Fair trade at Suesca.com

Suesca.com lives on advertising from businesses that sell to the climbing community and to visitors of the Rocks. This is the model we sell that advertising with: a share goes back to Suesca, small businesses can pay with what they do, certified businesses pay less, and the rules are the same for everyone, with no exceptions by name.

Updated: October 2026.

5% for Suesca

From every advertising payment that comes in, 5% is set aside at collection, in a separate pot, and paid each quarter. The base is collected cash sales: annual listings and sponsorships (front page, house, news, gear). Affiliates (Stay22, Amazon) are out in this first phase. Sales on the site of a product received in barter do count toward the base, because they are collected cash sales like any other.

There is no guaranteed minimum in money: if there are no sales, 5% is zero. Today the amounts are small, and we say so plainly: the mechanism is the same if they grow someday, and it will not need redesigning when they do. Every year we publish on the site total sales, the amount donated and the organizations that benefited, with no amounts per individual advertiser.

Who receives the 5%

Nonprofit or community-based organizations that work in Suesca, registered on the program page. On the day the quarterly check is cut, the accumulated amount is split in equal parts among all those registered that day. If nobody is registered that day, the amount rolls over to the next quarter.

There is a cap: if a registered organization's annual budget is over COP $100,000,000, it stays as an ally, with a free listing and publicity, but out of the money split. The idea is that large organizations do not shrink the checks of small ones just by registering. Before the first payment, we verify that the registrant exists and works in Suesca, and we re-confirm its budget every year. Verification is not selection: every registrant that passes verification and stays under the cap enters the split. There is no annual list fixed in advance and no exceptions by name.

Does your organization work in Suesca? I want to join the 5%.

Listings in barter

A business can pay its annual listing with its own services or products, valued at the listing's list price: guided outings, lodging nights, meals or other services of the business. The barter is agreed in writing (what is delivered, when, with what expiry) and invoiced as a swap. At most one in four listings is paid in barter.

We sell that product or service on the site. A barter listing is labelled as advertising just like a paid one: barter pays for the listing, not for placement on the page or a favorable review. And it does not buy first place in the directory: payment, in cash or in barter, never moves the ranking.

Certified businesses: 15% off, badge and first place

If a business holds a valid sustainable tourism certification, it pays 15% less on its advertising. The discount applies last, on the resulting price (standard or founder rate). Example: a lodging listing at the founder price becomes 85% of that price after the discount.

Its directory card and its listing page also carry a badge naming its certification, and in the listings directory certified businesses rank first in their category. Qualifying certifications: Colombia's Tourism Quality Seal (NTS-TS 002, 003 or 004, audited by an ONAC-accredited body), Fair Trade Tourism certification, and any sustainable tourism certification issued by a GSTC-Accredited body. Two precisions: GSTC does not certify businesses directly, it accredits bodies, so saying "GSTC certified" on its own is not enough; and the RNT does not qualify (it is a registry, not a sustainability certification), nor does claiming to comply with a standard without an audit. To grant the discount and the badge we need to see the valid certificate; if it lapses, the benefits end at the next renewal.

The same rules for everyone

No exceptions by name. A large business does not enter the 5% split for being well known, a certified business does not pay less for being a friend of the house, and no payment, large or small, buys directory ranking or a favorable review. Every ad is labelled as advertising, with a rel="sponsored" link: that is Google's rule and ours.

Our own commitment

We ask advertisers for principles we also follow ourselves, translated to a website: fixed prices, given in writing in the commercial proposal, advertising labelled as such, content never copied (news is summarized with a link to the source), responsible access information (pictograms that must not be touched, private land, registration and fee at El Turpial, mountain weather that changes within hours), privacy with cookie consent, and a lightweight site of static pages. When we need paid work in Suesca, we look in Suesca first. If a listing or a news item gets a fact wrong, we correct it on the same page.

And one necessary honesty: we hold no certification of any kind and use no seal for ourselves. We follow principles; we do not award ourselves certifications.