Partnerships, what we offer hoteliers and owners

This page is addressed to properties, not to travellers

We publish an accommodation guide. We start with the place and not the destination: we come across a house or a hotel, we verify, and the country comes after. If you run a house, a villa, a hotel, a guesthouse or a lodge, and you are wondering how to appear in it and what you get by signing, the answer is here.

One thing first, because it is better to know before you write. Nine of the properties in the selection belong to the group that publishes this guide and are marked Maison Naïades in our CMS. They receive no editorial favours and carry the same mandatory point to watch out for as yours. So we are both judge and party on part of the catalogue, and we state it rather than leave it to be discovered.

How a property enters the selection

Three criteria, looked at in this order. The first eliminates the fastest.

• A detail found nowhere else, and one that photographs. An infinity pool, a bed outdoors, a bathtub facing the open sea. A standard amenity, however well described, is not enough.
• A story, and someone behind it. Owners, an architecture, a point of view. This criterion rules out large faceless operations on its own.
• A point to watch out for, stated openly. Whatever is awkward about your place, and which the traveller will discover anyway. We would rather write it before they arrive.

A property with a fact that is not confirmed stays in draft. This is not a refusal, it is a wait: as long as an opening time, a condition or a rate has not been verified, the entry does not go live. The detail of this method is public, we have written it up in an article in the journal.

What we offer, whether you are a partner or not

• A written entry, not an advertisement. It describes what is there, what we singled out, and the point to watch out for that goes with it.
• A direct booking link to you. Every entry carries one, and it comes before any affiliate link. Some entries also carry a Booking.com affiliate link, which pays us if a booking is made, at no extra cost to the traveller.
• Internal linking. Your entry is connected to its country page, its destination and its mood categories, from the geographic index through to pages such as unusual places to stay. It is this network of links that lifts an entry, not the entry on its own.

Three statuses exist in our CMS and tell the reader which relationship is involved. Maison Naïades means the group that publishes the guide runs the property. Partner means there is a commercial agreement. Selection means an editorial favourite, with nothing given in return. The status is displayed, and it is not negotiable either.

What a partnership does not buy

• Not a place in the selection. The three criteria come before the commercial agreement, never the other way round.
• Not the removal of the point to watch out for. It is mandatory on every entry, including on the nine houses the group runs itself in Réunion.
• Not a change to a recorded price. When your rate and the platforms’ rate do not match, the entry carries both amounts and says so. We do not settle it in silence. If the difference is explained by a promotion or a particular condition, tell us and we will write it.
• Not a favourable verdict. What we write remains what we think, agreement or no agreement.

The point to watch out for is not a sanction. It is what makes the rest of the entry readable: a reader who finds a reservation set down in black and white then believes what is said in your favour. The properties that have understood this send us theirs themselves.

What we ask for on photographs

Written, explicit permission, before any publication. Without it, we do not use your images, and the entry stays online with a dark background and the words “Photo to come”. We prefer an entry with no image to a generic image showing something other than your place.

A property that does not reply to our permission request keeps its place in the selection. A photograph is not a bargaining chip, and its absence is not paid for with a demotion. For location images, we limit ourselves to verified open licences, with a visible credit in the format “Photo Author, licence”.

Write to us, and start with the awkward point

The contact form on the site is the right way in. Give the name of the property, what is there that cannot be found elsewhere, who is behind it, and the point that might bother a traveller. That last item will close no doors, it is in fact the one we read first.

If you would rather know first who you are dealing with, our about us page sets out the method, the conflict of interest and the business model. We reply to everyone, including when the answer is no, and we say why.