Wikivoyage:Listings/Draft

Wikivoyage uses standardized formats to list attractions and monuments, activities, shops, restaurants, bars and lodgings under the See, Do, Buy, Eat, Drink and Sleep sections respectively. This page describes those listings.

Adding and editing listings
The easiest way to add a listing is to click on the "add listing" link next to a section or the "edit" link next to a listing (requires Javascript). Doing so will bring up an edit box that can be used to enter listing information. Alternately, you can click the "edit" tab on any article and then select the appropriate listing type from the "Listings" section of the edit toolbar - hover your mouse over each icon, and click on the one that is appropriate. Doing so will add a blank listing template to the edit window that can then be filled out.

Alphabetical order should be used whenever there's no more appropriate logical order (e.g. price, distance, north-south, day of the week, etc.). Where a non-alphabetical order is used, it should be explained if necessary.

Overview
The following section describes how to manually enter or edit formatted listing templates. These structured tags make it easier for software to format the listings correctly. Each tag type is for a different kind of listing, according to the section it's in. Each tag should have the format:

Each entry can either be typed in directly or copy/pasted to the correct place in the text in the edit window. Copy/paste is easier to avoid typos which will cause the code to parse incorrectly. Content is then added to each attribute (parameter) that you wish to use. It is not necessary to delete unused attributes, they will not display if there is no content. Leaving the unused attributes encourages other editors to fill in the missing content later.

Template parameters
The following template parameters are used with the listing templates. No parameter is required, but some are recommended to make a listing at all useful.


 * name: the name of the hotel, bar, restaurant, museum, or whatever. Recommended.
 * alt: an alternative name, either in the local language or just an alternative. Optional.
 * address: the street address for the business or attraction. Do not include the city, state or zip code. Recommended.
 * directions: additional brief directions besides the street address, such as cross streets, nearby subway or bus stations. Optional
 * phone: a phone number for making reservations or getting more information (see Phone numbers for formatting guidelines). Recommended.
 * tollfree: a toll-free phone number, if available. Optional.
 * email: an email address for making reservations or getting more information. Optional.
 * fax: a fax number. Optional.
 * url: the URL for the official Web site for this listing (see external links for more guidelines). Include the http://. If there's no official Web site, just leave this part out. Recommended.
 * hours: opening hours of the business or attraction, when applicable (see Time and date formats for formatting guidelines). Recommended.
 * checkin: checkin time, for sleep listings only (see Time and date formats for formatting guidelines). Optional.
 * checkout: checkout time, for sleep listings only (see Time and date formats for formatting guidelines). Optional.
 * image: specify the filename to show that file as a tiny pop-up image if the numbered icon displayed on a dynamic map is clicked. Optional.
 * price: See below for price guidelines for each listing type. Prices should be in the currency accepted at the establishment. Recommended.
 * see: Price of admission. If there are large differences (eg. adults and children), note them both.
 * do: Price of admission, or one turn at the activity.
 * buy: Usually best to omit price, unless the goods sold are all a very similar price.
 * eat: Average price of a complete meal for a single person.
 * drink: Price of standard drinks. Use the price of local drinks (glass of red wine, sake, or whatever) if beer and cocktails don't make sense for the locale.
 * sleep: The rack rate/standard price of a typical double room. If there are substantial differences in room types (e.g. dorm bed and single rooms) list brief room descriptions and their respective prices. Do not give a per person cost when twin share is necessary to obtain that rate, eg: $20 per person, when a double room costs $40.
 * lat: Decimal latitude (GPS coordinates) for map output. Recommended.
 * long: Decimal longitude (GPS coordinates) for map output. Recommended.
 * Note: lat and long should have the same number of decimal places (using trailing zeroes if applicable). If one is present, so must the other be. See sources for lat/longs for further details.

Examples
The following examples provide the wiki syntax used to generate a listing, followed by the listing as it would be rendered in an article.

See




Do




Buy




Eat




Drink




Sleep




Listing
If the listing doesn't fit into one of the above categories, you can use the "listing" tag for a generic one.





Avoid long lists
Wikivoyage is a travel guide, not the Yellow Pages. Huge undifferentiated lists are only marginally useful to the traveller. A general rule of thumb is that lists should contain 5-9 items, and when they exceed that length it is time to consider breaking them up or pruning them.

For "eat" and "sleep" listings, when listings are sub-divided by price consider using the following templates to provide information about the price ranges covered by each sub-section:


 * Template:Eatpricerange
 * Template:Sleeppricerange

Listing order
Alphabetical order should be the norm within each section. If another standard is used, it should be clearly stated so any new listing can be added to the appropriate place. Leading articles, such as "The", or "A", in the accommodation name should be ignored for the purposes of determining the order.

Avoid using images


Images of businesses, including hotels and their bedrooms, are generally not used. The only exceptions are if the business is a well-known attraction in its own right, or if the image is of a type of accommodation is unusual and unique to the region. In the second case, identifying the lodgings where the picture was taken by name is not necessary.

Compilation from external sources
If one section of a destination articles is unfilled even after the other sections are complete, you might consider compiling material from external sources.

The name and contact details should be obtained from the official web site.

The description can be derived from an impression of the reviews that you have read, together with some facts from the official page, but you should not copy somebody else's words into Wikivoyage. Avoid listing establishments where the reviews are overly negative.

Here's an idea of what a listing compiled from reviews might look like:



Note that the origin of the ideas in the listing are clearly from reviews, but that the words are not. The detail about the TV antenna could be a close call, but only if the words are copied. The presence of the antenna, and its marring of the view from a particular room, would be facts which are free from copyright.

Complex attractions
Some attractions are just too complex to list in the brief format above. There may be interesting historical information, detailed information about different parts of the attraction, or whatever. Examples might be:


 * Large museums
 * Large parks
 * Monuments with long histories

These kinds of attractions may need three or four paragraphs rather than sentences to treat them appropriately.

The difference here is by how much text is needed, not how important the attraction is. For example, the Manneken Pis is one of the most famous sights in Brussels, but there's only so much you can write about a small statue of a peeing boy. Importance of the attraction and how much text is needed are closely intertwined, but this format is keyed to the latter.

For complex attractions, we make a sub-section of the See or Do section with the following format:



Name of attraction
Address (extra directions if necessary), phone number (email, fax, other contact if possible). Days and times open. $entryprice (extra price info). One to five paragraphs about why this attraction is worth seeing, things to pay special attention to, warnings, notes, historical or other background information.

Complex attractions should go at the end of the See or Do section, after any attractions in the list format above. Otherwise, it will look like the list-format attractions are part of the preceding complex attraction subsection.

A good example of a complex attraction is the Golden Gate Bridge in the Golden Gate district of San Francisco.

The campus of a major university may also be a container for multiple points of interest such as museums, art galleries or historic landmarks which are notable as things to "see" or "do" in their own right. Handling these as complex attractions allows all of these points to be grouped as one large entity:


 * Ivy University - University Avenue at Scholar Street, founded 1066. Organised campus tour daily.
 * Elisabeth Ivy Art Gallery (contact info) Paintings from the 18th and 19th century.
 * University Stadium (location, price) Watch live college sports matches every Saturday, seasonal.
 * Great Hall (location) - Historic clock tower and concert hall built by Queen Victoria herself.

Tour listings
Tours can be listed on Wikivoyage as long as they constitute a value-added activity. If a traveler could fulfill the substance of the tour on their own, the tour should not be listed.

Here are a few guidelines to assist determining whether a tour should be listed in our guides:


 * 1) The operator must have a "real world" office with a phone number and address where the tour is operated.
 * 2) Tours should offer something as a supplement, rather than a replacement for Wikivoyage guides. They should count as an activity available at a destination (e.g., a helicopter tour of a city, or a camel expedition into the Sahara).
 * 3) If the tour operator is providing a booking service or general travel planning then it should not be listed.
 * 4) Do not list resellers of tours, only list the actual tour operators.
 * 5) Always list tour operators if they are requisite to visit a certain area. Examples include tours required by law (e.g., Panmunjeom) and tours required due to exceptional danger (e.g., war zones and extreme environments such as the Amazon, Antarctica, Space, etc).

In practice this policy disallows listing most audio tours, walking tours, and guided tours since the substance of such tours can generally be fulfilled by an independent traveler, and the information provided on such tours should ideally be included in the appropriate Wikivoyage article. If you have a question about whether a tour can be listed, or feel that an exception is warranted, please use the talk page of the appropriate article to discuss your concerns.

Rental listings
Wikivoyage is neither an apartment-finder service nor a real estate listing service, so in general real estate and rental agency listings are not allowed. The only exception to this rule is for locations where rental properties are a common form of travel accommodation and the following requirements are met:


 * 1) Consensus must be achieved on the article's talk page that rental listings should be allowed.  When trying to build consensus provide some evidence that rental properties are commonly used by travelers to the destination and that their addition will improve the article.  Please do not argue the merits of any particular company, but instead focus on the value of such accommodation for travelers to the destination city/region.
 * 2) If consensus is achieved, rental agency listings must be placed into a separate sub-section of the article's "Sleep" section.
 * 3) Agency listings must include a local address with a phone number that specifies the physical address at the destination for picking up the keys, managing the property and/or resolving rental issues.  This address must also be prominently displayed on the agency web site.
 * 4) Apartments or cabins must be available for rentals of one week or less - remember, Wikivoyage is a travel guide, not an apartment-finder service.

The general guidelines for accommodation listings apply to these listings as well, that is long lists should be avoided, and information should be concise and relevant to the traveler.

Avoid listing nearest attractions
Hotel owners frequently give detailed list of attractions that their property is "close to". We don't welcome it here at Wikivoyage:
 * it is difficult to judge which hotel is more convenient to a particular attraction,
 * it overloads listing text with details irrelevant for many travelers,
 * "nearby attractions" lists, such as those found on hotel web sites, are pretty much identical for any given hotel in the same area of a city
 * properties routinely abuse this by listing every attraction in the city, or even other towns in a region, regardless of proximity

By all means, if the hotel is attached to a particular attraction (or, say, inside the airport), mention that&mdash;but keep it to just what makes the hotel unique. Instead of writing a long flowery description of the many attractions near the property, contribute detailed latitude and longitude coordinates for the property (see Wikivoyage:Geocoding)&mdash;it will be much more helpful for a traveler choosing a place to stay.

Boring places


On Wikivoyage, we prefer to list stores, restaurants and bars that are unique to the destination—why write about a Gap, when you could go to a Gap in any city? It's often useful to briefly mention what major popular chains are in the area, and to note where they are, but avoid spending too much time on them. See Washington, D.C./Georgetown for a good example of how to quickly handle popular chain shops next to more detailed descriptions of local boutiques.

While not every Wikivoyager's cup of tea, shopping malls are hugely important travel destinations, often outdrawing major tourist attractions by huge margins. It's a good idea to note particularly important malls that a traveler would want to visit, but don't list every store inside. Instead, give a quick overview of some highlights, and try to also mention a thing or two that does make the mall unique!

Example shopping mall listing:



Conversion tools

 * Listing parser to convert unformatted listings - made by User:Ml31415