Provider rating methodology

What is rated

A rating belongs to one provider in one category. A company offering a PMS, booking engine and CRM can therefore have three different assessments. HotelTechIndex never averages those into a misleading company-wide score.

Seven categories, 21 questions

Scoring and eligibility

Each question receives an integer score from 1 to 5, a rationale, confidence and claim-specific citations. Unknown is not a low score. If all questions cannot be supported, the provider remains unrated. Publication requires at least six current sources across four domains, two independent sources and one hotel-owned implementation source. High scores require primary or independent corroboration.

The weighted result is rounded to one decimal: Tier 1 (4.5+), Strong (4.0+), Solid (3.5+), Mixed (3.0+), Limited (2.5+) or Material gaps (below 2.5). A valid low rating is published; there is no commercial or minimum-score gate.

Evidence hierarchy

1. Hotel-owned implementation evidence, technical documentation and audited or regulatory records.
2. Independent reporting, certifications and procurement documents.
3. Provider documentation, case studies and verified partner listings.
4. Marketplaces, user-generated material and provider submissions as corroboration.

Provider-only claims about support, implementation, reliability, commercial terms or outcomes cannot score above 3.

Independent validation and freshness

A separate validator checks every rating’s arithmetic, citations, source independence, question completeness and claim support before publication. Ratings are append-only and refreshed after 180 days or a material product, deployment, security, pricing or correction event. The previous rating stays live until its replacement passes.

Popularity is not quality

Category pages default to verified deployment ranking. The separate highest-rated view uses only published category-specific ratings. The two are never blended into a composite score.

Ownership disclosure

HotelTechIndex is operated by people affiliated with Blue Hospitality. Blue is assessed under the same rubric and independent validation gates, and its rating carries a prominent disclosure. Affiliation never changes a score, ordering or evidence requirement.