How does Booking.com calculate the review score?

Understanding how your review score is calculated can help you better manage your property's reputation on Booking.com. Your overall guest review score is based on a weighted calculation of individual scores submitted by guests over the last 3 years, with more recent reviews having a greater impact on your total score.

The Review Process Overview

Once guests check out of your property, Booking.com sends them an email invitation to review their stay. Guests have 90 days from their checkout date to complete their review.

How the Overall Score is Calculated

The overall score is the mandatory rating guests must provide when submitting a review. They select a score from 1 to 10 to rate their overall experience at your property. Your property's overall guest review score is calculated using a weighted formula where recent reviews carry more weight than older ones. This means reviews from the last few months significantly impact your current score more than reviews from three years ago.

Understanding Optional Subcategory Ratings

In addition to the overall score, guests can optionally rate specific aspects of their stay:

• Cleanliness
• Comfort
• Value for money
• Facilities
• Location
• Staff

These subcategory ratings provide valuable insights into guest satisfaction but do not directly affect your overall review score, as they are completely independent from one another.

Why Your Overall Score May Not Match Guest Comments

You might notice that a guest left positive comments in their review but the overall score doesn't align with their text. This occurs because the overall score is neither an average nor a sum of the subcategories. The overall score reflects the guest's personal, holistic impression of their entire stay, which may include factors not covered by the specific rating categories Booking.com provides, such as general design, family-friendliness, or other criteria important to that individual guest.

The subcategories selected by Booking.com may not account for every aspect of the guest experience at your property, so the overall score often represents their complete assessment rather than a calculation of the individual category ratings.