People aren't all looking for the same thing
Behind the search "gay accommodation" there are three different things.
There are gay-only hotels, with an exclusively LGBTQI+ clientele, almost always male. They exist in few places and cluster where there's already a scene: Gran Canaria, Sitges, Torremolinos, Puerto Vallarta.
There's the gay-friendly hotel, which is the overwhelming majority of what's out there: a mostly straight clientele that treats you like anyone else.
And there's what a lot of people are actually after, which isn't about the hotel at all. It's about the neighbourhood, how the street looks at two in the morning, and the receptionist's face when you ask for a double bed.
Confusing them is why people book badly.
The three badges, and what each one certifies
This is the part almost nobody explains. You'll see three badges and only one involves an audit.
Travel Proud, from Booking
The most common one: a rainbow suitcase. It certifies that at least one member of staff completed Booking's free inclusive-hospitality training, a ninety-minute online session delivered with HospitableMe, and that the property commits to applying it and making the toolkit available to guest-facing staff.
Booking counts more than 150,000 properties carrying it, across 163 countries. Its own page mentions no follow-up audit.
So: a signal of intent. A hotel with two hundred staff can display it having trained one.
IGLTA member
The International LGBTQ+ Travel Association has been going since 1983 and brings together more than 11,000 tourism professionals in over 80 countries. It's a trade network: it gives access to its convention, its events and use of the logo.
Joining is open to any business involved, directly or indirectly, in LGBTQ+ tourism. Being a member says they joined the network. It doesn't say they passed a filter.
IGLTA Accredited
The name looks like the one above and has nothing to do with it. It's a separate programme, run with an independent auditing organisation.
Eight criteria, all or nothing: a business has to meet every one, and has to meet them again each year to keep claiming accreditation. IGLTA defines it by what it isn't: not training, but an audit that the inclusion practices are already in place.
Of the three, it's the only one that checks anything.
The neighbourhood matters more than the hotel
A hotel can treat you beautifully and leave you on a street you'd rather not walk back down at night. It works the other way too: in an established neighbourhood almost any hotel does the job, because the surroundings already did it.
That's why the suggestions on where to sleep hang off each city page here, with the neighbourhood first. On every one we say where the scene is, how far it sits and which area is comfortable.
One nuance that rarely gets said: sleeping in the gay neighbourhood isn't always worth it. It tends to be pricier and louder. If you're there for the scene, it pays. If you're working or travelling with kids, the next neighbourhood over usually suits better.
What to ask before booking
The bed, above all. Booking a "double room" doesn't guarantee a double bed: in many systems the default double is two separate beds, and changing it at reception depends on what's free that day. Write it into the booking and, if the destination gives you pause, ask for confirmation by email. Having it in writing spares you the conversation at the desk.
Reviews too, but the ones that count. Not the hotel's marketing copy: what same-sex couples who slept there wrote. A hotel with fifteen years of reviews and not one mention of a problem tells you more than any badge.
And if the destination has its own registration rules, ask before you arrive. Some countries require documents from both guests.
Where all this stops helping
In a country where same-sex relations are criminalised, no hotel badge changes what happens once you step outside. They can treat you impeccably and still sit somewhere the law doesn't protect you.
That gets settled before you look at hotels. Every country here carries its level, with the legal framework, the social climate and documented violence kept apart. Accommodation comes after.
