Host Criteria

We’re unearthing the best adventures on the planet, on a mission to help great local, independent adventure providers stand out from the crowd, and make booking with them a breeze. Sounds great, but how does it work in practice?

There is no global benchmark for quality across the adventure industry, but we're looking to build one. Knowing that all our hosts meet this benchmark provides peace of mind to customers, and positive reputational reinforcement to hosts.

While every outfit is different, and that diversity is part of the joy adventure, this criteria is designed to ensure brilliant experiences everytime; run with safety, security and professionalism; and with maximum positive benefits to the local economy and community.

• Freelance guides or independently owned, small-scale local companies (no large international tour operators here, just great local outfits).
• Passionate hosts who specialise in a particular activity or location (no generic country-wide sightseeing tours please).
• Great reputation among past guests and local community (if other people don't love them, why should we?).
• Local expertise (they'll have typically lived and worked in the community for 3+ years at least).
• Run the trips in-house (are not a middleman re-selling other people's trips).
• Carry all official certifications, registrations and insurances applicable to the experiences on offer (you know you're in safe, professional hands).
• Demonstrably looking to minimise their environmental footprint and positively impact their local community (otherwise what's the point?).
• Customer centric and able to reply to enquiries (in English) within 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

It is all designed to empower local hosts and guides to make a great living doing what they love, while funneling money into their local economies and incentivising the conservation of wild places which attract adventurers in the first place.

Our Adventures for Good collection takes that philosophy one step further. To qualify, hosts need to meet further criteria.

How do we vet our hosts?

Every host we accept on to the platform must answer a series of questions to prove they meet the above base criteria, and we ask them provide evidence to validate claims where possible. Their answers are published transparently for anyone to see.

While we do not also make physical checks in person, we typically speak to all hosts at length on the phone to better understand their business, operations and aspirations and ensure they are a good fit for our community.

Once live, all hosts are also required to welcome a trip tester on to one of their upcoming trips. Our testing team include regular customers, other hosts and trusted members of the adventure community. Trip testers provide a trip report and feedback to the hosts on areas for improvements.

Ongoing validation is then done through the community. We ask all customers to review their experience with a host, and these are published on the platform for anyone to see. They are closely monitored, and any issues are addressed with the host.

If we do not feel sufficient action has been taken to solve the issue, we reserve the right to remove hosts from the community. Hosts with a review score less than 4.5 out of 5 will also be at risk of removal from the platform.

We are committed to continual improvement, and welcome input from the community about our criteria and processes.