How hotels are ranked

This page explains, in plain language, what decides the order of hotels on Stayantra Marketplace. We publish it because hotels listing with us are entitled to know how their placement is decided, and because guests deserve to know which positions are paid for.

The short version

• Search results and city pages are ordered by star rating, highest first, then by name. No hotel can pay to move up in them.
• Featured hotels (the "Hotels in your city" row on the home page, and the top of each city page) are ordered by a published merit score.
• Up to 2 of the 6 featured hotels can be Sponsored: the hotel paid for the position. Every one is labelled "Sponsored", and it must meet the same quality bar as every other featured hotel.

Search results

Unless you choose another order, search results are ordered by:

1. Star rating, highest first. The property's official star rating. A hotel with no star rating on file comes after all rated hotels. It is not hidden, and it is not penalised beyond that.
2. Name, A to Z. Only between hotels with the same star rating.

Near me. When you search near your location, you see hotels within 25 km, nearest first, then by name. Hotels without a location on file cannot be placed and are not shown in a near-me search.

Orders you choose. You can instead sort by price (lowest or highest "from" price first), or by guest rating (hotels with reviews first, highest average first, then the most reviews). Hotels with no price or no reviews come last. Ties in every order fall back to star rating, then name.

We show up to 50 hotels per page.

City pages

A city page lists every listed hotel in that city, ordered by star rating, highest first, then by name, 24 to a page. The "Other hotels in this city" list on a hotel page shows the first three in the same order. Payment has no effect on either list.

Featured hotels

The home page shows up to 6 featured hotels in one city, and each city page shows the first few at the top.

Which city

We start from the city of your approximate location, which your connection's network address suggests. We do not store it. You can change the city at any time, and your choice is remembered only in your own browser. If you tap "Near me", we use the listed city closest to you and do not keep your location.

Which hotels can be featured

A hotel is featured only if it meets all of these:

• It is publicly listed and has finished onboarding.
• It has a photo.
• It has at least one room type priced above zero with a room that can be booked.

Sponsored hotels must meet the same bar. Payment buys a position, never a place on the list.

The merit score

Each eligible hotel gets a score from 0 to 1, made of four parts:

Hotels with equal scores are ordered by star rating, then by name. Booking volume, price and commission are not part of the score.

What "Sponsored" means

• The hotel paid for the position. Stayantra sells these positions to hotels directly. It is the only paid placement on the marketplace.
• It is always labelled. Every sponsored hotel shows a "Sponsored" label and a "Why am I seeing this?" link to this page.
• At most 2 of 6. Sponsored hotels take the 2nd and 5th places. Every other place goes to the highest merit scores. If no hotel has paid, every place goes on merit.
• Rotated every 10 minutes. When more hotels in a city have paid than there are sponsored places, they take turns, and each is shown equally often. A sponsored hotel that is not in its turn can still appear on merit, without the label.
• The same quality bar. A sponsored hotel must meet every condition above, and it is only ever shown in its own city.
• Only among featured hotels. Sponsored places never appear in search results, city page lists or "Other hotels in this city", and paying has no effect on those orders.

We count how often each sponsored hotel is shown and clicked, as daily totals per hotel. The counts carry no information about you.

What does not affect ranking

• Money, apart from the labelled Sponsored places. We also sell hotel management software on a subscription; a hotel's plan, its fees, and whether it is a customer at all have no effect on where it appears.
• Price. We show a "from" price, and it moves a hotel only when you sort or filter by price yourself.
• Booking volume, or how recently a hotel joined. Neither is an input anywhere.
• Who you are. Nothing is personalised to you. The only thing that varies is which city's featured hotels you see first, which comes from your approximate location or your own choice.

What decides whether a hotel appears at all

Separately from the order, these decide which hotels are in search results. They filter; they do not rank:

• The hotel is publicly listed and has finished onboarding. Hotels still being set up are never shown.
• Your destination, matched against the hotel's city, or its name.
• Any facilities you require: a hotel must have every one you asked for, either property-wide or in one of its room types.
• Any trip themes you pick (business, family, heritage, nature, wellness, pilgrimage, adventure, luxury, budget). A hotel qualifies by matching any one of them. Themes are matched against the hotel's own description, tagline, neighbourhood, guest profile and facilities; they are not a category a hotel buys into.
• A price range, if you set one. Hotels with no price on file are left out of a price-filtered search.

Changes to this statement

If we change how ranking works, we update this page in the same release. Hotels listing with us are given notice of material changes as required under Regulation (EU) 2019/1150.

Questions

Hotels and guests can reach us at info@stayantra.com. You may also want our Do Not Sell or Share statement.