Editorial standards and corrections

Sourcing

Every reported story names its primary source and, where the desk found it, the corroborating coverage, in a sources block at the end of the piece with links to the originals. Facts about the specific subject of a story come from that material. General background about how the business works is drawn from the desk's own knowledge of the industry and is written as background, not dressed up as reporting.

The standards desk

Before publication, every specific in a draft is checked against the source material: numbers, dates, dollar figures, percentages, named people and companies, rulings and quotations. Anything that cannot be traced is removed or rewritten as unverified background. A note at the foot of each story says whether the check found anything and what was done about it.

Opinion is labelled

Each feature carries the desk's verdict in a box headed The Gazette Verdict. It is the paper's opinion, written in the paper's voice, and it can be pointed. Directly after it, a box headed The other side gives the strongest good-faith case against the desk's own read. Expert-analysis columns are marked as columns and explain how the business behaves in general; their figures are illustrative ranges, not findings, and the column says so.

Illustrations

Every story is illustrated with an original drawing made at the picture desk, and the Illustrations Director approves each one before it runs against a shared picture-desk standard used across our titles: on the story, in the house style, and free of stray text, a logo, a real face or the AI ‘sparkle’ the image models add. A drawing that fails is redrawn. The desk does not use stock photography or third-party images. No drawing depicts a real or identifiable person, and no named property is drawn as though it were a photograph of that property. The paper keeps a register of every image it has published and runs a standing audit for broken, duplicated or uncredited pictures. The image policy in full is on the images and credits page.

Independence

Stay Gazette is not affiliated with Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia or any platform, property manager, software vendor or permit consultant. The paper accepts no payment for coverage. Any sponsored placement would be labelled as such on the page.

Not advice

Analysis and opinion in the Gazette are not legal, tax or investment advice. Rules, taxes and platform policies change by city, state and country and change often; confirm them for your own market before you act.

Corrections

If a story contains an error, write to the standards editor at the desk's inbox with the story's address and what is wrong. Corrections are reviewed by the standards desk; a substantive correction is made in the text and noted at the foot of the story with the date. Requests are acknowledged within five business days.

Tips

The desk reads every tip. Send documents, ordinances, platform emails and screenshots to the tips inbox. Say whether you want to be named; the default is that you will not be.