Editorial standards: how The Keys Local lists and verifies venues
How we decide what to list, why payment never buys a ranking, and how we check what we publish.
Plain rules, in plain words. We hold every listing on The Keys Local to this standard.
The Keys Local lists the venues it tracks, never sells a ranking, checks its listings against the venues' own pages, and fixes what you flag.
The short version
- The Keys Local lists every Florida Keys venue it tracks, by name and island.
- Payment never buys a ranking. A venue that pays nothing is listed the same as any other.
- Featured or sponsored placements, when they exist, are clearly labeled and kept separate from the editorial list.
- Listings come from the venues' own pages and are checked against them, and pages show a last-updated date where we have one.
- Found a mistake? Tell us and we'll get it corrected. Send a fix or add a venue →
How does The Keys Local choose and verify listings?
The Keys Local lists every Florida Keys venue it tracks, by name and island. Payment never buys a ranking here, and a venue that pays nothing is never hidden. Sponsored placements, when they exist, sit inside clearly labeled Featured blocks, separate from editorial listings. Listings come from the venues' own pages and are checked against them, and pages show a last-updated date where we have one. Hours and lineups change often, so the guide tells you to call ahead before the drive.
How we choose what to list
We list the venues we track in the Florida Keys. A venue earns a listing by being a real Keys spot we cover, not by paying us.
Every venue we track shows up, from the busiest bar on the water to the quietest room off the highway. We never remove or bury a venue for not paying, and we never move one up for paying.
A listing shows only the details we have. If all we have is a name and an island, that's all the card shows. We don't invent a detail to fill a gap, and we'd rather show less than show something we can't stand behind.
We don't sell rankings
This is the one that matters most, so we'll be blunt about it. Ranking and money sit on opposite sides of a wall.
Where we order or highlight venues, that order reflects our read, not who paid. By design, our ranking never looks at whether a venue paid us. That's the rule the site is built around.
If we ever sell placement, it will appear only inside a block clearly marked Featured or Sponsored. A Featured block is visually separate from the editorial list, and it never reorders the honest list around it.
As of today, no venue has paid for placement anywhere on The Keys Local. If that changes, the label will change with it, out in the open, on the page.
How we keep listings accurate
Every listing comes from what the venue itself has published: its own calendar, its own page, its own posts. Our software reads those and publishes what matches, under rules a person set. We check its work against the venues' own pages before an island goes live, and we keep checking as the guide runs. A listing we can't stand behind is held or taken down.
Where we have a last-updated date, it's shown so you can judge for yourself how fresh a listing is. We add and refresh listings as venues post new schedules.
Even so, the Keys move fast, and a schedule posted last week can be wrong this weekend.
Hours, happy hours, and lineups shift for holidays and events. What's shown is what each venue last posted, not a guarantee. Check the venue's own site or call ahead before you make the drive.
Affiliate links and disclosure
When a link on The Keys Local earns us a commission, we tell you plainly, in line with FTC guidance. If a link does earn one, it's at no extra cost to you, and it helps support a small guide like this.
That commission never changes how we rank a venue or whether we list it at all. The wall in "We don't sell rankings" holds here too.
Found something wrong? Tell us
We get things wrong. Hours change, a venue closes, a detail was off from the start. When you spot it, tell us and we'll fix what's wrong.
The fastest way to reach us is our submit page. Send a correction or a venue we've missed and we'll update the listing.
Editorial standards, questions answered
- Does The Keys Local take money to rank venues?
- No. Payment never buys a ranking on The Keys Local. Sponsored placements, when they exist, sit in clearly labeled Featured blocks, kept separate from the editorial list. A venue that pays nothing is listed the same as any other, and no venue has paid for placement today.
- How does The Keys Local decide which venues to list?
- The Keys Local lists the venues it tracks in the Florida Keys, by name and island. Coverage earns a listing, not payment. Every tracked venue shows up, and a listing shows only the details we have.
- How does The Keys Local keep listings accurate?
- The Keys Local takes each listing from the venue's own page, checks it against that page, and shows a last-updated date where it has one. Hours and lineups still change for holidays and events, so the guide tells you to call ahead before the drive.
- How do I report a mistake or a missing venue?
- The Keys Local submit page is the fastest route for a mistake or a missing venue. Send the correction or the new venue, and The Keys Local will check it and update the listing. The submit link sits on this page and on our venue pages.