Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth Is!

Go With Rosie is a free family travel tool that makes money only when you book hotels. No data selling, no paid placements, no advertising. We score venues on real family experience data, not marketing budgets, and we're committed to giving back as we grow. Here's exactly how our business model works and why it matters for your family.

The Travel Industry Wasn't Built for Families

You've felt it. The "family-friendly" resort that's really just a regular hotel with a kids' menu. The trip planning site that pushes whatever destination pays them the most. The "free" app that makes its real money selling your data to advertisers who retarget you for months.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 33 million American households have children under 18. That's a massive group of travelers, and the industry has been serving them generic recommendations filtered through advertising dollars. We looked at over 50,000 reviews on Yelp and found that only 3.5% mentioned kids at all. Just 0.3% mentioned specific family amenities like changing tables, high chairs, or stroller access.

We've been on the receiving end of all of it. And when we built Go With Rosie, we decided to do something different.

Starting the Way We Mean to Continue

From the beginning, we committed to giving back. Before we made a single dollar in revenue, we gave a family a $500 travel credit just for joining us at launch. As Go With Rosie grows, so does our giving. We're committing to operate like a nonprofit, putting money back into the community that's helping us build this.

How We Actually Make Money

Most travel companies make money one of three ways: they sell your data, they take advertising dollars from whoever pays the most, or they mark up bookings with margins that would make your jaw drop. Sites like Expedia, Booking.com, Hotels.com, and TripAdvisor all run on some combination of those models.

We're not doing any of that.

Go With Rosie is free. Not "free until we figure out how to charge you." Just free. Here's how we're making that work:

Why This Matters for Your Family

When a company's business model depends on selling you things you don't need or collecting data you didn't agree to share, every recommendation comes with an asterisk. You're always wondering: is this actually good, or is someone getting paid?

We wanted to build something where you never have to ask that question.

Whether you're planning a budget road trip or saving up for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, Go With Rosie gives you the same honest recommendations. The same real insights from families who've been there. The same help getting from "that sounds amazing" to "we're actually going."

See it in action: our Orlando family guide covers spots beyond the Disney parks that families actually love, and our 10 hidden family destinations are the kind of unbiased, family-tested recommendations Go With Rosie delivers every day.

The Mission We're Not Backing Down From

We're building Go With Rosie so that every family can travel well, not just the ones with unlimited budgets and unlimited time to research. That means keeping it free. That means staying honest about what we recommend and why. That means earning your trust every single trip.

The travel industry has been doing things a certain way for a long time. We think families deserve better. If you want to see how we score the places families actually go, take a look at our Rosie Approved review of the Chicago Children's Museum.

Questions Families Ask About How Go With Rosie Works

Last updated: April 15, 2026