How Monthly Rankings Work
A living leaderboard. Not a static directory.
The Short Version
- • Rankings change every month 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
- • In Portugal and Spain, reviews written in the city's own language carry more weight
- • No venue can pay for a higher ranking
Why Monthly 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 month, 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. The signals that go into it are set out below, in order of influence. We don't publish the exact weightings — a ranking anyone can compute backwards is a ranking anyone can farm, and the point of this list is that it can't be bought or gamed. What we will always tell you is what we measure, and why:
Review Velocity
Highest weightThe biggest factor by some distance. How many genuine written reviews (over 50 characters) has this venue picked up in the last 90 days? A steady stream of customers who bothered to write something is the strongest signal of a venue that is alive and thriving right now — and it is the one thing a long-established name cannot coast on. Nothing older than 90 days counts towards it.
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.
Reviews in the City's Own Language
A Porto venue can accumulate a wall of five-star English reviews and still be barely written about in Portuguese. Both are real reviews and both count. But a venue that people are writing about in the language of the city it sits inis telling you something the English-language pile alone does not.
In Portugal and Spain, a review written in Portuguese, Spanish or Basque carries more influence in the Hot Score than the same review written in English. The exact multiplier isn't published. The effect is deliberate: it keeps a venue's own-language reviews from being drowned out by a larger volume written in the international lingua franca.
It does nothing in the UK, and we don't pretend otherwise — where the city's own language already is English, a weighting on English reviews applies to nearly all of them and separates nothing. We also make no claim to know who wrote any given review or where they live. We can read what language it was written in. That is all, and it is all we act on.
What the Hot Score Rewards
- 1Written review activityGenuine written reviews in the last 90 days. The heaviest signal, and the one nothing older can prop up.
- 2Standing Google ratingAbove the 4.0 entry bar. It matters, but it will not carry a venue that has gone quiet.
- 3Business Profile completenessPhone, website, hours, description, photos, categories — the facts an AI assistant needs to recommend the place at all.
What we won't publish: the exact weightings. A formula printed in full is a formula that can be farmed — and a list you can farm is worth nothing to the reader it is written for.
What we will always publish: every signal we use, the order of their influence, the entry bar, and the fact that no venue can pay to move.
Scored 0–100 · Recalculated every month
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.
Monthly Snapshots
We take a full snapshot of every venue's GBP data each month. This lets us track trends, velocity, and changes over time rather than just looking at a single moment.
Update Cycle
- MonthlyFull Hot Score recalculation and ranking update
- MonthlyNew 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 month. 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 reviews in the city's own language count more?
In Portugal and Spain, English is the language a great many visitors write in, so a venue's own-language reviews can be swamped by sheer volume. Weighting them keeps that half of the picture visible. We can read what language a review was written in — we can't tell who wrote it or where they live, and we don't claim to. In the UK it changes nothing, because the city's own language is already English.
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.