Hotels cannot buy trust. They can earn it, then sponsor visibility through a managed partner workflow.

1. Program Rules

• Trust status is editorial. A hotel cannot pay to be marked Trusted or Trusted+.
• Sponsorship is commercial. A hotel can sponsor placement only after qualifying for the program.
• Scores remain independent. Sponsorship does not change transparency, asymmetry, mandatory-fee, or evidence-tier outputs.
• Status can be revoked. Hidden-fee complaints, stale policy drift, or non-responsive correction handling can move a hotel to Under Review or Revoked.

2. Qualification Standard

• Incidental or deposit language is disclosed clearly before booking completion, not buried behind vague “additional charges may apply” wording.
• Debit-card and credit-card handling is stated explicitly.
• Refund or release timing is stated in operational language the traveler can understand.
• The hotel responds to correction or verification requests within an agreed service level.
• No active pattern of hidden mandatory-fee complaints or late-checkout-only disclosure survives review.

3. Status Levels

• Trusted: clear disclosure, stable policy language, responsive correction handling.
• Trusted+: all Trusted requirements plus recent direct verification and stronger refund-timing clarity.
• Under Review: unresolved complaints, stale records, or evidence of degraded disclosure behavior.
• Revoked: serious mismatch between public claims and observed check-in behavior, or repeated failure to correct disclosure issues.

4. Sponsorship Benefits

• Sponsored profile modules on qualifying hotel pages.
• Featured placement on relevant city or brand authority pages.
• Enhanced profile fields for trust-specific operational notes.
• Faster correction review turnaround and a direct operator contact path.
• Monthly summary export of visible trust and risk signals tied to the property.

Commercial visibility is always disclosed as sponsored. The trust badge itself is still earned independently.

5. Operating Model

• Editorial review lane. Program qualification is reviewed against current site evidence, disclosure quality, and public policy language.
• Commercial onboarding lane. Sponsorship activation, launch timing, and portal provisioning happen only after the commercial step is cleared.
• Partner support lane. Active partners get a dedicated request path for corrections, trust review follow-up, sponsorship activation, and portal support.
• Quarterly re-verification lane. Trust status stays active only if the policy picture remains consistent.

6. Explicit Limits

• No score buying.
• No “pay to remove complaints.”
• No guarantee of permanent inclusion if standards degrade.

7. Onboarding Workflow

1. Hotel or brand operator submits the application form with booking URLs and disclosure language.
2. HotelDeposit reviews public policy language, risk signals, and current site evidence.
3. If the property is operationally viable for the program, the team follows up on qualification and sponsorship scope.
4. Commercial sponsorship and portal activation happen only after the commercial step is confirmed.
5. Once provisioned, the hotel receives partner portal access for support requests and sponsorship coordination.
6. Quarterly re-verification and complaint review keep the status active.

8. What Partners Get After Activation

• Partner portal access tied to the hotel’s operator email after provisioning.
• A structured support path for profile corrections, sponsorship activation, billing follow-up, and trust review questions.
• A cleaner onboarding experience than ad hoc email threads.
• A documented separation between editorial trust review and commercial sponsorship management.

9. Apply

Use this application form to start the operator review. If the property proceeds, the commercial step and partner portal activation are handled directly by the HotelDeposit.org team.

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