Editorial standards

Independence

Spike Travel is independently owned. Nobody outside the newsroom sees a page before it is published, and nobody outside the newsroom can place, change or remove one.

• Destinations, hotels, tour operators, airlines and brands cannot pay to be covered, to be ranked higher, or to have criticism softened.
• Advertising is sold and served separately from editorial. Advertisers are not told what we are working on.
• Sponsored content, if we run it, carries the word "Sponsored" at the top of the page and in the page title. It never appears inside a dossier, a review or a news story.
• Staff and contributors declare any financial interest in a company they write about. Where a conflict exists, someone else writes the piece.

Accuracy and verification

We treat a destination dossier like a news story. Every factual claim should trace to a source listed at the bottom of the page. We prefer official bodies (immigration authorities, government travel advice, national tourism boards, transport operators, museums and attractions), then national statistics and meteorological services, then primary reporting by reputable outlets. Crowd-sourced data comes last, and we label it as such when we use it for a sanity check.

Every dossier shows a verified date. That is the day an editor last re-checked prices, entry rules and opening hours. It is not the publication date, and it is never set on a day when checking did not happen. If we could not confirm something, the page says so rather than guessing.

Entry rules are the most volatile facts in travel. Each row of a visa table carries the official source and the date it was checked. We still ask you to confirm with that source before you travel, and we say so on every dossier.

Climate figures are long-term normals from meteorological services or from published tables that cite them. Prices are quoted in local currency with an approximate US dollar figure as of the verified date.

Corrections

When we get something materially wrong, we fix it in place and record the change on the corrections page with the date and a summary. We do not quietly edit. Typos and style fixes are not logged. Anyone can report an error from the link at the bottom of every page; an editor reviews reports within two working days.

Reviews

Each review states its basis in the byline area:

• Hands-on: we bought, used, stayed at or flew with the thing being reviewed.
• Research: we assessed documentation, policy wording and published data without using the product. We will never describe a research review as a test.
• Reader-reported: compiled from reader experiences, which we identify as such.

Scores come from published criteria that appear on the page. The overall rating is the average of the criteria, rounded to the nearest half point. If a company supplied a product or a stay for free, the review says so at the top, and the company gets no say in what we write.

Press trips and hosted travel

We accept hosted travel under conditions, and we say so on the page. The host gets no guarantee of coverage, no approval of copy, no promise that criticism will be withheld, and no right to see a draft. If a visit was hosted, the disclosure line at the top of the page says who paid for what. We prefer to pay our own way where we can, and we always pay our own way for reviews that carry a rating.

Partner links

Some links on the site earn us a commission when you book or buy. We label them where they appear, not only in a footer: booking panels, product cards and verdict buttons each carry a plain sentence saying so. The commission never changes which hotel, tour, policy or product we recommend. Our affiliate disclosure lists every programme we belong to and the content rules those programmes impose on us.

How we use AI

We use AI tools as research assistants and drafting aids, in the way a reporter uses a search engine and a copy desk. An editor is responsible for every published fact and every sentence. Claims are checked against the sources listed on the page, not against the tool.

Some hero and gallery images are AI-generated illustrations of real places. They are credited as "Illustration: Spike Travel (AI-assisted)" wherever they appear. They are meant to depict the place faithfully and are never used to depict news events, real people, or anything presented as evidence. Photographs by named photographers are credited by name.

Sourcing and anonymity

We name our sources. Anonymity is granted only when a person would face real harm for speaking, and an editor must know the source's identity. We do not use anonymous sources for travel recommendations.

Fairness and language

We write about places where people live. We avoid describing a neighbourhood as "dangerous" without saying what the risk actually is, and we avoid treating any culture as scenery. When safety advice differs for women, LGBTQ+ travellers or travellers with disabilities, the dossier says so specifically, with sources.

The code we follow

Spike Travel follows the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics: seek truth and report it, minimise harm, act independently, and be accountable and transparent. Following the code is our own commitment; it does not imply membership of the society.

Talk to us

Questions about these standards, and requests to see how a specific page was reported, go to the editor through the contact page.