Travel Site Quality Guidelines

LonelyPlanet, like other search sites, does not create the content or products that we display in search results.

However, to help maintain high quality results on LonelyPlanet, we have developed the following guidelines for any sites displayed on LonelyPlanet. These guidelines were developed based on feedback from LonelyPlanet users. These policies apply to our core results (in the middle of the results page) and to sites we search via "compare to" links.

1. Sites must ensure that price and availability reported are as accurate as possible.

   Due to the nature of what we do— real-time searches for travel options across hundreds of suppliers— LonelyPlanet will sometimes find and display a travel option which is not accurate. These types of mistakes happen on all travel sites, but we still work hard to minimize these types of errors on LonelyPlanet.

   Usually these mistakes are due to some technical reason (it is difficult to keep all the various computer systems synchronized as to whether a particular seat on a plane or room in a hotel is booked).

   LonelyPlanet will not tolerate any sort of "bait and switch"— if any travel site is found to repeatedly provide mistaken information, they will be removed from LonelyPlanet.

2. Taxes and fees must be included, or noted when not.

   In the LonelyPlanet UI, we use a * to indicate that taxes and fees are not included in the price. If you see a price that violates this policy, please report it to LonelyPlanet.

3. Sites should take orders only for what they can deliver.

   If a travel product is shown as available in LonelyPlanet results, and then shown as available on the travel site, and a credit card is taken, then the travel site must confirm the purchase within 24 hours, by email, phone, or other means. If the travel product is no longer available, then the customer must be immediately refunded all money, including all fees. If LonelyPlanet detects a consistent pattern of accepted bookings that are then cancelled, we will remove the site from our results.

4. Sites must be responsive to customers.

   Sites must clearly publish contact email address and phone numbers. If you have a question or problem with a purchase you made on any site you found through LonelyPlanet, that site must be responsive to your email and/or phone calls.

How You Can Help

If you find a site on LonelyPlanet which you think intentionally or repeatedly violates any of these guidelines, please send us feedback with all details, and we will investigate. If we find that a site is intentionally or repeatedly providing bad service, we will remove that site from LonelyPlanet.

See also our affiliate quality policy and our spam policy.