Meet the Guild
Curated by Our Guild Explorers · Updated October 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. Five faces do that work across this site, and if you have been reading a while you have already met most of them — an owl at the librarian’s desk who answers your questions, two parrots who fly your question down to him, and a pair of bald eagles 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 October 2026
Beckett — The Guild Librarian
The owl who knows every book on our shelves, and answers your questions, free.
Beckett keeps the Guild Travel Library. He is an old owl in black half-moon glasses and a scholar’s cap, and he knows every book on every shelf: every country, city, U.S. state, cruise port and fly-fishing water the Guild has written up.
You will find him at the Ask Beckett desk, under the library picture on the home page and in the Library itself. Type your question in your own words — a cruise to Alaska, talk to me about Jamaica, the best time to visit Portugal — and Beckett flies up to the bookcase, finds the guides that answer it, and brings them down to you.
He has one rule, and it is the Guild’s rule: he only hands you books we have actually written. If we have not written that guide yet, Beckett says so plainly and shows you the closest ones on our shelf. He will never invent a hotel or a fact to fill a gap.
There is nothing to sign up for and no charge. If a booking follows, it happens with our travel partners, and the Guild earns a small commission that keeps the Library free.
“Hello. I am Beckett, the Guild Librarian. Tell me where you would like to go, and I shall find you the book.”
Zander — 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 Zander on the home page, standing on the old chart beside the search box with Polly across from him. Tap him and he flies your question down to the Ask Beckett desk, where Beckett the Guild Librarian answers it. Zander is the Guild’s sense of direction: 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. Zander 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. If you would like to become a Guild Reporter, or would rather send a note than ask Beckett, the Ask Zander & Polly message on the Get Involved page reaches the Guild by email, and a person reads it.
Zander does not answer questions himself. That is Beckett’s job. Zander is the messenger who gets your question to him.
Polly — Keeper of the Library
The parrot who flies your question to Beckett, and keeps watch over the Library.
Polly is the reason a parrot keeps offering to help you. She stands on the old chart beside the search box on the home page, across from Zander. Tap her and she flies your question down to the Ask Beckett desk, where Beckett the Guild Librarian finds you the right book.
If you would rather write to a person than ask Beckett, put your question 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. The picks marked Polly’s Pick on the home page are hers.
“Hi, I’m Polly! Tap me, and I’ll fly your question straight to Beckett.”
Bodhi & Nolie — The Guild’s American Road Guides
Two ranger-hatted bald eagles 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 five 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. Beckett, Zander, Polly, Bodhi and Nolie are the faces those books are handed to you by; the Explorers are the people behind them.
What is Ask Beckett, and does it cost anything?
Ask Beckett is the Guild’s free librarian desk, under the library picture on the home page and in the Guild Travel Library. Type a question in your own words, such as a cruise to Alaska or the best time to visit Portugal, and Beckett the owl flies to the shelf and hands you the guides that answer it. If we have not written that book yet, he says so plainly and shows you the closest ones we have. There is nothing to sign up for and no charge.
Are Beckett, Zander, 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 five characters are how that work is handed to you: Beckett at the librarian’s desk, Zander and Polly flying your question to him, Bodhi and Nolie in the passenger seat on an American road trip. Beckett’s answers come only from books on our own shelves, and the people behind the Guild stand behind every guide. 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.