2023 KAYAK Travel Awards Data Methodology
Best airlines
The scores were calculated from ratings and reviews from travellers and based on the following nine categories:
- Best airline: overall
- Best airline: boarding
- Best airline: comfort
- Best airline: crew
- Best airline: entertainment
- Best airline: food
- Best international airline1
- Best domestic airline2
- Best low-cost airline3
For the best airline overall, boarding, comfort, crew, entertainment, and food categories, the five highest-scoring airlines in the United States of America and Canada, Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific regions are selected and displayed. For the international, domestic, and low-cost airline categories, the five highest-scoring airlines worldwide were too selected and displayed.
To be qualified for a category in this year’s Travel Awards, an airline must have a minimum of 25 new published reviews on KAYAK from January 1st, 2022, to October 31st, 2022, with the exception of the Best domestic airline category. This airline category must have a minimum of 10 new published reviews on KAYAK for the same period. In addition, all the airlines must have a minimum score of 50 out of 100 to be qualified for the selection.
The final score for each airline were calculated based on the following formula:
- An airline is considered an international airline when it operates commercial flights within civil aviation inside and outside its country of origin.
- An airline is considered a domestic airline when it solely operates commercial flights within civil aviation inside its country of origin.
- An airline is considered a low-cost airline when it operates commercial flights within civil aviation with a heightened emphasis on minimising operating costs to provide lower fares to travellers.
Best hotels
The scores were calculated from ratings and reviews from travellers and based on the following nine categories:
- Best hotels
- Best B&Bs and Inns
- Best beach resort
- Best budget hotels
- Best hostels
- Best luxury hotels
- Best pet-friendly hotels
- Best vacation rentals
The qualified hotels or properties for each category above are selected per country from the United States of America and Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific regions. Even though more hotels or properties have qualified for this year’s Travel Awards, only the top five hotels or properties per country and category are displayed on the Travel Awards site. The remainder of the hotels or properties can be seen here
To be qualified for a category in this year’s Travel Awards, a hotel or property must have a minimum of 10 new published reviews on KAYAK from January 1st, 2022, until October 31st, 2022. In addition, all hotels or properties must have a score higher than 80 out of 100 to qualify for the selection.
For the Best hotels category, hotels must have a 4- or 5-star rating to qualify for this category. As for the Best luxury hotels category, hotels must have a 5-star rating.
The final scores were calculated based on the following formula:
, where n is review count per property (standard error formula)
*Due to low final scores ranges (ca. 30-70), we have adjusted the final scores to range between 80-99ish using:
, where maximum/minimum scores are of country and property
Best rental car agencies
The scores were calculated from ratings and reviews from travellers and based on the following five categories:
- Best car rental agency
- Best comfort
- Best cleanliness
- Best pick-up
- Best value
The qualified car rental agencies for each category above are selected worldwide. The five highest-scoring car rental agencies were selected and displayed.
To be qualified for a category in this year’s Travel Awards, a car rental agency must have a minimum of 25 new published reviews on KAYAK from January 1st, 2022, to October 31st, 2022. In addition, all car rental agencies must have a minimum score of 60 out of 100 for the category.
The final scores were calculated based on the following formula:
, where n is the review count per agency (standard error formula)
Top destinations
The rankings were based on KAYAK search data and were divided into the following five categories.
- Top trending domestic cities
- Top trending domestic beach towns
- Top trending domestic states
- Top trending international cities
- Top trending cities for mindful travellers*
The top-ranked destinations per category are the five most searched destinations among KAYAK users from January 1st, 2022, to October 31st, 2022. The minimum search limit was set to 1000 searches per city and category.
The top trending domestic cities category has the origin destination in the same country as the searched destination. The rankings are based on hotel and flight searches and the following formula was applied:
The top trending international cities have the searched destination outside the users' current country. The rankings are based on international flight searches.
The top trending domestic beach towns are destinations with beach-themed hotels, and the ranking is based on the number of hotel searches for such hotels summed for the cities. Again, domestic indicates that searches originate from the same country as the destination.
The top trending domestic states reflect the popularity of the states within the users' current country. This category is only present in the United States of America and Australia. The rankings are calculated the same way as for the top trending domestic cities category with the adjusted sum of flight and hotel searches for each state.
* The top trending cities for mindful travellers is a category withdrawn from our “City Index for Mindful Travellers” for the regions of the United States of America and Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. To learn more, click here.