Hi everybody I'm I'm Brittany Lewis with Forbes breaking news joining me now as Forbes

Travel Guide's president of ratings Amanda Frazier Amanda thanks so much for coming on

Thank you for having me it's a great time to be here. Thank you.

Of course and before we get started I want to extend a big congratulations.

The 66th annual Star Awards officially just dropped.

Before we dive into the list, can you explain what a Star Award is?

Yes, happy to and thank you.

Yes, 66. It's a big year for us. You know when we talk about our ratings and how they're earned, it's one of the biggest questions we get. So thank you for asking how do you know, how does one earn a star rating? I think the most important thing is that we don't give them away.

They're not paid for every hotel restaurant spa and now cruise ship on the list

independently earns these racing through their hard work.

And essentially the process in a nutshell

is that we will schedule an incognito evaluation.

The evaluator will go through the series of standards that we have.

They're not the ones that decide the racing.

They actually don't even know the racing until today,

until that we've published it live on our website.

But it's essentially an algorithm that determines an outcome of

a star award that is heavily weighted on service actually 70% goes towards

service but the great thing is it's a race that never ends.

Every hotel even though they're earning this year and have done a terrific job, you get a do over,

you get a chance to run the race every year.

So they're actually already working towards their from that there's quite a lot, you know, it's quite a significant achievement to be approved for a

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