How We Test and Recommend Products on TripSavvy Our Testing Process Testing at Home Testing at The Lab Why Trust TripSavvy Meet Our Team Contact Us TripSavvy / Alison Czinkota We’re a team of experienced travel writers and editors who obsessively scour the retail landscape (both online and off) to find the best products. Besides being experts in our fields, we’re consumers too, and we personally have a passion for products that make your life—and especially your trips—easier and more enjoyable. 1:05 How We Test, Evaluate, and Rate Hundreds of Products Every Month Our Testing Process We exhaustively research and recommend a broad range of products and ultimately make a curated list of recommendations from writers with subject-matter expertise in every product category we cover. We do receive an affiliate commission on some (but not all) of the products that we recommend if you decide to click through to the retailer site and make a purchase. After we publish an article, we don’t just forget about it. Our team is relentless when it comes to updating and keeping our existing recommendations fresh, accurate, and helpful. We have our fingers on the pulse when it comes to the latest product releases, from camping equipment to luggage, and more. Our recommended products run the gamut from budget to splurge-worthy, and we’re not loyal to any one specific retailer or brand. We make it a point to source recommendations from reliable companies who deliver exemplary customer service, so you can have a seamless shopping experience. As a travel site that is trusted by people around the world, we are committed to ensuring that our content reflects the diversity of our audience. This means showcasing brands owned by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and other minority groups whenever possible, using more images of mixed races, and hiring more diverse writers and staff members to cover topics important to our audience. Read through our full diversity pledge here. Testing at Home By at home, we mean out in the world, testing products the same way you would use them. Our testers spend months and miles evaluating everything from airplane pillows to luggage to backpacking gear to find out if these items are worth the price tags. We typically send our testers multiple products in the same category so that they can make comparisons, which gives you real insights into how different brands and models measure up against each other. Our testers also take dozens of photos to help you see what the product will actually look like in your home or in your hands. They make sure to capture all the important angles and details to give you the most information before you buy. We buy all of the products that we test and send them straight to the homes of our thorough testers. Each reviewer fills out a comprehensive questionnaire, rating the products for various attributes like comfort, design, or battery life. We tailor the attributes to each category, never using a one-size-fits-all method. You can trust our testers’ honest feedback—both positive and negative—to help you make the most informed buying decision. We give you an overall star rating, pros and cons for each product, and experiences and opinions directly from our reviewers. TripSavvy / Justin Park Testing at The Lab We test thousands of products a year in our 10,000-square-foot lab testing space in Manhattan. Why would we test travel products—items meant to be used on the road, in the sky, or out in the backcountry—in a lab? With any thorough test and experiment, the lab allows us to set controls and test for consistency—across brands, materials, price points, and more—and get creative about how we put products to the test. In our luggage tests, for example, we've been able to pack a variety of suitcases and duffels with trip essentials (including a few breakables, for good measure), maneuver them across multiple surfaces (concrete, carpet, even cobblestone), and then throw them off of high surfaces to see how they hold up. If a suitcase can't survive our thorough testing, it doesn't belong on your trip. We put that level of consistency, creativity, and comprehensiveness into every product we test, whether it's luggage, tents, backpack coolers, or travel strollers. TripSavvy / Conor Ralph Why Trust TripSavvy The product recommendations from TripSavvy are purely editorial. We never let retailers, public relations firms, or salespeople dictate our content and product coverage. Instead, we do the heavy lifting ourselves by tapping into our network of experts and testers to help you make smarter purchases and to avoid that dreaded buyer’s remorse. Meet Our Team Mark Prigg VP Commerce Mark is a VP of Commerce at Dotdash and oversees all of Tripsavvy's reviews and roundups.Mark has run science and technology coverage for newspapers including The Daily Mail, The London Evening Standard and The Sunday Times. He has also written about technology for a vast range of publications from Wired and Pocket Lint to the Daily Telegraph and Business Traveller magazine as a freelance living in London, San Francisco’s and New York.Mark has interviewed everyone from Bill Gates, Marc Andreesson and Jony Ive to the iconic ‘scarf guy’ from Apple’s 2014 iPhone launch. Read more Jamie Hergenrader Commerce Director, Travel Group Jamie Hergenrader is the Commerce Director of the Travel Group at Dotdash Meredith where she leads the content strategy of product reviews and recommendations for the company's travel brands. She joined the company in 2018 and has nearly a decade of experience writing and editing for travel and lifestyle publications. Read more Nathan Allen Outdoor Gear Editor Nathan has been the Outdoor Gear Editor at TripSavvy since 2021. He has nearly a decade of editorial experience and his writing has appeared in publications including Outside, Mountain, Fortune, Quartz, and more.Nathan holds an M.A. from the Missouri School of Journalism and spent two years as an AmeriCorps volunteer in rural northwest Colorado. He enjoys testing gear of all sorts and being outside as much as possible. Read more Contact Us If you have questions, comments, or opinions you’d like to share with our team of editors, please feel free to email us at [email protected]. Please note that all products, including those we review and recommend, may from time to time be subject to recalls or revised use recommendations. We, therefore, urge you to monitor any official announcements from the Consumer Product Safety Commission that may be related to products you purchase.