Affiliate disclosure &
editorial firewall.

The plain version

HauntBound is a curated directory of haunted travel destinations. We make money in three ways:

1. Affiliate commissions from a small set of booking partners (listed below). When you click a link on HauntBound and book a tour, ticket, or stay, the partner pays us a small commission. You pay the same price either way.
2. Reader-supported newsletter for our most engaged audience (currently free; paid tier coming late 2026).
3. Direct sponsorships from haunted-tourism operators who want to reach our audience. These are clearly disclosed as "Sponsored" on every page they appear.

Programs we participate in

As of 2026-05-04, HauntBound has applied to but not yet deployed any affiliate programs in production. When we do, this list will be kept current. Future-shipping programs we expect to use:

• Viator (a Tripadvisor company) — for haunted walking tours, ghost tours, museum tickets, and other bookable experiences.
• GetYourGuide — same category as Viator; either or both depending on inventory at a given venue.
• US Ghost Adventures (via Awin) — ghost tours, paranormal investigations, and overnight stays at properties this operator runs in 200+ US cities.

Programs we have declined to participate in, and why:

• Booking.com — declined for editorial-fit reasons. Routing readers to a generic OTA when a haunted hotel has its own booking system tends to give the reader a worse experience (higher rates, weaker cancellation terms). Our top-12 hotels guide always links to direct-venue booking when available.

The editorial firewall

Our editorial decisions are independent of our affiliate relationships. Specifically:

• Inclusion is not for sale. We don't accept payment to add a venue to the directory, to remove a venue, or to alter its content. Every venue in the catalog gets there through editorial vetting.
• Ranking is not for sale. The "HauntBound Picks" homepage rail and the editorial guides (e.g., the haunted-hotels-you-can-stay-in list) are ordered by editorial scoring algorithms — historical depth, sources cited, image quality, family-fit, and editor verification. We don't bump a venue up the list because they're an affiliate partner.
• If we feature a venue with no affiliate program, we still feature it. We don't preferentially recommend venues that pay us. Several of our top picks have no affiliate relationship at all.
• Sponsored content is clearly labeled. If a haunted-tourism operator pays for a featured slot or a sponsored newsletter mention, the placement is labeled "Sponsored" — never integrated into editorial rankings.
• Direct booking takes priority over affiliate booking. When a venue has its own booking system, we link directly to it. Affiliate links are a fallback for venues without direct-booking infrastructure or for tour aggregators that don't operate as booking-direct.

How to identify an affiliate link

Every page that contains affiliate links carries an inline disclosure box above the affiliate links themselves. You'll see something like:

Some links on this page may earn HauntBound a small commission when you book — at no extra cost to you. Our editorial picks are independent.

We mark every outbound affiliate link with the HTML rel="sponsored" attribute, which is the standard signal to Google's search algorithms and a courtesy to other crawlers. If you ever want to bypass affiliate routing, you can usually copy the link, identify the destination domain, and visit it directly.

FTC compliance

Our disclosure architecture is built to comply with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides (16 CFR Part 255, last updated July 26, 2023) and the Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule (effective October 21, 2024). Specifically:

• Disclosure is "clear and conspicuous" — visible at the same time as the affiliate link, without scrolling or interaction.
• Plain-language disclosure ("we may earn a commission") instead of jargon ("affiliate link" or "#partner").
• This page (linked from the footer of every page on the site) provides the full version of the disclosure.
• We never publish reviews or testimonials we have a material connection to without disclosing it.
• HauntBound is operated under Firefly Hollow Enterprises LLC (Michigan, USA). Affiliate income is reported on Form 1099-NEC and Schedule C as required.

Questions, corrections, or disputes

If you have a concern about a specific affiliate link, a venue's placement in our rankings, or a sponsored placement that doesn't appear to be properly labeled, email editor@hauntbound.com. We respond to every editorial-integrity concern.

For partnership inquiries (venue claim, affiliate, sponsored placements): partners@hauntbound.com.