The ratings on our site are not determined by us, they are posted by our readers, hence the number of stars you see for any hotel/show/spa/pool party/buffet etc., are the statistical mean of all the ratings posted.
For these ratings to be optimal involves a critical mass, so we encourage everyone to participate and rate everything they see; that way, if someone catches a restaurant on an "off" night, one unfortunate experience won't skew the number for what might generally be a good meal, or the fact that a show just wasn't one audience member's cup of tea won't deter others from checking it out. That's why it's set up so that you're required to post a review, as well as a star rating, so other readers can see why one person was disappointed, or impressed, and make their own evaluation based on that feedback.
We keep an eye on things, so if any entity seems to garnering an elevated number of reviews on the positive -- or negative -- side, and we suspect some "ballot stuffing" may be in occurring, whether by the venue or a competitor, we delete 'em (naming no names, but certain strip clubs and shows, take note!)
Every rating/review posted on our site is set to expire after 18 months, since this city changes so quickly and it doesn't seem fair to judge anything on how it might have been two years prior, when ownership/staffing/venue etc. changes so frequently. There are also, we confess, some technical glitches in our current system that result in some ratings lingering on after they should have expired -- these will all be eradicated when our new site goes live later this spring (we promise!). In the meantime, we encourage everyone who visits LasVegasAdvisor.com to share their experiences, good or bad, by rating and reviewing everything they try. If we've reviewed something for the LVA newsletter, then we'll post a link to our review, but we can only revisit every show/buffet/spa so often, so we really count on the objective input of our website visitors to keep us, and their fellow readers, in the loop. Get posting, people!
