Holiday Reviews is an independent editorial authority on the world's best hotels and escapes. We review properties, score them against a published methodology, and refuse to write a paragraph differently because a hotel paid for the page.
When we launched Holiday Reviews in May 2023, the travel landscape did not need another platform. It had booking engines. It had directories. It had influencer-led wishlists and crowd-sourced star ratings. What it lacked was a quiet, editorially serious, methodically signed verdict — a publication that visited hotels properly, scored them transparently, and named a weakness in every review.
So we built it. The brief was unfashionable: long-form, deliberate, slow. We do not chase news. We do not break exclusives. We do not write listicles about "the 25 most romantic hotels in the world". We publish one annual Holiday 100, a weekly newsletter, a small number of destination guides, and as many individual reviews as our editors can responsibly produce.
A few years in, the platform reads more or less as we intended. We have reviewed properties across destinations. We have the editorial team based in Melbourne, London, Tokyo, Mexico City, and New York. We have a published methodology and a published corrections log. We have refused to take seven partnerships, of which six were generous.
The brand we are trying to build is the one the industry has always needed and the one the internet keeps failing to deliver: a place where the score is the score, the verdict is signed, and the next reviewer at this address will not be a marketing executive.
— The Editorial Team
The score is set by the editorial team alone. Partnerships fund the platform; they do not shape the verdict.
Every review carries a named byline. Anonymous editorial is not published on this platform.
Every review names at least one weakness. A review that finds nothing to criticise is incomplete.
The Holiday Score system is published in full. The weights are fixed. The criteria are public.
Hosted stays are labelled. Sponsored guides are labelled. Commercial relationships are disclosed publicly.
Properties are re-reviewed every 24 months. Reviews are dated. Old reviews stay visible but visibly dated.
Every review is signed before it is published. The names appear on the reviews themselves. We are not a single voice; we are a small group of editors who travel, write, and disagree about hotels for a living.
Visit hotels. Review them against ten criteria. Score them. Publish the verdict under a signed byline. Re-review every two years. Name a weakness in every review.
That is, on most days, the whole job.
Take payment to write a review. Publish under anonymous bylines. Score a property differently because it's a partner. Run sponsored editorial inside the scored index.
These boundaries are written into the methodology.
Featured listings, sponsored guides, and annual partnerships are available by application. Independence is the brand.
Read the Programme →
One hotel worth booking. One guide worth reading. One place to save.
