This policy explains how content on Ora del Garda is researched, written, fact-checked, updated, and corrected. It is binding on every contributor, including the editor.
How we source content
Every guide on this site starts with first-hand experience. That means at least one of the following:
- In-person visits to the destination, hotel, restaurant, attraction, or operator within the last 24 months — recorded with dates, photos, and receipts in our internal notes.
- Direct interviews with the operator: phone or email exchanges with owners, captains, sommeliers, or staff to verify specifics like fleet age, cancellation terms, or seasonal opening hours.
- Primary research from Italian-language local sources that English-only writers tend to miss — comune press releases, Garda Trentino and Visit Garda official channels, navigation authority notices, and the regional press in Brescia, Verona, and Trento.
We do not republish from other English-language travel blogs. If an aggregator-style claim (“the best beach on Lake Garda”) cannot be supported with our own experience or named primary sources, we do not make it.
Fact-checking standards
- Prices, opening hours, and ticket terms are verified within 90 days of publish and re-verified at every quarterly review. Where prices fluctuate (boat rentals, hotels), we publish a range and the date checked.
- Footnotes for non-obvious claims. Where we make a specific factual claim — a record, a date, a statistic, a regulation — we cite the source inline.
- Two-source rule for any claim that materially affects a booking decision (safety, legality, refund policy).
- No anonymous quotes from operators we name positively. If we cite a hotelier or skipper by name, the quote is on the record.
Update cadence
Every pillar page is reviewed at least once per quarter. Spoke pages and destination pages are reviewed at least twice per year, plus before each high season (Easter and June). The dateModified field is visible on every page so readers can see when it was last touched.
Pages that have not been reviewed in the last 12 months carry a visible warning until they are refreshed or retired.
Corrections policy
When we get something wrong, we fix it visibly. A correction notice appears at the top of the affected page describing what was wrong and when it was corrected, and the dateModified is bumped. We do not silently edit material errors out of pages.
Spotted a mistake? Email hello@oradelgarda.com. We respond to correction requests within three working days.
Author independence
The editor controls what appears on this site and in what order. No operator, advertiser, hotel, tourism board, or affiliate partner has influence over rankings, ratings, scoring, or coverage decisions.
Affiliate commission rates do not affect rankings. We pick the best options for the reader first; we add an affiliate link afterwards only if a credible partner exists. If the best option has no affiliate programme, we link to it anyway — see our affiliate disclosure for examples.
If an operator we recommend pulls support, threatens action, or demands favourable coverage, we publish that fact. Editorial trust is the only thing we sell.
AI use disclosure
We use AI tools to draft factual sections (opening hours summaries, comparison tables, transcription of operator interviews) and to translate between English and German. Every AI-assisted paragraph is reviewed, fact-checked, and edited by a human editor before publication. We do not use AI to generate opinions, recommendations, ratings, or first-person experience claims. No page on this site is published without human editorial sign-off.
If you ever suspect an AI-generated claim slipped through unchecked, tell us at hello@oradelgarda.com and we will investigate.