How we curate what earns a page.

What earns a page

Every hotel on Folio has to clear the same bar before it can be read, linked or indexed:

• It is a real, registered place. Where a region keeps a public tourism register, we check the property against it — licensing, classification and the name it actually trades under.
• There is evidence to stand on. Facts must trace back to a named, dated source. If a claim cannot be supported, it does not go in the page.
• It changes a decision. There has to be at least one thing that would make you choose this hotel — or avoid it — over the others on the shortlist: the quiet room, the walk, the parking, the breakfast, the honest drawback. A property that is interchangeable with three neighbours does not get a page.
• It passes preflight. Claims are checked against the records behind them, room details against the property's own documentation, imagery against its licence, and every page against the rest of the site for duplicated words and broken cross-references.
• It clears the bar. The finished page is reviewed cold, against the standard below, and must score above our publication threshold before it can be indexed. A page that fails is repaired or held back — never published quietly.

Some checks can never be waived: image rights, room-record consistency, originality against other pages, and anything a reviewer flags as untrue or unsafe. Everything that fails a check comes to a person for a decision. An editor is accountable for what stays published, and can pull any page from search at any time.

How the research works

• Two sources or it stays out. Guest-experience claims — noise, bedding, air conditioning, breakfast — need two independent sources saying the same thing. One review is never dressed up as a consensus.
• Everything is dated and attributed. A fact without a date is a rumour. Where we can show the source, we do.
• Rooms are checked, not guessed. Capacity, size, bed configuration and bathrooms are verified against official records. We would rather omit a detail than invent one.
• Walks follow real ground. Walking times use actual pedestrian paths, slopes, stairs and public lifts — not straight lines or driving speeds — because a 300-metre walk in Porto is not the same as a 300-metre walk anywhere else.
• Prices are observed, never promises. Where we show a rate, we date it. The live price and availability always sit with the booking partner.

Our method is software-assisted by design. Automation reads public records, maps pedestrian routes and cross-checks claims at a scale no desk could — and it runs the pre-publication checks above. What it does not do is decide what we stand behind: the standards are set by an editor, every failure comes to a person, and the name on this page is accountable for what stays published.

What we refuse

• Paid inclusion. No hotel, chain or manager can buy a place on a Folio shortlist, a badge or a better score. There is no sponsored ranking at any price.
• Commercial previews. No partner or hotelier sees a page, a rating or a verdict before you do.
• Money in the copy. A commission never changes a score, a ranking or a sentence. How we are funded is set out in full on our disclosure page.
• Invented experience. A stay rating appears only when someone actually stayed and reviewed. We never imply a visit that did not happen, and pages built from research say so.

What we can't promise yet

• We have not slept in every hotel we cover. Most pages are built from registers, official documentation, mapped ground truth and verified guest reports. The page tells you when a stay happened — and when it did not.
• Hotels change. Restaurants close, prices move, lifts break. That is why facts carry dates and why our corrections desk investigates every report within two business days.
• Not every good hotel has a page. If a property cannot support an honest, useful page, it stays out of search until it earns one.

Who's accountable

Folio's standards are owned by Folio Editorial — An independent travel desk dedicated to verified hotel research, honest drawbacks, and structured accommodation data.. Read more about Folio and the desk behind it. Found something wrong, or something we should cover? Tell us — corrections are welcome and acted on.