How this guide is picked, paid for, and corrected.

Who picks

I do. Jordan— founder and editor of the 2026 city network. Every recommendation on this site went through me; no ghostwriters, no syndicated copy, no AI doing the work in the background. Where someone else has contributed a piece (rare, and only for cities I’m not on the ground in), the byline says so and the guide is labelled as research-led until I re-check it in person. More about me on my author page.

How venues get on the site

Six rules, applied to every venue across every vertical (restaurants, hotels, clubs, beaches, transport):

1. Seen, not scraped.The shortlist comes from being on the ground — eating, staying, going out. For cities I haven’t hit in person yet, the page says so and the guides there are research-led until I land.
2. Specific or it doesn’t run. A recommendation is a name, an address, a price in local currency, and a reason. “A lovely spot in the old town” never makes it past the draft.
3. Distinctive over popular. The site picks the place that does one thing nowhere else does as well. Two of the same kind is one too many.
4. Owner-operator preferred. Single-location independents come first. Small groups (3–5 sites) considered case-by-case. No franchises.
5. Geographic and price balance. Picks spread across neighbourhoods and price points so the guide reads like a real city, not one street with three tasting menus.
6. Re-checked, not retired. A guide that hasn’t been re-verified in the last season is either re-checked or pulled. The date I last re-checked it sits at the top of every article.

What I take money for, and what I don’t

• Affiliate links — yes, disclosed. Some links to hotels, transfers, experiences and travel services earn a small commission when readers book through them. Disclosed on the page they appear on. The commission never changes the pick.
• Paid placements — no. Venues cannot pay to be recommended. A separate set of clearly-labelled “Promoted” or “Sponsored” slots exists, but those are never mixed in with editorial recs and never written as if they were.
• Comped meals or stays — disclosed in the article. If I sit down somewhere on the house, the guide says so inline. The visit still has to clear the same six rules above or it doesn’t run.
• Concierge enquiries — yes, openly priced. The VIP tables and private jet pages are a paid concierge service. That’s a service, not editorial.

How I fact-check

Every guide ships with a visited or re-checked date in the byline. Prices are quoted in the local currency at the time of the visit (rough sterling conversion in brackets when useful, never as the headline number). Named staff appear when the operator agrees to it on the record — otherwise the guide stays anonymous on the team. Where a fact is from a published source rather than my own visit, it’s linked inline.

Corrections

If a guide is wrong — a price has moved, a venue has shut, a recommendation has slipped — email me the URL and the fix. Send it to jordan@ticketwavehq.com. I’ll update the guide, bump the re-checked date, and credit the reader if they want it.

Editorial independence

The 2026 network is published by TicketWave HQ Ltd, a company I own. It is independent of any city tourist board, any venue, any operator, and any government. No public funding, no city sponsorship, no editorial direction from anyone but me. The legal entity sits in the footer of every page — Companies House 17143167.

This page was last reviewed on 25 June 2026. The rules above are the ones I work to today; when they change, this date moves and the change is logged in the site’s git history.

See also: about the editor · how this works · contact.