Ranking Formula: How We Rank Places on Boozing Abroad
If you are reading this, you are probably curious about how we rank the places we’ve been to. While it’s not really a secret formula, we do take public opinion into consideration as well as our own personal experiences.
Wineries, Distilleries and Cocktail Bars
We’ve created our own formula (with the help of a friend) that takes into account three factors:
- Public ratings (sites such as Google and Yelp)
- Popularity
- Our personal Boozing Abroad factor
Breweries and Beer Bars
We’ve created our own beer-centric formula that takes into account these four factors:
- Public ratings (sites such as Google and Yelp)
- The brewery’s rating on Untappd
- Popularity
- Our personal Boozing Abroad factor
Here’s how each one works:
Public Ratings Base Score
To start, we gathered all the data on the reviews and rating scores from Google and Yelp. In an effort to not skew the data, we do not include any data from a source with fewer than 10 reviews/ratings.
Next, we multiply and average them:
(number of Google reviews Ｘ Google score) + (number of Yelp reviews Ｘ Yelp score) / total number of reviews
This provides a base score out of 5 since most public rankings are on a 5-star system.
Popularity Bonus
While we don’t want to make this a popularity contest, the amount of reviews does help us determine how popular a spot is.
For this, we add up the total number of reviews/ratings for each spot, and rank order them from most popular (most reviews) to least.
The place with the most reviews gets a bonus of:
1 + (the number of places in our list / 100)
So if there are 10 bars, the most-reviewed one receives a bonus of 1.10 multiplied by their base score.
If there is a tie, the places will all receive the higher multiplier, and we skip down to the lower multiplier (if the top three bars all tie for #1, they all get 1.10, and the #4 spot will receive a 1.07 bonus).
Untappd Brewery Ratings Only
For breweries, we also add into the equation their overall brewery rating from Untappd. If you use Untappd, they also track check-ins of beer which can be purchased and consumed off-site. For this reason, we are only using their overall rating (on a 1-5 scale) as a bonus.
The score is calculated the same way as the popularity bonus above: the brewery receives a multiplier of:
1 + (the number of breweries in our list / 100)
This number will decrease as the ranking drops. Same rules apply above if there is a tie.
Boozing Abroad Opinion
Finally, we get to weigh in on what we personally think of a place. We use our personal experience to determine this ranking on a scale of 1-5.
As all tastes are subjective, we each rank the places to our personal preference and use the average to create our own Boozing Abroad scale.
While we tend to like the same types of things, we do have differences of opinions on our favorite styles of beers, wines and spirits.
Chris tends to prefer IPAs, bourbons, and dry red wines.
Sam tends to prefer sours/stouts, vodka, and table red wines.
The score is calculated the same way as the popularity bonus above: the place receives a multiplier of:
1 + (the number of places in our list / 100)
This number will decrease as the ranking drops. Same rules apply above if there is a tie.
Final Score
The final score for all wine and spirits establishments is the reviews and ratings average Ｘ the popularity bonus X the Boozing Abroad score.
The final score for breweries is the review and ratings average X popularity X Untappd X the Boozing Abroad score.
Example for a winery:
(((number of Google reviews Ｘ Google score) + (number of Yelp reviews Ｘ Yelp score)) / total number of reviews) Ｘ (1 + (the number of wineries in our list / 100)) Ｘ (1 + (its ranking in our Boozing Abroad rating / 100))
(((312 Ｘ 4.7) + (153 Ｘ 4.5) / 465) Ｘ (1.06) Ｘ (1.03))
Final score = 4.63
Disclaimers
One, we reserve the right to base our score based on our personal experience. If the glasses were dirty, the staff was rude or anything else that affected our experience, the scores will reflect that.
Two, the location can impact a place’s popularity. In this case, it’s easier to get to and might artificially inflate the review numbers. However, as with any data, more rankings creates a broader average and can lower the rankings.
Three, some places on the list have multiple locations. For example, Merkin Vineyards in Arizona has four separate locations. If we are going to rank them on both of our Scottsdale and Jerome posts, their rankings will change based on that particular location.
In the case of the Untappd rating, some breweries only have their main location listed (e.g. Three Notch’d Brewery is based in Charlottesville, VA, but has a Richmond location). All rankings are under Charlottesville and aren’t separated out by location.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
