Frequently asked questions.

Every answer goes through a two-step process:

• Step 1: Our AI classifies your question into one of five categories — Hotel/Property, Weather, Transport, Itinerary, or General advice.
• Step 2: Based on the category, we retrieve relevant reviews from our database of 303,000+ real guest experiences, combine them with local knowledge (transport status, Poya calendar, weather data), and generate a direct, honest answer.

The result is specific, actionable advice that adapts to what you're actually asking — not a generic blog post.

Yes. Every review in our database is a real guest review from verified hotel booking platforms. We don't generate fake reviews, we don't accept paid reviews, and we don't let properties edit or remove their reviews. The database contains 303,000+ reviews from real travellers who actually stayed at these properties.

Nothing. It's completely free. BYC.lk has no paywalls, no premium tiers, and no credit card required. Just ask anything and get an honest answer. If you find BYC useful, tell another traveller about it — that's all we ask.

BYC covers 50+ Sri Lanka destinations across every region — from Ella and Kandy in the hill country to Galle, Mirissa, and Unawatuna on the south coast. We cover the Cultural Triangle (Sigiriya, Dambulla, Anuradhapura), the east coast (Trincomalee, Arugam Bay), and Colombo itself. If you don't see a specific destination, ask anyway — we're constantly adding new locations.

Our answers are only as good as the reviews they're based on. With 303,000+ reviews, we have strong coverage for most popular destinations. However, for very specific or niche questions, our answers may be less detailed. We always indicate when we're working from limited data, and we never invent facts or hotel names. If we don't know something, we'll tell you clearly.

BYC is a travel intelligence tool — it helps you make informed decisions, but we always recommend cross-checking critical information (especially transport schedules and hotel availability) with official sources.

BYC doesn't process bookings directly. When we recommend a property, we provide a link to check availability and pricing on Booking.com (where the review data comes from). If you book through these links, BYC may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you — it helps keep the site running. The property name and details are always clearly stated in every recommendation.

It's the core rule of BYC. If a property deserves praise, we name it directly — you'll see specific hotel recommendations in every relevant answer. But if there's a pattern of issues across multiple properties — slow service at check-in, misleading photos, hard-sell tuk tuk drivers — we warn about the pattern without naming any specific property negatively. This protects travellers without exposing any single business to reputational damage.

Absolutely. We're actively building BYC and every suggestion helps. Use the contact form to let us know which destinations you'd like us to cover or what features would make BYC more useful for you. We read every piece of feedback.