Our method
The Heart Score
A single number out of 10 that answers one question: how much would we want to go back?
What we score
| Service | How well the hotel looks after you, from booking to checkout. |
|---|---|
| Rooms | Comfort, design, quiet and upkeep of the rooms we saw. |
| Food and drink | Breakfast, restaurants and bars, judged on what we ate and drank. |
| Setting | Location, views, grounds, and how much the hotel feels like its place. |
| Value | What you get for the rate, compared with other hotels at this level. |
Each of the five is marked out of 10. The Heart Score is their average, rounded to one decimal place.
What a score means
- 9.0 and above: among the best hotels we know. Worth planning a trip around.
- 8.0 to 8.9: excellent, with small reservations.
- 7.0 to 7.9: good, with gaps the review spells out.
- Below 7.0: the building may be beautiful, but we would look elsewhere.
Independence
Hotels cannot pay for a review, see it before publication, or change a score.