Somebody had to actually check.
Finding a beginner class should take ten minutes, not an evening of dead links and pages that still advertise last spring's term. Hoby exists because nobody was keeping that information current, so we do — one studio at a time, by hand.
How we research
Every price, schedule and class name comes from the provider's own website, read by us and recorded with the page it came from. If a studio doesn't publish a price, we say so rather than guessing — a listing with no price is more useful than an invented one.
We re-check the data monthly. Pages carry the date they were last verified, and a page whose research has gone stale says that in plain language instead of pretending.
Where the numbers come from
- Prices and schedules — the provider's own site, always. Never a directory, never an aggregator.
- Ratings and photos — Google Places, shown with the photographer credited and linked, and refreshed monthly. We publish the star rating and review count only; we don't reproduce review text.
- What locals say — public local discussion, kept visually separate from provider facts so you always know which is which.
What we deliberately don't do
Nobody pays to be listed, and nobody can pay to rank higher. “Hoby Picks” are chosen from the data — cheapest way in, best one-off, most beginner-friendly — and the reason is stated on the card. We take no commission on bookings; the links go straight to the studio.
We also leave pages out. If a city and hobby has nothing real to say — no classes, no prices, nothing but a business name — there is no page for it, because a page that wastes your click is worse than no page.
We will get things wrong
1328 businesses change their prices and terms constantly, and we re-check monthly, not daily. When you spot something stale, tell us — we verify it against the studio's site and fix it. If you run one of these businesses, claiming your listing is free.
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