Editorial policy

FancyPoints describes hotels in Bulgaria that hold the top official category in the national tourism register. Every fact on a hotel page or guide comes from a defined type of source. Where a fact can change, it carries a date. When a fact differs from the hotel's own website, it is corrected to match. The rules below explain how this works.

Sources and their order of trust

FancyPoints uses three kinds of source. Each one is trusted only for the facts it is suited to.

• The national tourism register, kept by Bulgaria's Ministry of Tourism, for a property's official category, its type, its rooms and beds, and whether its category is still valid.
• The hotel's own website, for facts about the hotel itself: rooms, pools, spa, meal plans, ski or beach access, event halls and their capacities, and rules for children.
• Official operators, for practical prices quoted in guides, such as lift passes, transfers, metro fares and day-spa passes.

Booking platforms, review sites and a hotel's own claims about its stars are never used to decide the category. Other websites and third-party listings are not used for hotel facts.

How the category is checked

Each hotel is matched to a register entry by name and address. The star badge appears only when that entry shows the top category and is valid. If no match can be made, the hotel is not presented as top category, whatever its marketing says.

Categories are awarded for five years and can be stopped or terminated early, so a valid entry today may not stay valid. Register figures are always given with the date they were pulled. A pull of every valid category 5 entry on 2 November 2026 found 164 entries: 134 hotels, 26 villas, 3 holiday villages and 1 apartment complex. One property can hold more than one entry, so the 164 entries are not the same as 164 hotels. The register data page sets out the full breakdown.

Villas and other property types

The register categorises villas differently from hotels. For that reason villas are kept in a separate villas section and are never mixed into hotel lists or hotel comparisons. There are 128 hotel pages and 13 villa pages, and the two are always counted separately.

Dates and rechecks

A fact that can change is shown with the date it was checked.

• Register figures carry the date of the pull they come from.
• Practical prices in guides carry the month they were checked, written as, for example, "Prices checked November 2026."
• When the register is pulled again or a price is checked again, the figure is updated and the new date replaces the old one.

Hotel details are checked against the hotel's own website. If the website changes, the page is brought into line with it.

What is never published

Some things are left out on purpose, because they cannot be checked against a reliable source or would compromise independence.

• Room rates or price comparisons for hotel stays
• Guest ratings, review scores or quoted reviews
• Estimates of any detail a hotel does not publish
• Paid placements, sponsored rankings or paid-for positions in lists

If a hotel does not publish something, such as a children's policy or the capacity of an event hall, the page leaves it out or marks it as not published.

Comparisons, shortlists and photos

Comparisons only set a hotel against others in the same town or resort area. Hotels in different regions serve different trips, so comparing them would mislead you. Shortlists are unranked unless the guide explains why it uses an order. The reasons for including a hotel are based on published facts, never on payment.

Photos come from the hotel's own website or show the destination itself. If a hotel has no suitable photos, its page shows a location map instead.

Independence and booking links

No placement in FancyPoints is for sale, and no ranking is sponsored. Booking buttons open the hotel's official website and are marked as sponsored. The affiliate disclosure explains what that label means. Booking links have no effect on which hotels appear, how they are described or where they sit in a list. More on what FancyPoints covers is on the about page.

Corrections

When a fact differs from the hotel's own website, the hotel's website is treated as the reference and the page is corrected to match. The register remains the reference for category, type, rooms and beds. A practical price that no longer matches the official operator is updated with a new "Prices checked" month. Where a hotel no longer holds a valid top category, the star badge is removed.