Has someone actually been there?
Yes. Every business in our directory has been visited and photographed in person.
Cape Cod Certified was started by Matthew Collard, a father of three, to show the Cape the way locals know it. Real photos, real people, keeping it local. The photos on our listings come from those visits. If a photo comes from anywhere else, it can't go live until a person has checked that it really shows that business.
That promise is about our business directory. Lodging isn't visited: each lodging listing is reviewed by our team before it goes live. Contractors and real estate agents have their own pages and their own checks, covered below.
What do we check before a listing goes live?
A listing doesn't go public until it passes every one of these. There is no partial pass.
The basics are complete. Name, category, town, street address, map location, hours, a description and a cover photo. If anything is missing, the listing waits. A description with placeholder text gets sent back.
The hours belong to that business. When we fill in hours from a map service, we only use them if the street address matches. We never borrow another place's hours.
The photos show that business. Each photo is matched to the original file from our visit and checked against where and when it was taken, and any sign in it is read. A photo showing another business's name, or one already used on a different listing, blocks the listing outright. A photo we can't trace back to our own visit waits until a person has looked at it and signed off.
No AI-generated images. Every photo on a listing shows the real place.
The page really works. Once a listing is live, we load its public page and confirm it shows that business. Until that check passes, we don't post it on social media or email the owner about it.
How do we keep it current?
Photos get re-checked every night. The same photo check runs across every live listing and flags anything that no longer adds up, so we can fix it.
Owners can send corrections. If something on a listing is wrong, the owner can email us. We confirm the email comes from the business, check the new details (a new website has to load, a new address has to land in the right town on the map), update the listing, and check that the public page shows the change before we reply. Anything we can't confirm that way, like new hours or a name change, goes to a person.
Guide figures need a source. When a guide gives a fee, a rate or a deadline, our rule is that it comes from a primary source, such as the town's or the park's own page, and we keep a record of where it came from. If we can't confirm a number, we tell you to confirm it with the town rather than guess.
Facts get re-checked. A scheduled scan flags guide facts that haven't been re-confirmed in a while, and any guide that contradicts a fact we've already confirmed at the source, so we can go back and check.
You can see when. Guides and town pages show a “Verified” or “updated” date once we've checked them.
How do we make money?
A listing in our directory is free, and it can't be bought. There is no paid version of a listing, and every one goes through the same checks.
Here is what we do charge for. Every price is on our pricing page.
Cape Cod Passport. A yearly membership for locals and regulars.
Lodging listings. Inns, B&Bs and rental homes pay a flat yearly fee. We don't take a commission on their bookings.
Real estate and lender placements. Agent pages, plus sponsor spots on town pages and buyer guides.
Verified Contractor. A yearly membership for the building trades, with optional guide sponsorships.
Paid placements are labelled. Sponsor spots say Sponsored, and a paid lodging spot is marked Featured.
Some links can also earn us a commission. Shop Now links on Goods & Bundles go to the retailer, and we may earn a commission on what you buy. Some experiences are booked through partner platforms such as FareHarbor, Viator or GetYourGuide, and we may earn a commission on those bookings. Others link straight to the operator.
What does “Certified” mean?
It is our own independent standard: the visits and checks on this page. It is not a government license, a trade certification, or a stamp from any outside body.
For contractors, Verified Contractor means the paid membership above. It includes a check of the contractor's Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration and construction supervisor license (HIC/CSL).
Our seal comes in four versions, and each one says only what we checked. Verified Local is on businesses we visited and photographed in person; it is free and can't be bought. Lodging Member is on lodging listings our team reviewed before they went live. Verified Contractor is on contractors whose HIC/CSL check is done. Local Real Estate is on agent and agency pages our team reviewed before they went live. The last three are paid memberships.
Found something wrong?
Tell us. Email matt@capecodcertified.com with the page and what's wrong. We check it, and if it's wrong, we fix it.
Questions about how we work?
matt@capecodcertified.com