How Cozumel Compass Makes Money, Stated Straight
This is the affiliate disclosure the footer links to, and our editorial standards in the same place, because they're the same promise. No legalese fog, just how this site is funded and why that doesn't bend our picks.
How we make money, in one breath
Here's the deal in one breath: Cozumel Compass is an independent travel guide, some of the links here are affiliate links, and if you book through one we may earn a commission. It never costs you a cent more, you pay exactly what you'd pay going direct, and that commission is what keeps the guide free to read. That's the entire business model, and we'd rather tell you plainly than bury it. The honest list of who pays us: tours run mostly through Viator or GetYourGuide, places to stay run through lodging partners like Booking.com or Expedia, and flights and ground transport go through travel and car-rental partners on the same setup. In each case we're an affiliate, not an "official partner", and the partner pays us a cut of a booking you'd have made anyway. Plain editorial links, official sources, government pages, other guides, are not affiliate links and earn us nothing.
The details, answered straight
Which links are affiliate links?
The buttons and links that send you to a booking partner (Viator and GetYourGuide for tours, Booking.com and Expedia for stays, plus our flight and transport partners) are affiliate links. Plain links to official sources or other guides are not.
Does that change which tours or hotels you recommend?
No, and that's the whole point of saying this out loud. We pick on partner ratings, traveler reviews, and what each option is genuinely best for, and we flag it when a pick is a judgment call. Nothing ranks higher because it pays more. A guide you stop trusting is a guide that stops earning, so the incentive runs the right way.
Have you personally done every tour?
No, and we won't pretend we have. We rank live listings on Viator and GetYourGuide by what genuinely counts, small groups, a real safety reputation, what's actually included, and our picks come from research: aggregated reviews and operator reputation. We don't fake first-person testing. When we haven't been somewhere ourselves, we tell you and point you at the live listing instead of inventing a story.
Are the prices and ratings on the product cards real?
Those come straight from the partner and update on their own, which is why they're labeled "pulled live". They're real. Everywhere else in the writing you won't see a hard price or a star count, because those go stale in a week and we're not going to guess at one to fill a sentence.
Are the photos your own?
The photos on the site right now are licensed stock images that show the kind of experience you'll find. They're not passed off as our own trips, and we label them honestly. Original photography goes in over time.
Who runs this, and how do I get in touch?
We're an independent guide, not a cruise line, an operator, or an official tourism board, which is exactly why nobody can buy a better ranking. If something here is wrong or out of date, or you just want to know who is behind this guide, the story is on our about page.
How can I support the site?
If the guide helps you plan, booking through our links is the easiest way to support the work, at no extra cost to you. That's it. Thanks for that.