How We Verify Every Hotel
No vague "family friendly" labels and no paid placements that change what we say. See which evidence supports a listing, when it was checked, and where uncertainty remains.
Why this exists
I became a mum in 2024. When I started planning our first trip with my daughter, I kept hitting the same wall, and it was always the same missing number.
Hotel websites that said “family friendly” but buried the kids club minimum age in a PDF, or didn’t mention it at all. Booking.com showing a beach as a highlight with no mention of the 75 steps to reach it with a buggy. Review sites full of opinions from parents of ten year olds that told me nothing about whether my eight month old would actually be welcome in the crèche.
I wanted one place that answered the questions that actually matter when you travel with a baby. What is the exact minimum age for supervised childcare? Is the beach genuinely safe for a toddler, or does “beach access” mean a rocky scramble? Can I push a buggy through this resort without carrying it up stairs?
So I built the index I needed. Each listing is researched around the questions parents actually ask, and its page shows the evidence route behind the information.
Four evidence routes
These labels describe where the information came from. They are not interchangeable, and a commercial partnership is never an evidence route.
Visited by Tiny Trip Index
Our team observed the property in person. The page still states when the visit happened and what was checked.
Property confirmed
The hotel answered specific questions or supplied documentation. This is clearly labelled as property-confirmed evidence.
Parent reported
A family shared a moderated, first-hand observation. Reports are reviewed before they influence public information.
Official-source research
Information comes from current hotel pages, policies, brochures, maps, or other official published material.
Our trust promise
We separate what we visited, what a property confirmed, what a parent reported, and what we found in official published sources.
Not every hotel is verified in the same way. A page may use one or several evidence routes, and we label them so you can judge the information for yourself.
Commercial relationships never buy inclusion, a badge, a ranking, or a favourable conclusion. When evidence is incomplete, we say so rather than filling the gap with a guess.
Our 5-step verification process
We apply these controls as appropriate to the evidence available. Each hotel page identifies which evidence routes apply and when the information was last checked.
Official website review
We start with the hotel's own website. We read the kids club page, the family section, pool descriptions, resort map, and any PDFs or brochures they publish. If the kids club age is buried in a FAQ or a downloadable brochure, we find it.
What we check
- Kids club operating hours and age groups
- Baby pool dimensions and heating details
- Beach access path descriptions and gradients
- Family room configurations and cot policies
- Baby equipment available (sterilisers, bottle warmers, high chairs)
Direct hotel contact
When the website is ambiguous or missing key details, we contact the hotel directly by email or phone. We ask the specific questions a parent with a baby would ask, not the questions a travel journalist would ask.
What we check
- "What is the absolute minimum age for supervised childcare?"
- "Are your baby carers qualified? What certifications do they hold?"
- "Is the staff-to-child ratio published? What is it?"
- "Is there a separate sleep or nap room for babies in the crèche?"
- "Can I bring a buggy to the beach, or are there stairs?"
Moderated parent reports
Parents can submit first-hand updates from a hotel page. We ask when they stayed, what they observed, and whether we may use the report anonymously. A report is a lead until it has been reviewed; it does not automatically overwrite a listing.
What we check
- Whether the report comes from a first-hand stay
- The month or season of the stay, because facilities can be seasonal
- Which facility or policy the report concerns
- Whether the observation is specific enough to verify
- Whether the parent has consented to anonymous editorial use
Data entry and quality check
We enter every data point into the index: minimum age, amenities, childcare quality indicators, beach reality rating, buggy friendliness score, and an honest description written in plain language.
What we check
- Kids club minimum age (the single most important number)
- Three Childcare Quality Indicators: staff ratio, dedicated baby carers, sleep room
- Beach Reality rating (0 to 5) with a written note explaining the score
- Buggy Friendliness rating (1 to 5) with terrain details
- Verified Exceptional for Babies badge, only awarded to hotels that meet all criteria
Ongoing re-verification
Hotel policies change. Kids clubs get restructured, pools get renovated, new baby facilities get added. We re-verify listings periodically and whenever a parent reports a change.
What we check
- Every listing shows a "Last verified" date
- Parents can report updates directly from any hotel page
- Seasonal changes, such as clubs that only run in summer, are clearly noted
- Price and availability are never cached; "Check Prices" links go direct to current booking pages
What we measure
We record these five dimensions when reliable evidence is available. A missing answer stays unknown rather than becoming an assumed score.
Kids club minimum age
The exact youngest age accepted in supervised childcare. The number one question every parent with a baby asks, and the one most hotel websites bury or omit entirely.
Childcare Quality Indicators
Three binary indicators: published staff ratios, dedicated baby carers, and sleep room availability. A hotel can have a crèche from 4 months and still score poorly here if the staffing and facilities don't hold up.
Beach Reality rating
A 0 to 5 score reflecting actual beach conditions for families with babies: sand quality, access path, shade, wave intensity, and how shallow the water entry is. Marketing photos show beaches at their best. We describe them as they are.
Buggy Friendliness
A 1 to 5 score rating how easy it is to navigate the resort with a buggy: lifts versus stairs, ramp availability, path surfaces, and distances between accommodation and facilities. Several resorts that score well on everything else score poorly here.
Verified Exceptional for Babies
A special badge for hotels that genuinely excel across all criteria. Not self-reported by the hotel, not based on marketing materials. Earned through our full verification process and only awarded to a small number of properties in the index.
What we won't do
We won't let commercial relationships influence our ratings or descriptions. Hotels are listed because they meet our verification standards, not because they paid to be here.
We don't present a hotel's own statement as an independent observation. Property-confirmed information is labelled, dated, and kept distinct from visits and parent reports.
See it in action
Browse the listings and inspect the evidence labels, last-checked dates, known details, and open gaps for yourself.
Browse HotelsBuilt by a tired mum. Verified by someone who needed this to exist.