Meet the Guild
Curated by Our Guild Explorers · Updated September 2026
The books in the Guild Travel Library are written by our Guild Explorers — the research team who go looking for the current facts, prices and seasons of a place and then write it all down in plain English. That is why every guide is signed the same way at the top of the page: Curated by Our Guild Explorers.
But a book still has to be handed to you by somebody. Four faces do that work across this site, and if you have been reading a while you have already met all of them — a parrot at the Library door, a second parrot offering to answer your questions, and a pair in ranger hats waiting at the top of every American state guide. This page is simply the introduction we owe you.
The Founder
The books in this library are researched and compiled by the Guild Explorers. This is the man who reviews them and stands behind them.
Mark Guilds was fifteen years old when he took his first job in a hotel, and he has worked in hospitality every year since. In 1983 he founded his own hotel management company, Guild Companies USA, and spent the next four decades managing and overseeing hotels, resorts and restaurants — more than two hundred properties in all. He has opened them, turned them around, staffed them, and sat in the back office at two in the morning working out why the numbers did not land.
Sixty-two years of that teaches you something the brochures never say: what a place is actually like when you arrive tired at eleven at night, which neighborhood is worth the extra twenty dollars, and when the honest answer is “not in August.”
Destinations Guild is the library he wanted to be able to hand a guest. The Guild Explorers research and compile the books; Mark and the Guild desks review them and stand behind them. Where we earn a commission we say so. Where a place does not live up to its pictures, we say that too — honesty is the business model here, not a cost of it.
Mark works from Phoenix, Arizona, and is a licensed real estate agent with HomeSmart in Arizona.
We are not journalists who visited once. We ran the places you are booking.
Researched and compiled by the Guild Explorers · Reviewed and stood behind by hotel, restaurant and travel people · Updated September 2026
Polo — Chief Navigator
The one who keeps the shelves, and the one to see if you want to write a guide of your own.
You meet Polo in the Guild Travel Library. The Library is tended by two librarians — Polo the Chief Navigator and Polly the Travel Concierge — and it is Polo’s name on the shelves: which books are open, which are still being written, and where a country sits on the case. He keeps the Seven Wonders shelf too, which is his sort of errand: a short list, properly ordered, no padding.
The navigator’s title is not decoration. The Guild’s masthead spells TRAVEL in the international maritime signal code, the site menu calls itself the Chart Room, and Our Story tips its hat to the navigators who charted the world long before any of us. Polo is the part of the Guild that still thinks in charts — where a thing is, how you get there, and what order to do it in.
He is also the one to see about writing. Open the Polo & Polly button in the corner of the Library and the first thing on his side of the menu is write your city — the door to becoming a Guild Reporter. If you would rather send a note than fill in a form, the Ask Polo & Polly message on the Get Involved page reaches the Guild by email, and a person reads it.
One honest note: Polo does not chat live yet. The Library says so plainly — live answers from Polo are still being wired up. For now he keeps the shelves and the Reporter’s door, and questions go to Polly.
Polly — Travel Concierge
The scarlet macaw who answers travel questions, free, without an account.
Polly is the Guild’s concierge, and she is the reason a parrot keeps offering to help you. Her job is the ordinary business of getting somewhere — hotels, beaches, cruise ports, itineraries, what month to go.
One honest note, and it is a change from what this page used to say: Polly’s live chat is not open at the moment. The little Ask Polly button that used to sit in the corner of the home page was taken down in September 2026, and her chat desk is being wired up properly before it goes back. We would rather say so than leave you tapping at a parrot that is not there.
In the meantime the question still reaches her, and a person answers it. Write it in your own words on the Get Involved page — Where should I go in October. Is this a good month for Paris. Find me somewhere quiet near the port — and we read every one and reply by email. There is no sign-up and no charge; if a booking follows, it happens on Trip.com, and the Guild earns a small commission that keeps the Library free.
She also flies. Every cruise-port guide the Guild publishes carries her in the banner at the top — a parrot in the corner of the header on the Aruba and Cozumel port guides, bobbing gently while you read. In the Library she is the one who pulls a book off the shelf when you tap a spine, and the picks marked Polly’s Pick on the home page are hers.
The same form sits at the Library door, under Ask Polo & Polly Anything.
“Hi, I’m Polly! Your free travel guide — send me a question about a trip, a hotel, or anywhere you are dreaming of.”
Bodhi & Nolie — The Guild’s American Road Guides
Two ranger-hatted guides who ride shotgun through every state.
Open any American state guide and, before the hotels and the itineraries, a green-and-gold strip says hello. That is Bodhi and Nolie. They greet you at the top of all fifty states, Washington D.C. and the U.S. territories — so each book reads like a road trip with friends rather than a wall of listings.
Bodhi
The Head · the story & the mapHe has driven every back road twice and knows why the town got its name. Bodhi brings the why — the history, the route, and the one fact that makes a place click. He is the reason Texas opens by telling you it was its own country for nearly a decade, and Hawaii by reminding you it had a queen and a palace.
“Now here’s the good part…”
Nolie
The Heart · the feel & the secretWhere Bodhi has the map, Nolie has the feel — which overlook at golden hour, where the locals actually eat, and which “tourist trap” is secretly worth it. Hers is the line about Texas brisket giving you opinions for life, and the warning that Alaskan weather does not read the calendar.
“Trust me on this one.”
Where to Go Next
Three doors, depending on what you came for.
Frequently Asked Questions
What readers ask us most about the four of them.
Who writes the Guild’s books?
Every guide in the Guild Travel Library is the work of the Guild Explorers, our research team. They gather the current facts, prices and seasons for a place, check them against public sources, and write the guide so you do not have to do the digging. That is why every book carries the same signature at the top: Curated by Our Guild Explorers. Polo, Polly, Bodhi and Nolie are the faces those books are handed to you by; the Explorers are the people behind them.
What is Ask Polly, and does it cost anything?
Ask Polly is the Guild’s free travel concierge. Her live chat is not open at the moment — the button that used to sit in the corner of the home page was taken down in September 2026 while her chat desk is wired up properly, and we would rather tell you that than let you hunt for it. Until it is back, send the question in your own words through the Ask Polo and Polly form on the Get Involved page or at the Library door. It reaches the Guild by email, a person reads it, and we answer every message. There is nothing to sign up for and no charge, then or now.
Are Polo, Polly, Bodhi and Nolie real people?
They are the Guild’s hosts, not our staff list. The research and the writing are done by the Guild Explorers, and the four characters are how that work is handed to you: Polo at the Library door, Polly at the concierge desk, Bodhi and Nolie in the passenger seat on an American road trip. We would rather say so plainly than let anyone wonder. The facts in the guides are checked either way, and we always tell you to confirm prices and hours before you travel.
Where do I meet Bodhi and Nolie?
At the top of every American state guide. Each of the fifty states, plus Washington D.C. and the U.S. territories, opens with a short green-and-gold greeting strip where the two of them say hello and tell you one true thing about the state before you read another word. The quickest way to find them is the America bookcase on the state-by-state page, where every state sits on the shelf as its own book.