How we choose partners

Phuket Community works with a small number of local businesses as partners. Partnership means a business pays for a profile on our site and a presence in our newsletter. It does not mean we recommend them editorially — those are separate decisions, and keeping them separate is the point.

What partnership includes

Partners get a dedicated profile page on phuketcommunity.com, periodic inclusion in our weekly newsletter, and visibility across relevant category pages. The profile is written by our editorial team after a visit or detailed review. It’s honest — we describe what the business does well, what it’s known for, and who it’s a good fit for. We don’t write marketing copy.

Partners can edit their own profile details — hours, contact information, photos, descriptions — and can submit notices, events, and local tips for consideration. Submitted content goes through editorial review before it appears anywhere on the site.

What partnership does not buy

Partners do not receive favourable editorial coverage as part of the deal. Our shortlists, guides, and long-form recommendations are produced independently.

A partner might appear in a shortlist — but only if they’d have made it without the partnership. A non-partner might rank above a partner. We’ve done both, and we’ll keep doing both.

Partners cannot review, approve, or request changes to editorial content that mentions them or their competitors. They can request corrections to factual errors on their own profile page.

The distinction is straightforward: partners pay for a profile and the visibility that comes with it. They don’t pay for editorial opinion. If you see a business named in one of our guides or shortlists, it’s there because a resident would want to know about it — not because someone paid for the mention.

How we decide who to work with

We don’t partner with every business that enquires. Our criteria:

The business must be established and operating. We don’t partner with pre-opening businesses, pop-ups without a permanent location, or businesses that have been open fewer than three months.

The business must serve residents, not only tourists. PC’s audience lives here. A business that closes every low season or exists entirely within the hotel-transfer ecosystem isn’t a fit for our readership.

The business must be a place or service we’d mention to a friend. Not every partner needs to be the best in its category — but it needs to be competent, honest about what it offers, and worth a resident’s time.

When we end a partnership

We reserve the right to end a partnership if the business no longer meets our standards. Grounds include sustained decline in quality, conduct that would embarrass us to be associated with, dishonesty with customers, or any attempt to influence our editorial coverage.

If we end a partnership, the business is removed from our site. If they still deserve editorial mention, they’ll still get it — just not as a partner.