A guide is only useful if you can trust it. This page explains how we decide what goes on The EC Guide, what we won’t do, and how to tell us when we get something wrong.
The locally owned rule
We list only locally owned, independent businesses. National chains are not listed, no matter how popular they are.
The one exception is places to stay. Our Stays section includes hotels and resorts whether they are independent or part of a national brand. Much of the Emerald Coast’s beachfront is made up of branded hotels and resort towers, and leaving them out would make it harder for you to compare your options. Everything else in the directory, from restaurants and shops to charters and tours, follows the locally owned rule below.
“Locally owned” isn’t always black and white, so here’s how we judge it:
- Owned and run here. The business is owned by people or a small company based on the Emerald Coast or elsewhere in the region, and decisions are made locally.
- Local businesses with more than one location. A family that runs three restaurants between Destin and Panama City Beach is still a local business. We welcome regional, multi-location businesses as long as ownership stays local and independent.
- Franchises are excluded. Even when a franchise is owned by a local operator, the brand, menu and playbook come from a national company. We leave those out.
- Owned by a larger group. If a business was once independent but is now owned by a national company or private equity group, we treat it as a chain and remove it.
- Gray areas. Sometimes the answer isn’t obvious (a small Southeastern brand with a few locations, for example). We look at where the owners are based, how many locations there are, and whether the place is rooted in the community, then make a judgment call we’re happy to revisit.
How listings are reviewed
Any business can submit a listing for free. Every submission is reviewed by a person before it’s published. We check that the business is real, open, locally owned and within the area we cover, and we edit descriptions for clarity and tone.
We may decline a submission that doesn’t meet the locally owned rule, falls outside our coverage area, or that we can’t verify. Owners can claim their listing and keep it current through a secure link sent to their email.
How stories pick places
Our stories (roundups, guides and seasonal picks) are written with local contributors and people who know the coast. Places are chosen because they fit the story and we think they’re genuinely worth your time.
Where we can, we base picks on firsthand experience. When we include a place we haven’t personally tried, we say so. We don’t call anywhere “our favorite” or “the best” unless we mean it.
A business doesn’t need to be listed in the directory, pay anything, or have a booking link to appear in a story.
Featured placements don’t buy recommendations
Some businesses appear as Featured listings or in the Homepage Spotlight. Some of these placements are paid. Others are free, including spots for businesses our readers vote for in our polls.
Here’s what they do and don’t do:
- Featured and Spotlight placements always carry a Featured or Spotlight label, so you can tell them apart from our editorial picks.
- Paying for a placement does not get a business into a story, move it up in a roundup, or change what we say about it.
- Reader poll winners are featured because readers voted for them, not because they paid.
- Not paying never counts against a business.
- A business still has to meet the locally owned rule to be featured, whether the placement is paid or not.
Booking links
Some listing pages include links to book tours, activities or stays through partners such as TripShock. If you book through them, we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Pages with booking links say so clearly.
Commissions never decide what we list or recommend. We only recommend what we would recommend without one. Read the full Booking Link Disclosure for details.
No fake reviews
We never publish fabricated reviews, AI-invented reviews or testimonials, or anything presented as a customer opinion that isn’t one. We don’t accept payment or perks in exchange for a positive write-up.
Descriptions supplied by business owners are edited by us, and we don’t present an owner’s own marketing copy as an independent review. If someone with a personal connection to a business ever contributes to a story about it, we’ll disclose that relationship.
If we are ever hosted by a business (a free meal, tour or stay), the story will say so near the top, for example: “Example Charters hosted us on this trip.” We have not published any hosted stories to date.
Keeping things current
Businesses change hours, move, change hands and sometimes close. We update listings when owners tell us, when readers let us know, and when we spot changes ourselves. If a business closes, we remove the listing or mark it as closed. If a business is sold to a chain or national group, we remove it under the locally owned rule (places to stay are the exception described above).
Corrections
We try hard to get things right, and we fix mistakes quickly when we don’t.
If you spot an error (wrong hours, a closed business, an incorrect detail in a story, or a business you believe isn’t locally owned), please email theemeraldcoastguide@gmail.com with:
- The link to the page
- What’s wrong
- The correct information, and a source if you have one
We review every correction request. Small factual fixes are made quietly. If we correct something significant in a story, we’ll add a short note at the end of the story explaining what changed.
Questions
If you have questions about how we work, get in touch. We’re always happy to explain a decision.