Ranking Score Explained

Hi, 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 Rawhiti Cave route.

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

Rawhiti Cave route

Valid Reviews

28 Valid Reviews

The Rawhiti Cave route 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 11
39%
9/10 9
32%
8/10 5
18%
7/10 2
7%
6/10 0
0%
5/10 0
0%
4/10 1
4%
3/10 0
0%
2/10 0
0%
1/10 0
0%

88.93% Average

The raw data average (mean) for all the Rawhiti Cave route valid reviews is 88.93% 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

24 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 24 face-to-face reviews collected during interviews by our team.

Below is the distribution of ratings for the 24 face-to-face reviews:

Rating Count Percentage
10/10 10
42%
9/10 9
38%
8/10 3
13%
7/10 2
8%
6/10 0
0%
5/10 0
0%
4/10 0
0%
3/10 0
0%
2/10 0
0%
1/10 0
0%

91.25% Average

The raw data average (mean) for all the Rawhiti Cave route face-to-face reviews is 91.25% and is based on 24 face-to-face reviews. This value is not used to calculate the ranking score and it only provided here for comparison purposes.

Weighted Average

83.19%

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
Mike Howe 8/10 47 days 100%
shab 4/10 1813 days 3%
Geart-Jan Benedictus 10/10 2455 days 4%
Alice and Emily Dee 9/10 2522 days 3%
Kate and Dom 8/10 2766 days 3%
Louisa Theimann 8/10 2832 days 3%
Magdalena 9/10 2832 days 3%
Kayla 10/10 2851 days 3%
Sean 10/10 2851 days 3%
Danny 10/10 2858 days 3%
Brent Johnson 9/10 2878 days 3%
Tom Teuber 8/10 3105 days 2%
Anika Danits 9/10 3105 days 2%
David Schelensky 10/10 3151 days 2%
Kristyna Mokrackoua 7/10 3160 days 2%
Lea and Emmanuel 10/10 3163 days 2%
Sven and Annie 10/10 3164 days 2%
Stefanie Giese 8/10 3171 days 2%
Marilyn and Steffen 9/10 3231 days 2%
David and Stephan 10/10 3557 days 1%
Nikolas Gut 10/10 3820 days 1%
Philip Schumann 10/10 3849 days 1%
Sharon Wang 7/10 3900 days 1%
Katherine 9/10 4211 days 0%
Ben Martin 9/10 4211 days 0%
Colin Morbey 9/10 5356 days 1%
ursinab 9/10 5388 days 1%
simonbo 10/10 5388 days 1%

Adjustments

No Adjustment

Several adjustments to the weighted average may be added to improve relevancy and credibility. Rawhiti Cave route does not meet the criteria for any of these adjustments to apply.

Balancing Adjustment

2.20% 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

85%

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.