How Weekly Rankings Work
A living leaderboard. Not a static directory.
The Short Version
- • Rankings change every week based on live Google review data
- • Only venues with 4.0+ Google rating are considered
- • Recent reviews count more than old ones
- • Star-only or short reviews (<50 characters) are filtered out
- • Reviews in the local language carry more weight — they signal year-round locals, not seasonal tourists
- • No venue can pay for a higher ranking
Why Weekly Rankings Matter
Most restaurant guides rank venues once and forget about them. A place that was brilliant two years ago might be coasting today. A new opening generating genuine excitement gets buried because it lacks history.
We recalculate every ranking, every week, from live Google Business Profile data. If a venue is getting better, the numbers show it. If standards are slipping, that shows too. The rankings reflect what's happening right now, not what happened last year.
The Hot Score
Every venue receives a Hot Score from 0–100, calculated from four factors. The exact weighting is proprietary, but here's what each factor measures and why it matters:
Review Velocity
Highest weightThe biggest factor. How many genuine text reviews (>50 characters) has this venue received recently? A steady stream of engaged customers writing real feedback is the strongest signal of a venue that's alive and thriving.
Review Recency
High weightHow fresh are the reviews? A venue with lots of reviews this month scores higher than one with hundreds of reviews but nothing recent. More recent reviews carry significantly more weight than older ones.
Baseline Rating
High weightThe overall Google rating matters, but it's not the whole picture. A 4.8-star venue with no recent activity will lose to a 4.3-star venue that's generating genuine buzz right now.
Profile Completeness
Significant weightHow complete is the venue's Google Business Profile? We check key fields like phone number, website, opening hours, description, photos, categories, and more. A fully completed profile signals a venue that takes its online presence seriously — and gives AI assistants better data to work with.
The Local Voice Signal
A review written in Portuguese, Spanish, or Basque tells us something a five-star English review can't: this venue has local regulars. Not tourists passing through in August. Not travel bloggers on a press trip. Actual people who live there, eat there, and wrote about it in their own language.
That matters because tourist-heavy venues look great in peak season. The review velocity spikes, the ratings hold, everything trends upward. But come October, the terrace empties, the kitchen relaxes, and the venue that ranked #3 in July is coasting on momentum from visitors who'll never come back.
The places that locals choose — the ones they walk past six flashier options to reach — those are the ones with a steady stream of reviews in Portuguese in Porto, in Spanish in Seville, in Basque in San Sebastián. Year-round. Not just July and August.
So we weight them accordingly. Reviews in the native language of each city carry more influence in the Hot Score than the same review written in English. The exact multiplier isn't published, but the effect is deliberate: venues loved by locals rank higher than venues loved only by visitors.
Hot Score Factors
Native-language reviews boost the two highest-weighted factors
Scored 0–100 · Recalculated every week
Hot Score v3.0 formula:
hot_score = velocity(30) + baseline(25) + recency(25) + profile(20)
velocity = text reviews >50 chars in 90 days / 50 × 30
baseline = (rating − 4.0) × 25, clamped 0–25
recency = text reviews in 30 days, weighted decay (7d=1.0, 14d=0.8, 21d=0.5, 30d=0.3)
profile = GBP completeness (phone, website, hours, description >50 chars)
Where the Data Comes From
Google Business Profile
Ratings, review text, review dates, response data, and profile completeness. The public data that every customer sees.
Weekly Snapshots
We take a full snapshot of every venue's GBP data each week. This lets us track trends, velocity, and changes over time rather than just looking at a single moment.
Update Cycle
- WeeklyFull Hot Score recalculation and ranking update
- WeeklyNew review data snapshot from Google Business Profile
- QuarterlyNew venue discovery sweep for each zone
- Real-timeClosures and major changes reflected within 48 hours
What Gets a Venue Removed
- • Rating drops below 4.0 stars (with 30-day grace period)
- • Permanent closure
- • Significant food safety issues
- • Evidence of fake reviews or rating manipulation
For Venue Owners
Want to climb the rankings? Here's what the data rewards:
- 1. Generate genuine reviews — Review velocity is the single biggest factor. Ask happy customers to share their experience on Google.
- 2. Encourage detailed feedback — Short reviews under 50 characters don't count. Real stories carry weight.
- 3. Complete your Google Business Profile — Every missing field drags your score down. Phone, website, hours, description, photos, categories — fill them all in.
- 4. Respond to reviews — While response rate isn't in the Hot Score directly, it influences how customers perceive you and whether they write reviews at all.
See where you rank versus your competition every week. Get a detailed audit from booteek.ai →
Common Questions
Can venues pay to be featured?
No. Rankings are calculated from data, not money. We don't accept payment for reviews, rankings, or featured positions.
Why filter out short reviews?
A five-star rating with no text tells us someone clicked a button. A 200-word review about the ceviche and the sunset from the terrace tells us someone had an experience worth writing about. We measure engagement, not clicks.
How do you catch fake reviews?
Velocity anomalies, reviewer account patterns, and sentiment analysis. A sudden spike of five-star reviews from accounts with no history actually hurts a venue's score because it disrupts the natural pattern.
How is this different from TripAdvisor or Google Maps?
TripAdvisor and Google show cumulative ratings — a snapshot of all time. We show momentum. A venue with a 4.3 overall but 15 detailed reviews this month might outrank a 4.7 with nothing recent. That's the difference between a directory and a leaderboard.
Why do local-language reviews count more?
Because they're the best indicator of year-round quality. A restaurant in Porto with a steady flow of Portuguese reviews is being chosen by people who live there and have dozens of alternatives. A restaurant with mostly English reviews might be popular with tourists in summer but half-empty by November. We want to surface the places locals go back to every week, not the ones that ride a seasonal wave.
My venue should be on here. How do I get listed?
If you have a 4.0+ Google rating and you're in one of our covered areas, you'll be considered in the next quarterly discovery sweep. Making sure your Google profile is complete and you're generating regular reviews will help when we do.