Ranking Score Explained

Kia ora, thanks for your interest in how we calculate an experience's ranking score. It's at the core of Rankers so I'm pleased you're curious.

The ranking score percentage is used to compare and sort experiences in ranking tables. It is not necessarily a direct measurement of the quality of a particular experience as rated by its customers. I've found it a useful tool to allow me to find the best experiences with confidence. But I've also found it important to read the customer reviews before making any final judgements!

We calculate an experience's ranking score using a multi-factor data model instead of a raw data average (mean). This model takes into account several important questions. For instance - is there a trusted body of reviews? What is the age of a review and is the review from a credible source?

Below you'll find details around some of the important factors that went into calculating the ranking score for Waipu Caves Track.

If you have any questions or comments about our ranking score calculation please get in touch at info@rankers.co.nz. We don't believe this is perfect or complete so we're always interested in ways we might make improvements.

Cymen Crick's avatar

Cymen Crick

Rankers Owner

Waipu Caves Track

Valid Reviews

28 Valid Reviews

The Waipu Caves Track experience has a total of 28 valid reviews. There are no invalid reviews that are excluded from the calculation. Reviews can be excluded only when a reviewer is not verified or after an investigation by our team determines the reviewer is not genuine.

Below is the distribution of ratings for the 28 valid reviews:

Rating Count Percentage
10/10 12
43%
9/10 7
25%
8/10 1
4%
7/10 5
18%
6/10 1
4%
5/10 1
4%
4/10 0
0%
3/10 1
4%
2/10 0
0%
1/10 0
0%

85.71% Average

The raw data average (mean) for all the Waipu Caves Track valid reviews is 85.71% and is based on 28 valid reviews. This value is not used to calculate the ranking score and it only provided here as a comparison to the weighted average.

Face-to-Face Reviews

20 Face-to-Face Reviews

The Rankers team meets with travellers while they’re in New Zealand and conducts face-to-face surveys. These reviews, in our opinion, are the most trusted in the industry and represent a critical control sample. To our knowledge, we are the only travel review website in the world that has gone to this extent.

More about face-to-face reviews

Within the 28 valid reviews, the experience has 20 face-to-face reviews collected during interviews by our team.

Below is the distribution of ratings for the 20 face-to-face reviews:

Rating Count Percentage
10/10 7
35%
9/10 6
30%
8/10 1
5%
7/10 4
20%
6/10 1
5%
5/10 1
5%
4/10 0
0%
3/10 0
0%
2/10 0
0%
1/10 0
0%

85.50% Average

The raw data average (mean) for all the Waipu Caves Track face-to-face reviews is 85.50% and is based on 20 face-to-face reviews. This value is not used to calculate the ranking score and it only provided here for comparison purposes.

Weighted Average

87.03%

Rankers calculates a weighted mean as a base average on which we can improve. Individual review's ratings are given a weight based on several factors. The weight of a review determines the overall impact it'll have on the final weighted average.

Recent reviews have more weight as they are more relevant and reflect the experience as it currently operates. Over time reviews become less relevant and loose their impact on the ranking score.

Low rating reviews carry slightly less weight. This dampens the effect of very low ratings for every experience across the board. This is especially important when the experience has few reviews overall and a single negative rating can grossly mischaracterise an experience. Consistent poor reviews will still result in the experience receiving a comparitively low ranking score.

Credible sources provide reviews that can be trusted. If we have verified a reviewer is genuine via a face-to-face meeting then the review carries additional weight.

Reviewer Rating Age Relative Weight
Breanna Alexander 3/10 2850 days 42%
Carina Weber 7/10 2876 days 95%
MARK CURPHEY 10/10 2932 days 100%
Michelle Smit 7/10 3014 days 83%
Jane Simmons 10/10 3075 days 86%
Nina Rittmann 9/10 3123 days 81%
Gerbrand Smidt 7/10 3150 days 71%
Igor Pretzer 7/10 3150 days 71%
Patrick Thumeyer 9/10 3167 days 77%
Leon Grummer 10/10 3172 days 77%
Boukje Diijkstra 10/10 3175 days 77%
Kay Radloft 10/10 3187 days 76%
Christoph Herrmann 6/10 3192 days 60%
Pierre Alexandre 8/10 3193 days 73%
Paula Bauer 10/10 3195 days 75%
Steph 9/10 3195 days 74%
Johanna Kuch 10/10 3196 days 75%
Ruven Rintelmann 10/10 3197 days 75%
Catharina Cuntz 9/10 3202 days 73%
Julia Martin 10/10 3243 days 71%
Sebastian 10/10 3288 days 66%
Sophie Huybrechts 9/10 3614 days 35%
Boneschova Jarka 10/10 3867 days 12%
Florent Bouillon 9/10 3895 days 9%
Felicitas 7/10 3899 days 5%
Thomas Dequidt 9/10 3925 days 6%
Jaqi_Gary 10/10 4383 days 11%
Christina Fischer 5/10 5017 days 0%

Adjustments

No Adjustment

Several adjustments to the weighted average may be added to improve relevancy and credibility. Waipu Caves Track does not meet the criteria for any of these adjustments to apply.

Balancing Adjustment

1.45% Adjustment

Every experience's review score is adjusted to balance out the disproportional number of negative reviews that are contributed.

You won't be surprised to learn that disgruntled folk are more likely to leave a review than happy ones. They are motivated to share their experience and warn others. We consider this a good thing and it's why reading the reviews is important. However we've learned it can misrepresent the experience in a more overall sense.

We apply a balancing adjustment to counteract this effect and ensure the ranking score is a more fair representation of the experience. This adjustment is applied equally to all experiences.

Final Ranking Score

88%

The final ranking score once any adjustments, ratings, and rounding has been applied. This value is recalculated each day and a short rolling average is applied. Therefore it may not be precisely accurate based on the other values presented.