How we make money

How we make money, in plain English.

Destinations for Family is free to use. When you follow some of our booking links and book a holiday, we may earn a small commission. It costs you nothing extra, and it never changes a score, a ranking, or which option we show you first.

The rule that governs everything else

Rankings and data decide what appears on every page. Incentives never do. If the best way to get from the airport to your resort is a local bus company or a family-run transfer firm that pays us nothing, that operator is listed, and listed as the best option. We would rather show you the right answer for free than a worse answer for a fee.

You can see this live on the site today: several of the transfer providers we list, like the express bus from Venice Marco Polo to Lido di Jesolo, pay us no commission at all. They are there because the evidence says they are the best way to do the journey.

Where the commission comes from

Some of the outbound links on a destination page, such as the “book this destination” operators, are or will become affiliate links. If you click one and go on to book, the booking partner pays us a referral fee. You pay the same price you would have paid going to them directly.

Why commission cannot touch a score

Every Family Fit score and sub-score is produced by our scoring engine from open evidence, and a firewall in the code means no rating is ever set or nudged by hand, by us or by anyone else. Commission lives entirely in the booking links, well away from the numbers. A place cannot buy a better score, a partner cannot buy a higher position, and a destination with no affiliate deal anywhere near it ranks exactly as the evidence says it should.

See exactly how the scoring works →

The score comes first

We only point you at places and partners we would be comfortable recommending to our own families. If a destination is a weak fit for your children’s ages or the month you are travelling, the score will say so, commission or not. If that ever stopped being true, the site would have no reason to exist.

Destinations for Family is operated by Makappen Ltd, Winchester, UK. Questions about this disclosure? Get in touch.