The short version: Boomeropia does not sell travel. When a reader books through certain links in our articles, Boomeropia may earn a commission from the booking. The commission does not change what we write about an operator, what we recommend, or what we say when we recommend it.
FTC Compliance
This page is the FTC-compliant disclosure of material connections between Boomeropia and the operators, networks, and platforms whose links appear in our articles. It also covers how Boomeropia chooses which operators to recommend and how affiliate status does and does not affect that choice. If you only read one section, read “Editorial independence is not for sale” below. It is the principle that governs everything else on this page.
How Boomeropia makes money
Boomeropia does not sell travel. We are not a tour operator, a travel agency, an online booking site, or a hotel. We are an editorial product. We do not collect money from readers for subscriptions, memberships, or paywalls.
The site earns money, when it earns anything, from: affiliate commissions, ad banners, ads. When a reader clicks a tracked link in a Boomeropia article and books a tour, a cruise, a hotel stay, an experience, or a related travel product through the partner the link points to, the partner may pay Boomeropia a small commission. The commission is paid by the partner, not added to the reader’s price. The reader pays the same amount whether they use our link or arrive at the operator’s site on their own.
Boomeropia’s affiliate relationships live inside affiliate networks and direct partnerships with operators. Networks are intermediaries that route clicks, set commissions, and issue payments; operator-direct partnerships cut out the network for some operators. The current list of programs Boomeropia participates in is small and is documented in our internal monetization tracker. If we have not yet applied to or been accepted into a program for an operator we recommend, the link in the article appears as an unstyled placeholder text marker until the program is approved. Readers see the operator named and the context; the click does not yet track a commission.
Articles that include affiliate placeholders will, when the relevant program is approved, begin resolving those placeholders to tracked links without any change to the surrounding copy.
How affiliate links are placed
A link to an operator appears in a Boomeropia article when the editorial recommendation is real. The recommendation comes first, the link follows it, and the link is included only when a relevant affiliate program exists for that operator. We do not place affiliate links to operators we have not recommended. We do not recommend operators primarily because they have an affiliate program. We do not include affiliate links to one operator when we would otherwise recommend a different one.
Affiliate links are placed in context: a paragraph about a specific cruise line includes a link to that cruise line’s booking page or to a Viator experience that matches the recommendation; a paragraph about a specific tour operator includes a link to that operator’s small-group tours; a paragraph about a wine region includes a link to a wine-tour platform or to a hotel partnership that fits the article. The link is part of the sentence, not a banner or a sidebar although banners and sidebars may also exist.
Where an article covers an operator for whom no affiliate program exists, the operator’s name appears without a tracked link. The reader can find the operator on their own. The lack of an affiliate link does not affect how we cover the operator, and the presence of one does not affect how we cover the competitor.
Editorial independence is not for sale
The presence of an affiliate link does not buy a recommendation, and the absence of one does not deny one. Boomeropia’s editorial coverage is decided by the editor. Operators do not see articles before publication. Operators do not receive veto power over what is written about them. If a trip is taken at a reduced rate or as a familiarization, the article says so. If a press release inspires coverage, the press release does not become an article.
The full statement of how Boomeropia writes, including how outside contributors are held to the same standard, is on the Editorial Standards page. The two pages are intended to be read together. The independence rule is the same on both pages.
Cookies and tracking
When a reader clicks an affiliate link, the destination site or affiliate network may set cookies or use other tracking technology on the reader’s browser. The cookies record that the reader arrived from Boomeropia and, if the reader completes a booking within the program’s cookie window (typically 7 to 90 days, depending on the program), Boomeropia receives a commission on the booking. Boomeropia does not set or read these cookies itself. The cookies are set by the operator’s site or the network’s redirect domain, not by Boomeropia. Boomeropia does not see what the reader does on the operator’s site after the click, and Boomeropia does not receive any personal information about the reader from the booking.
Readers who prefer not to be tracked by affiliate programs can clear cookies before clicking, use a private browsing window, or block third-party cookies. None of these will affect the price the reader pays for the booking. Readers who prefer not to use affiliate links at all can navigate to the operator’s site directly by typing the URL or using a search engine; the operator’s price will be the same.
What Boomeropia will never do
The list is short and the items on it are not negotiable.
- Boomeropia will not accept payment for a positive review or a favorable comparison.
- Boomeropia will not change a recommendation because an operator asked.
- Boomeropia will not present a comped trip without disclosure.
How to contact us about this page
If a reader, an operator, or a network has a question about a specific link in a specific article, or about how Boomeropia’s disclosure works in practice, the best way to reach us is through the contact page linked from the site footer. Corrections are taken seriously and verified before changes are made to either this page or the article in question.
Updates to this page
This page is reviewed and updated when the affiliate disclosure materially changes. The byline on this page carries both a Published season and an Updated season so the reader can see the general time-frame when the most recent review ran.