Editorial policy
What "Editorial" means on RuinMyTrip, and what it does not
RuinMyTrip launched with no traveler reviews, because it launched with no travelers. A lot of new review sites solve that by inventing users. We did not, and we will not. Instead the site opened with research we wrote ourselves, labelled as ours on every screen it appears.
The rules we hold ourselves to
- Editorial content is never anonymous. It is published by one account, RuinMyTrip Editorial, and every review, guide and tip it publishes carries an Official Review or Editorial label. There is no unlabelled editorial content anywhere on this site.
- We never claim to have gone. Editorial reviews are researched from published and official sources: national tourist boards, park and transit operators, museum and site ticketing pages, government travel advice. They carry no visit date and never the "Verified visit" badge, because a visit did not necessarily happen.
- Our rating is not the community rating. An editorial score is shown separately and is excluded from every destination average, by database query, not by good intentions. When a destination page says "no traveler reviews yet", that is the literal truth even though our own review sits above it.
- Facts over vibes. Prices, fees, seasons and rules are checked against a primary source at the time of writing. Where we could not confirm a current price, we describe the cost qualitatively instead of guessing a number.
- Photographs are real and licensed. Every destination photograph is a genuine photograph of that place, used under its licence, credited to its photographer with a link to the source.
- A traveler beats us. When real reviews arrive they are shown above the editorial one. Our research is scaffolding, not the product.
What editorial content is not
It is not sponsored, and nobody has paid for placement, a rating, or an inclusion. It is not a personal recommendation from a person who went. It is not a substitute for a first-hand review, and it is not counted as one anywhere in the product, including in the counts on the homepage.
Things change, tell us when they do
Entry fees rise, shuttle systems change, a restaurant stops being worth the walk. If something here is out of date or wrong, the most useful correction is a review from someone who has just been. That review will outrank ours on the page.