While hotel star classification ratings are widely recognized and used across the globe as a means to help assess and compare the quality of a hotel, no globally applicable rating system exists for travellers looking to stay in an alternative accommodation, like a home or apartment, until now. Booking.com is establishing a globally consistent and objective quality rating system for apartments, holiday homes and villas.

It is estimated that 31% of Canadian travellers prefer to stay in a holiday home or apartment over a hotel.

The Quality Rating system uses a machine learning algorithm that takes into account over 400 factors, such as property location, size and facilities, to identify the quality and comfort of properties across the world.

Ranging from 1 to 5, yellow tiles that clearly indicate the varying quality levels are positioned next to the individual property’s name on Booking.com.

The Quality Rating scores are benchmarked against nearby properties to ensure the results are locally relevant, and recalculate throughout the year to guarantee accuracy.

Top scorers around the world

The US, Greece, Spain, Italy and France top the list of countries with the highest number of top scorers (5 out of 5), while travellers from Saudi Arabia, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Great Britain and China top the list when it comes to the nationalities that most frequently select top scored apartments, holiday homes or villas.

Eric Bergaglia, Global Head of Booking.com’s homes and apartments business commented that 75% of all properties awarded in the recent Booking.com Traveller Review Awards 2020 are homes, apartments and other unique types of property.