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How the Journeyed Score and the rankings work

Every hotel gets one Journeyed Score from 0 to 100, and every question page ranks hotels by a Fit Score built from the same four parts. Both are computed from stored, sourced data with a fixed formula, so the same inputs always give the same number.

How the score is built

Formula settled-1.1-facts. Weights: facts 68%, opinion 0%, proximity 15%, reachability 17%.

The Journeyed Score

Every hotel gets one Journeyed Score from 0 to 100. It is computed by formula settled-1.1 from stored, sourced evidence and a fixed date, so the same evidence always gives the same number. Nothing is estimated by a language model and nothing is bought.

The score adds four parts, each measured from 0 to 1 and then weighted: facts 40%, opinion 35%, proximity 15%, reachability 10%. It is rounded once, to one decimal, at the end.

Verified facts

We check a standard set of facts for every hotel and give credit only for a fact with a source we can link to or a dataset we can name. Each fact counts fully for 180 days after we last checked it, then loses credit in a straight line until it counts for nothing at 360 days.

A fact stated only by the hotel itself counts 50% until a separate source agrees with it. Then it counts fully.

Guest opinion

We count what guests mention, aspect by aspect (cleanliness, staff, noise, parking and so on), as positive, neutral or negative. We use licensed sources only, and we store counts and dates, never the text of a review.

Each aspect starts from a neutral prior worth 20 mentions, so volume matters: 5 mentions that are all positive score 60.0 out of 100 on that aspect, while 500 mentions that are 90% positive score 88.5. Aspects are averaged with more weight for more mentions, up to 200 per aspect. Mentions older than 730 days are left out. A hotel with no mentions scores 50.0 here.

Proximity

For the Journeyed Score, proximity is the straight-line distance to the nearest landmark we track in the market (airports, stadiums, campuses and similar), with full credit at 0 miles and none at 10 miles. On a question page it is the distance to the place the question names, within the radius that page states.

Distances are straight-line miles, never drive times.

Reachability

Whether a guest can actually reach the hotel. Each part counts when we checked it in the last 90 days. Verifying a profile is free for every business.

Markets without a licensed opinion source

Until a licensed opinion source is live in a market, its scores use formula settled-1.1-facts. The opinion weight moves to facts and reachability in the same ratio they already have: facts 68%, opinion 0%, proximity 15%, reachability 17%. Every score says which formula produced it.

Fit Score on question pages

Each question page ranks hotels by a Fit Score from 0 to 100. It uses the same four parts, measured against the facts and guest aspects that question is about, with weights that depend on the kind of question. Each page prints the weights it used.

A must-have in the question is a gate, not a weight. A hotel whose checked facts contradict a must-have is left out. A hotel where we have not yet verified the must-have is listed separately as not yet verified and is never ranked. Hotels outside the radius are not shown.

Ties are broken by the Journeyed Score, then by distance, then by a fixed id, so the same evidence always gives the same order.

When a question gets a page

A question gets its own page only when at least 5 hotels pass its must-haves and there are at least 20 relevant guest mentions behind them (in a market without a licensed opinion source, 20 independently verified facts). Below that, the address sends readers to the landmark page (or the market page) instead.

If a published page later falls below the threshold, it stays up with a note for up to 8 weeks, then moves permanently to that landmark or market page.

Formula versions

Any change in what a score means gets a new formula version. Scores from different versions are never compared or mixed.

Sources

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