Destinito lists thousands of businesses across the destination. This page explains, in partner-facing terms, exactly how we decide the order they appear in — on directory pages, in search, and in concierge suggestions. We publish this so any business can see how ranking works and what it can do to rank better.

1. The core rule: order is earned, never bought

Payment never influences the organic order of results. A business's position in the default ("relevance") ordering is determined only by the signals below — all of which measure how useful and reliable a listing is to a visitor. Whether a business pays for a subscription, an upgrade, or any other product does not move it up or down in that ordering.

2. What determines organic ranking

The relevance signals we use, what each one rewards, and — because these are the same levers that help visitors — exactly what you can do to strengthen each one:

• Verification. Claimed and verified listings rank ahead of unclaimed ones. Claiming is free — this rewards a real, accountable owner behind the listing, not payment.
  What you can do: claim your listing and complete verification — it costs nothing and is the single biggest step an unclaimed listing can take.
• Completeness. Listings with full information — photos, description, hours, contact details, menu, categories — rank higher than sparse ones, because they answer more of a visitor's question.
  What you can do: fill every field — add clear photos, a description, categories, contact details, and a menu where relevant. Each field you complete lifts this signal.
• Ratings & reviews. Rating quality, review volume, and how recent those reviews are. Consistent, recent positive feedback counts more than a few old reviews.
  What you can do: invite satisfied customers to leave honest reviews, and keep earning them over time — a steady flow of recent reviews outweighs a burst of old ones.
• Recency / freshness. Listings whose information has been kept up to date rank ahead of stale ones.
  What you can do: revisit your profile regularly and update anything that has changed — offers, details, photos — so the listing reads as actively maintained.
• Open now & accurate hours. When a visitor is looking to go somewhere now, being open — and having accurate, current hours — matters.
  What you can do: set your regular hours precisely and update them around holidays and seasonal changes, so you surface exactly when visitors can actually walk in.
• Proximity. How close the business is to the visitor or to the area they're searching.
  What you can do: confirm your address and map pin are exact — an accurate location is what lets you appear for nearby searches.
• Engagement. Genuine visitor interest — views and interactions that indicate a listing is useful.
  What you can do: the levers above compound here — a complete, verified, well-reviewed listing earns the genuine interest this signal measures. There is no way to buy or fake it.

3. What paying for our products does — and doesn't — do

Paid products can make a listing more relevant by improving its inputs, and can buy clearly labeled presence. They never buy organic rank.

• Money can buy richness — more photos, live/verified hours, a full menu, online booking or ordering, and other profile upgrades. These legitimately improve the completeness and freshness signals above, the same way filling out a free listing does.
• Money can buy presence — a clearly labeled, capped set of sponsored placements (at most three, visually distinct, shown separately and never mixed into or displacing the organic results) and the partner exposure report.
• Money cannot buy order. No paid tier or flag is ever an input to the relevance ranking itself.

4. Sponsored placements

Sponsored placements are always labeled as sponsored, limited in number, and kept visually separate from organic results. They are a distinct advertising product — a business appears there because it paid for that placement, not because it out-ranked anyone. Removing every sponsored placement would not change the organic order beneath it.

5. The concierge ranks the same way

Concierge suggestions use the exact same payment-blind ranking as every other surface, and any partner listing is clearly labeled wherever it appears. Our AI concierge suggests places using the same relevance signals above. Suggestions are grounded in our destination data — the concierge does not invent venues, and it does not boost a business because it pays. Where a suggestion includes a partner-endorsed option, it is clearly badged and capped (at most one endorsed card per set), never silently promoted.

6. How to rank better

Because ranking rewards usefulness, the levers are the same things that help visitors — and they're free:

• Claim and verify your listing.
• Complete your profile — add photos, a clear description, categories, and contact details.
• Keep your hours accurate, and up to date around holidays and season changes.
• Earn recent reviews — invite satisfied customers to leave honest feedback.
• Keep your information fresh — update menus, offers, and details as they change.

The partner exposure report shows how often your listing appeared and where it can improve, mapped to these same signals.

7. Fair-ranking commitment

We publish these parameters, and we hold to them, in line with fair-trading and platform-transparency rules (including the EU Unfair Commercial Practices and Platform-to-Business regulations that apply on the French side of the destination). If you believe your listing is ordered unfairly, contact us and we will explain how these signals applied to it.