Editorial Integrity

Last updated: May 27, 2026

PINYA is the confidence layer for first-time travelers and people heading somewhere they have never been. That only works if you can trust what we recommend. This page lays out the standards we hold ourselves to, the questions we have not solved yet, and how to reach us if something looks wrong.

1. How we choose recommendations

Recommendations on PINYA come from three sources, and we tell you which one you are looking at.

• AI-generated itineraries, built by a Claude model from your destination, dates, budget and preferences. These are clearly labeled as AI-created and verified against our destination and safety data sets.
• Destination intel and safety scores, compiled from public government advisories, mapped data and our own structured research. The data sources and limits are listed in our AI Transparency page.
• The Crown planners, trained humans who review your itinerary and add personal picks based on current ratings, recent traveler reviews, safety, weather and local events for your dates.

No supplier pays to appear in any of these. Our planners do not receive commissions, kickbacks or per-booking incentives from any hotel, airline, restaurant or tour operator. We choose vendors that have a record of good experiences for travelers like you, and we name names when an option is bad as readily as when it is good.

2. Our verification commitment

Travel content has a credibility problem because content is cheap to produce and hard to verify. We are building PINYA the other way around. Our quality bar is 100% correct, every time. That bar is aspirational right now, and we are honest about where we are against it.

What we do today

• Cross-check venue names and details against Google Places before they reach you. Surface the data source with the "Venue data powered by Google" badge on planning results and itinerary detail.
• Check safety scores and travel advisories against the US State Department, UK Foreign Office and other government sources for your destination and dates.
• Flag uncertainty in AI-generated itineraries rather than asserting wrong facts confidently. If we are not sure a restaurant is still open or the hours we have are current, we say so.

What we are still building

• Fully automated cross-checks across every recommendation, every time. This is a critical-path engineering project right now.
• A correction loop visible to you: when you flag an error and we fix it, the corrected version replaces the old one in our data set.

3. Affiliate transparency

At launch, PINYA does not earn affiliate revenue. When we send you a booking link, it goes directly to the provider. No tracking link. No commission. No rev-share. Your loyalty programs credit normally.

If we activate affiliate links in the future, here is what we commit to.

• We will not change which providers we recommend based on payout. The recommendation is chosen first; the link is the last step.
• Every affiliate link will be disclosed inline at the point of click and globally on this page.
• Our editorial standards will not be relaxed for affiliate partners. A bad option does not become a recommended one because someone paid us.
• You will be able to turn off affiliate links in your account settings and receive direct provider links instead.

We will not flip this switch quietly. If affiliate links go live, you will see a banner on the page, an email to subscribers and an update here with the date.

4. The Crown editorial standards

The Crown is human-delivered trip planning. The same rules apply.

• Crown planners do not accept commissions, complimentary stays, supplier credits or any compensation from a vendor in exchange for recommending them.
• A planner's pick is the planner's honest read of current information, not an obligation to a partner.
• When a planner sends booking links, those go directly to the provider on your own card. PINYA does not stand between you and the booking.
• If a planner has had a personal experience at a venue, they will say so. We treat that as useful context, not as a conflict.

5. Corrections and contact

Wrong opening hours. A restaurant that has closed. A safety detail that is out of date. An itinerary recommendation that did not hold up. Tell us. We fix and re-publish.

• Email: travel.sweeter@gmail.com
• Response goal: within three business days

For privacy and data questions, see our Privacy Policy. For how our AI works, see AI Transparency.

This page will change as we ship the rest of our verification stack, change our affiliate posture, or learn from mistakes. Substantive changes will be dated and disclosed here.