Editorial Code and Standards

Independence

No hotel hosts Spa Hotel Finder, pays for a review, or sees copy before it publishes. We accept no hosted stays, and no hotel pays for coverage, placement or a score. We earn money only through affiliate commission: when a reader books via a partner link, the booking site may pay us a commission, though not every link or hotel pays one. That commission never moves a SpaRator score, a ranking, or a single sentence. Our Affiliate Disclosure page has the full detail.

How We Score

Every hotel gets a SpaRator score out of 10, built from six equally weighted categories: Spa Treatments, Spa Facilities, Wellness Programs, Staff & Service, Experience, and Value for Money. Each score rests on more than 40 documented data points: facility checks, fee stacks, seasonal rates, platform ratings, and guest-feedback patterns. Scores are averaged, never hand-tuned, and each one carries a label on a six-step ladder: Limited, Modest, Solid, Strong, Outstanding, Exceptional. The method is versioned, currently Guidelines version 9.9, and every page shows the version it was scored under. Third-party ratings from TripAdvisor, Google, Booking.com and others are always shown separately and never relabelled as ours. How SpaRator Works sets out the full method.

Sources and Evidence

Each analysis draws on the hotel’s own website and booking terms, its spa menu, booking platforms, public guest reviews, and press coverage. Every new or re-scored analysis keeps a fact ledger: each figure on the page has one line with its source and the date it was captured. Analyses scored before the ledger was introduced in August 2026 are rebuilt to it as they are re-scored. Guest reviews are counted and dated; each page states how many reviews it drew on and from which platforms. If a hotel doesn’t publish something, like a spa’s square footage, we name it as unknown rather than estimating it. When a property confirms a fact directly by email, we credit it on the page as property-confirmed.

How This Site Is Made

We apply one written method, the same way, to every hotel. We read and organise large volumes of published terms, rates and guest reviews so you can compare spas like for like. The AI tools behind it are general-purpose models from established providers, used inside a workflow Spa Hotel Finder built (the written SpaRator rules, the sourced fact ledger, James’s briefs and style guide, and the checks before publishing).

Where AI Tools Help

AI tools gather the facts for each hotel into a fact ledger: every figure on the page (fees, prices, room and treatment-room counts, review volumes, dates) gets one line with its source and the date it was captured. Every new analysis has one; older analyses get one when they are re-scored.

They organise and analyse large datasets, such as rate captures and guest reviews, to find patterns a reader can compare across hotels.

AI writing tools draft pages from the fact ledger and James’s brief, to his style guide and samples of his writing. They also draft titles, meta descriptions, structured data and image alt text. James reviews and edits every output from the AI writing tools before it publishes.

AI tools also run routine workflows. Every draft is checked against the fact ledger and the written quality checklist: an automated scan plus a review of every figure, name and date. Anything that fails goes back to be rewritten and checked again.

What Stays With James

James Sinclair designs the SpaRator method and its rules, analyses the output, briefs the work, writes and edits prose himself, and reviews and approves what is published. His own words ship as he wrote them. Scores are computed by applying the written SpaRator rules to the ledger. Responsibility for every page and every score is his.

What AI Never Does

AI tools never set or adjust a score; never invent a stay, a treatment, a visit or a guest quote; and never generate images of hotels. Every image is either supplied by the hotel’s own channels or booking platforms, or our own photography labelled as ours, as the Photography section explains.

We update this section as our tools change.

What Desk Research Gives You

Desk research means one written method applied the same way to every hotel, and today every analysis is desk research. Each analysis is built from the hotel’s own terms, its spa menu, its fee stack and seasonal rates, booking-platform listings, and the guest reviews it drew on, counted and dated. More than 40 documented data points sit under every score. It draws patterns across many guests rather than one person’s single night, and it compares hotels like for like.

No one from Spa Hotel Finder is hosted, and unless a page carries a dated “Visited by James” badge, no one from the site has stayed there. First-hand impressions of a treatment or a room come from the guests whose reviews we count, not from us, and every page says so.

Guest Reviews

We read guest reviews on public platforms like TripAdvisor, Google, and booking sites to understand patterns: what guests praise, what they complain about, and how service holds up. We do not collect reader reviews, we have no user accounts, and we do not edit any review anywhere. Quotes from guests are dated and attributed to the platform they came from. We never change a quote’s meaning, and we never present a quote as our own words.

Photography

Spa Hotel Finder may supply and use its own photography, and any image it took is labelled as its own. Every other image on the site comes from the hotel’s own website, the hotel’s own social media, or booking-platform listings, and the source is recorded for every image. Captions state only what the source supports. We never present supplier photography as our own.

Corrections and Updates

If something is wrong, tell us at info@spahotelfinder.com with “Correction” in the subject line. We acknowledge every report within five business days. Errors that are ours are corrected on the page itself, with a dated note that states the wrong and the right value. Facts that changed in the world get a dated update note instead. The “Last updated” date moves only when facts are re-verified or changed, and every analysis is re-verified at least every 12 months. The Corrections page lists every update note currently on the site, newest first.

Accountability

James Sinclair is responsible for every page and every score on Spa Hotel Finder. Blue Astoria Media Group Ltd publishes the site; it is registered in England and Wales, company number 12187901. Questions about editorial standards go to james@spahotelfinder.com.