Dear Friend,

You are reading this because somebody we like vouched for you. That is the whole admissions process. Hotel Shortlist is friends and family only: if nobody inside knows you, there is no way in. Do not make us regret it.

Every hotel in here has been checked, not just listed. Every review, every platform, every year. One bad review is noise. Fourteen is a fact. We find the fourteen.

Here is how the money works, because you will ask.

Membership is €500 a year. You pay it in as a top-up on your account, and it stays yours to spend on rooms, at rates that are usually a few percent under what Booking.com would charge you for the same bed on the same night.

Every member gets €50 of research credit on top. Research credit pays for due diligence: open any hotel and we go through everything ever written about it, so you have the verdict before you book. Each hotel costs €0.50, so the €50 covers a hundred of them. Research beyond that comes out of your balance.

The fee is waived by booking, and only by booking. Book €500 or more of hotels with us in the year and there is no membership fee. Book less and the fee is the difference. Book nothing and the €500 was the price of the year, and fair enough. Research never counts towards it.

Welcome. Go somewhere good.

Ben — Founder · writes back personally