial relationship will be disclosed on this page and on the reviews it touches, and no arrangement will ever change a verdict. If a hotel isn’t worth it, that’s what the review will say, whether or not there’s a link on the page.
What the badge means. When you see the Verified stay mark on a review, it means: I booked it myself, paid in full, arrived unannounced, photographed it myself, and told you which channel I booked through.
When something’s different
If a stay departs from any of the above — an upgrade I didn’t ask for, a manager who recognized me, an amenity that came with the booking channel — it’s stated plainly at the top of that review. There’s no version of this site where the exception goes unmentioned.
Corrections
Hotels change, and I get things wrong. If something here is inaccurate, or you stayed and found otherwise, say hello and I’ll look into it. Corrections are made on the page itself with the date noted, not quietly.
Last updated: August 2026