Editorial Policy

Last reviewed 16 July 2026

Who writes this

CraftVenturous is one person’s record, not a content farm. There is no freelance pool, no syndicated filler, and no AI-generated reviews. If a review is on this site, we went there, or we bought it, and we wrote about it afterwards.

Where the reviews come from

This site is the collected, permanent home for reviews that were scattered across other platforms. Each kind has a different origin, and none of it is aggregated from strangers:

• Places — breweries, wineries, distilleries, restaurants, parks, and campgrounds we visited. These began as our own reviews and visit notes, written after a real visit on a real date. Where a review has also been published elsewhere, the page links out to that copy so you can see it in the wild.
• Beverages — our own Untappd check-ins. A check-in only exists because the drink was in our hand. The rating is the one we gave at the time, and if we’ve had something more than once, the page says so.
• Gear — drawn from our actual purchase history. We review things we bought to use, not samples sent to us in exchange for coverage. If that ever changes for a particular item, that review will say so plainly, in the review itself and not in a footnote.

What the ratings mean

Ratings are on a five-point scale and they are a personal opinion, formed on the day. They are not a lab result and not an average of other people’s scores. A rating reflects the visit we had — the beer that was on tap, the staff who were working, the weather on the campground. Yours may reasonably differ.

We date every visit for exactly this reason. A four-star visit from three years ago is a historical record, not a promise about tonight. When we learn a place has closed, we mark it closed rather than quietly deleting it — the visit still happened, and the record is worth keeping.

Money, and where it stops

We earn commission on gear links, and we say so on every page that carries them and in our privacy policy. Here is what that money does not buy:

• No paid reviews. Nobody has paid for a review, a rating, or a mention. There is no rate card, because there is nothing for sale.
• No commission on any beverage. Our affiliate links are gear only — glassware, camp kitchen, outdoor equipment. We do not sell alcohol and we earn nothing when you buy a drink. The beverage reviews are the least commercial pages on this site, and that is on purpose.
• Commission never moves a rating. A product’s score is what we thought of it after using it. Plenty of things we bought were not worth recommending, and those don’t get a glowing write-up to earn a click.
• We pay our own tab — unless the review specifically says otherwise. If a place ever comps us anything because of this site, that review will tell you, up front and in the review itself.

Everything above is the standing rule. Where a particular review is an exception, the exception is stated in that review — you should never have to come back to this page to find out how something was paid for.

If we ever take sponsorship, it will be labelled as sponsorship, kept out of the reviews, and disclosed at the top of anything it touches — not blended into editorial and hoped for the best.

Points, perks, and how we paid

Not every stay or meal is paid for the same way, so here is the line we draw. There are two separate reasons to tell you something, and we try to be clear about which is which.

Someone gave us something because of this site:

Always disclosed, in the review. A comped room or meal, a press or media rate not available to the public, a free sample, an upgrade handed over once someone recognised the name, a hosted tour. Anything a business gave us that it wouldn’t have given an ordinary customer walking through the door gets said plainly. That is the connection you’d want to know about when weighing what we wrote.

We paid, just not in cash:

Not a favour, and not a connection. When we book a stay with hotel points or airline miles we earned ourselves, we are a paying customer settling the bill in a currency we already owned. The hotel gave us nothing for the review and doesn’t know one is coming. Same for a gift card we bought, or a room booked on a public discount anyone could use.

We’ll often mention it anyway — an award stay is interesting in its own right, and you may want to know what it cost in points. But we mention it because it’s useful to you, not because anyone bought our opinion.

Our visit wasn’t what yours would be:

Noted for accuracy, not obligation. Loyalty status can come with an upgrade, free breakfast, or a late checkout — perks any member at that tier gets, not a gift for coverage. Nobody is buying us, but it does mean our visit wasn’t the one you’d have booking the same room. Where something like that would materially change how the visit read — a suite we didn’t pay for, an empty off-season campground, a private event — we say so, so you can calibrate.

Corrections

We get things wrong. If we have a fact wrong about your business — the hours, the ownership, whether you’re still open, the spelling of a beer — please tell us and we’ll fix it. We’ll correct any factual error we can verify, promptly and without argument.

Opinions are a different matter. We won’t remove or rewrite an honest, first-hand account of a visit because the subject didn’t like it — that would make every other review on this site worthless. But we’ll always read what you have to say, and if something has genuinely changed since we visited, that’s a good reason for us to come back and take another look.

Photography

Photos on review pages are ours, taken on the visit. We don’t use stock imagery to stand in for a place we went. Where a page has no photo yet, it shows a brand graphic instead of a picture of somewhere else.

Questions

If anything here is unclear, or you want to know why we scored something the way we did, just ask. See also our terms of use for what you may do with this content.