Methodology · v2026.1

How we report

The desk operates seven departments. Each follows the same verification gate before a piece is filed. This page is the methodology against which every published piece is scored — it is referenced from every article's Filed against aside.

Departments + remit

Reviews: Field-visited property reviews scored against The Standard. Two-night minimum. Self-paid. Anonymous where possible.
Hotels: Inspection reports, openings, ownership transitions, operator changes. Covers properties not yet eligible for a scored review (pre-opening, sub-two-nights, GM-transition).
Villas: Private villa, residence, and estate reviews. Same scoring rubric as Reviews; the property type is different.
Yachts: Charter, brokerage, builds, cruising-ground reporting. Sea-trial coverage. Charter-week observations from the desk's contacts in Monaco, Mallorca, BVI, and Phuket.
Aviation: Private aviation — fleet, route, slot, and ramp-level reporting. Includes fractional, charter, and operator-program coverage.
Dining: Destination restaurants and chefs the desk has travelled to eat at. Not a restaurant review site; a destination-dining site.
Destinations: Geography-led reporting. On-the-ground from a place the desk has been.
Transfers: Ground-transport coverage: car services, chauffeur houses, transfer corridors. Includes the desk's NYC ground-transport coverage anchored on the operator disclosed in the about page.

The verification gate

Every piece, in every department, clears the same gate before it leaves the desk:

Named entities — Every property, brand, operator, architect, GM, chef, supplier, charter house, jet operator, or aircraft type named in the body is independently verifiable against the property's own publication, a corporate filing, an aviation registry, a Michelin or Forbes-Travel-Guide listing, or a news report from a recognised trade publication. If the desk cannot independently verify the entity, the entity does not appear.
Dates — Opening dates, sea-trial dates, fleet-delivery dates, route-launch dates, and any date claim more specific than "early 2026" trace to a named source.
Specifications — Room counts, suite sizes, yacht beams, aircraft cabin pitches, charter rates, jet hourly rates, hotel rate cards — verified against the property or operator's own published material at the time of filing.
Quotes — Attributed quotes trace to a recorded interview, a published press release, or an on-the-record email. We do not paraphrase competitor reviews and call them our own observation.
Prices — Currency-and-date stamped. Rates as-of a stated month.

Sourcing standards by department

Each department maintains its own standing source list. The Hotels desk relies on the property's published material, the Michelin Guide and Forbes Travel Guide ratings databases, and the desk's direct sales-and-marketing contacts. The Yachts desk works from operator press, sea-trial reports, brokerage listings, and the desk's contacts at the Monaco Yacht Show and Palm Beach International Boat Show. The Aviation desk works from EASA / FAA registration databases, manufacturer press, fractional operator filings, and slot-coordinator publications.

Corrections workflow

If a reader spots an error, the workflow is: corrections@luxurytravelstandard.com → the desk verifies → the article is corrected in place with the change noted at the top of the body → the change is logged at /corrections/ with the original-vs-revised diff and a public timestamp. Material corrections (those that change a verdict, a price, a date, or a named-entity claim) get a separate log entry. Cosmetic corrections (typos, layout fixes) are silent.

What this methodology does not cover

The desk does not run a news wire. We do not publish first-to-report breaking news; we publish when we have verified what happened.
The desk does not run an opinion column. The Standard score is the desk's evaluative output; we do not publish op-eds about the industry.
The desk does not run an awards programme. We do not vote properties into a "Best of" list. The Standard score is the only evaluative judgment we publish.

Methodology version v2026.1 was filed on the publication's adoption of the standard, 2026-01-09. Successor versions are versioned at the top of /editorial-standards/.