Method
How we test, and what we refuse to guess
A short-term rental review site cannot audit a company's books. Here is exactly what we can check, what we cannot, and how that turns into a score.
What we verify
- Published terms. We read the company's own website and record the fee, the service list and the stated service area, with the date we read it. If it is not on their site, it is not a published fact.
- Coverage. A company appears on a city page only if it names that town — or the immediate area — in its own materials.
- Consistency. Where a company's marketing and its service pages disagree, we say so rather than picking the flattering version.
What we cannot verify
Payout accuracy, real occupancy, response times, and whether the cleaner turned up. Anyone who tells you they have measured those across a whole state is selling something. We do not publish claims we cannot source.
The score
Out of 5, weighted roughly: transparency (does it publish a rate and terms) 35%, contract clarity (exit, ownership of accounts, exclusions) 25%, coverage fit for Michigan 25%, service depth 15%. It is an editorial judgement and we present it as one. A company that publishes nothing is capped below a company that publishes terms we dislike, because you can at least evaluate the second one.
Our own picks
We rank One Fine BnB first for management and BnBGenius first for software. Both are labelled as our picks everywhere they appear, and structured review data on this site is applied only to those two — we do not emit rating markup for companies we have merely summarised. The commercial arrangement behind them is described on the editorial policy page.
Corrections
If a company has published a rate since we read its site, tell us and we will update the row and the date. Contact the desk.