Candidates must receive a required minimum number of responses and a minimum overall rating to be eligible for a Readers’ Choice Award. Candidates are judged on a set of criteria relevant to their category, based on a standard five-point scale converted to a percentage: excellent, very good, good, fair, and poor. For example, this year’s score of 99.33 for Hôtel Barrière Fouquet’s Paris, the number one hotel in Paris, represented the average of ratings that the hotel received from respondents for all criteria relevant: rooms, location, service, food, activities, facilities, design, concierge, community investment, and spa & wellness.