Editorial Standards

The promise

Our index ranking, search results, and editorial recommendations are not influenced by referral commission rates, advertiser dollars, or operator pressure. We earn money primarily from operator subscriptions (claimed listings) — never from skewing what visitors see.

How we rank listings

Default sort order on most pages is determined by:

• Rating × log(review count) — a quality signal that prefers properties with both high ratings and meaningful sample size, weighted to avoid one-review outliers
• Index completeness — listings with full data (description, photos, hours) rank higher than skeleton listings
• Domain health — properties whose websites we can reach + verify rank higher than those whose domains are parked or expired

No operator can pay to climb this ranking. Period.

Featured placement (Premium tier)

Premium-tier operators ($99/mo) get featured placement on relevant SCL pages. When this happens:

• The featured listing is visibly labeled "Featured" with the same chip styling on every page where it appears
• It does not displace organic ranking — featured listings are added, not substituted
• The label is the same size and visibility regardless of which operator paid for it

This is a paid product. The organic index above and below it remains unbiased.

Sponsored content

Premium-tier operators may also receive one sponsored blog mention per year. When a blog post contains a sponsored mention:

• The post header includes the line "This post contains sponsored content from [Operator]."
• The sponsored portion is visually distinct (a parchment block with a goldenrod left blaze)
• The rest of the post — including any rankings or comparisons — is editorial and not paid for

Affiliate links

See /legal-affiliate-disclosure for the full disclosure on referral commissions. Short version: we may earn a small commission on outbound links to OTA partners (Hipcamp, Tentrr, etc.). Commissions never influence ranking; we link to operators' own sites first when available.

Fact-check process

For brand listings:

• Property name, location, contact info: sourced from Google Maps via Outscraper, then enriched from operator websites where possible
• Ratings + review counts: sourced directly from Google Maps; not editorialized
• Aspect-level sentiment: extracted from public review bodies via LLM (gpt-4o-mini); evidence quotes are verbatim from the source review
• Property descriptions: synthesized from public sources when no operator-supplied description exists; clearly marked when operator-claimed

For editorial content (blog posts, guides):

• Every factual claim has a source we can defend
• Operator quotes are accurate or absent — never paraphrased into fiction
• Pricing, availability, and policy claims include the date checked

Review moderation

User reviews aren't open yet. When they launch:

• Reviewers must sign in (no anonymous posts)
• Reviewers' real first name + last initial appears with each review
• We do not claim "verified stayer" status — we have no way to verify it as a meta-directory
• We moderate for: spam, profanity, threats, identifying personal information about other people, off-topic content
• We do not moderate for: criticism of an operator, negative ratings, or unflattering opinions, as long as they're truthful and within decency

Operator removal requests

If an operator believes a listing should be removed (because the property closed, was sold, or for legal reasons), they can email hello@glamping.directory. We review and respond within 5 business days. Bulk removal requests for content the operator simply doesn't like are not honored — the index reflects public reality.

Corrections

Spotted an error? Email hello@glamping.directory. We correct factual errors within 5 business days and note the correction in the page's source data.