Listings are initiated by our editorial team, not by properties. There is no application process. We assess properties through our Healing Depth methodology, based on publicly available information, direct knowledge and, in many cases, personal visits or stays. A property cannot buy, apply for or influence a listing.
No. As of March 25, 2026, listing on HealingGuide is editorial and entirely free of charge. We do not accept payment for listings, sponsored placement or membership fees from properties. This is a structural choice, not a policy: a guide that can be bought is not a guide.
Healing Depth is HealingGuide’s proprietary recognition system. It locates a property within a spectrum of what healing hospitality can offer:
ONE · RESTORE for places that create reliable conditions for deep rest
TWO · INTEGRATE for places where healing is intentional and structurally competent
THREE · TRANSFORM for the rare places where guests leave genuinely changed.
The assessment reads for resonance, the coherence between what a place promises and what it actually creates in the people who arrive, and for genuine transformative potential. It is not a rating of facilities. It is a reading of inner state.
No. Our editorial texts reflect our independent assessment and are not amended on request. If a property believes there is a factual error, such as a wrong address or a discontinued programme, we are happy to review and correct it. Tonal or content change requests are declined. This independence is what makes the assessment worth having.
HealingGuide is built and operated by a global team of strategists, editors and wellness industry specialists. The methodology and editorial vision draw on the work of Thomas Zerlauth, Austrian brand strategist and author. His work centres on meaning architecture: the conviction that brands are not built through communication but through the depth of what they actually create in people.
He operates independently as a global brand and meaning strategist and is engaged by healing properties and wellness brands worldwide. HealingGuide is the place where that work meets the world of healing hospitality.
HealingGuide conducts Brand Integrity Audits and Brand Experience Audits as commissioned services. The frameworks for both are derived from the meaning architecture model developed by Thomas Zerlauth over three decades of brand strategy work in healing hospitality.
Separately, Thomas Zerlauth offers independent brand consultancy and the development of brand and meaning architectures for hotels and hospitality clients.
Neither the audit results nor any external brand strategy engagement influences a property’s Healing Depth recognition, which is determined by HealingGuide’s editorial team. The commercial and the curatorial are kept structurally separate.
A Healing Depth assessment is editorial and complimentary. It tells the world where we place a property on the Restore, Integrate, Transform spectrum.
A Brand Integrity Audit is a commissioned service conducted by HealingGuide: a forensic analysis of the coherence between what a brand promises and what it structurally delivers, conducted remotely across all publicly available signals.
The Brand Experience Audit goes further, adding an unannounced on-site stay and a full Resonance Dossier examining how promise and reality align across the actual guest journey. Neither audit influences a property’s Healing Depth recognition. They are tools for the property, not signals for us.
Yes, and we comply immediately and without discussion. If a listed property requests removal, the listing is taken down and the property receives a brief confirmation. No explanation or renegotiation is required on either side.
Healingguide Inclusion
HealingGuide is a curated guide, not a directory. We do not list every place that applies. We select the places that belong.
Inclusion is free. What we ask for is coherence.
