How we label facts: current, confirm, expired

Every fact we use sits under one of three labels: current, confirm before booking, or expired. The label tells you how far to lean on the fact. This guide gives the test for each and what to do next.

The labels are part of how IslandQuest decides what to recommend. The date beside each source is explained in how to read as-of dates on this site.

What does each label mean?

Label	The test	What you do
Current	An official or operator source, read on the date shown, with nothing contradicting it	Use it for planning, and still check your quotation
Confirm before booking	Secondary source, low confidence, or a kind of fact that changes often	Ask the operator and get it in writing
Expired	Too old for its kind, or replaced by a newer source	Do not use it, ask for the current figure

Practical implication: only a written quotation turns any label into a figure you can pay against.

What moves a fact from one label to another?

Three things move a fact: the source type, the age, and how fast that kind of fact changes. A jetty location can stay current for a long time. A fee or a season date ages quickly, so the same age makes it confirm-before-booking much sooner.

A fact can also move for a reason outside time. If a resort or an official page contradicts it, we recheck it at once and the label changes.

What does a fact moving look like?

Take the extra charge reported at Besut in 2022. A news report said the district council began charging an extra RM5 per visitor on top of the fisheries fee, and the current status is unknown.^[1]

That makes it confirm before booking: the report is real, but it is secondary and old, and we cannot see today’s rule. If an official notice later dropped the charge, we would mark the old figure expired and say why. Until then, ask your operator whether any such charge applies and whether it is inside your price.

Where will you see the labels?

You will see them as wording next to a figure, for example “reported as”, “at the time of checking” or “confirm with the operator”. Sources and their dates sit at the foot of the page. Facts we could not check at all are covered in how we handle unverified information.

Why not hide the doubt?

A page that shows only confident numbers looks tidy and can mislead you. We think you plan better when you know which numbers are firm and which are not. Our editorial policy sets this as a rule, and the way we recheck figures is in how we keep prices and timetables fresh.

A better fit if…

This guide suits you if you are about to budget around a fee or a boat time and want to know how firm it is. It suits you less if you are still choosing between islands. In that case, start with the island shortlist matcher.