Verification & Fact-Checking

What “Verified” Means Here

Verification at We Are Guests is not a single step at the end. It runs through everything we publish: how we gather information, how we label it, and what we check before a reader ever sees it.

Every article carries a badge that tells you how it was produced — so you can weigh it accordingly:

We Stayed. First-hand experience. We visited the hotel, resort, restaurant, or attraction in person, took our own photographs, and formed our own opinion.
Researched. Built from detailed research — official information, guest reviews, operator material — rather than a personal visit. Useful, but a different thing from having been there, and labelled so.
Ad. Clearly labelled affiliate links and commercial partnerships. See Ownership & Funding for how this works and what it does not change.

First-Hand Reviews — the “We Stayed” Standard

When a review carries the We Stayed badge, it means a member of the We Are Guests team was actually there. The verdict rests on what we experienced — the room, the food, the service, the queues, the state of the place — supported by our own photography.

Our photographs are our own unless a caption says otherwise. We do not pass off operator marketing images or stock photography as first-hand documentation, and we do not edit images in a way that misrepresents what a place is actually like.

Researched Content — the “Researched” Standard

We cannot visit everywhere, and some guides — comparisons, planning articles, round-ups — are built from research rather than a stay. These carry the Researched badge.

Researched content is held to the same standard of accuracy: the facts must be right. What it does not claim is first-hand experience. We are explicit about the difference so a reader is never misled into thinking we have been somewhere we have not.

What We Check Before Publishing

Whether a piece is first-hand or researched, the same factual details are verified against a reliable source before it goes live:

Names and spellings of hotels, resorts, ships, parks, and restaurants
Prices and fees — and exactly what a price does and does not include
Opening times, park and attraction hours, and seasonal closures
Room types, cabin categories, board basis, and ticket details
Cruise itineraries, ports of call, and sailing dates
Dates, distances, and transfer or travel times
Quotes and statements, checked against their original source

A claim that affects a planning or booking decision does not get published on a hunch. If we cannot stand it up, it does not run.

Prices and Details That Change

Travel prices move constantly, and operators update details without notice. We verify prices and details at the time of writing, and we treat them as a snapshot, not a permanent fact.

Where it matters, we say when a price or detail was checked, and we encourage readers to confirm the current figure with the operator before booking.
When a price has simply moved on since publication, we update and re-date the article. That is a routine refresh, not a correction.
When we got a price wrong, that is a correction — handled under our corrections policy.

Verifying Automation-Assisted News

Much of our travel-news coverage is produced with automation assistance and carries the We Are Guests Newsroom byline. That process does not lower the bar — it adds checks.

Newsroom drafts are generated from identifiable source material and then run through verification before a human editor approves publication. The checks look for claims that the source does not actually support, for figures and names that do not match, and for anything ambiguous. Claims that cannot be supported are removed; anything genuinely uncertain is held for human review rather than published. The full mechanics are described in our Technology & AI Policy.

Where Our Information Comes From

Verification is only as good as the sources behind it. Our Sources page explains where We Are Guests gets its information — first-hand visits, operators, booking partners, official sites, and reader tips — and how we treat each one.

When We Can't Verify Something

Sometimes a detail cannot be confirmed in time. When that happens we have three honest options, and we take one of them:

Leave the unverified detail out entirely.
Publish it with clear attribution — stating who said it and that we have not independently confirmed it.
Hold the piece until the detail can be checked.

What we never do is present an unverified claim as established fact.

Help Us Stay Accurate

If you spot something that looks wrong — a price, an opening time, a detail that has changed — please tell us. Email corrections@weareguests.net, and see our corrections policy for what happens next. Reader reports are one of the best checks we have.