How NightWells Ranks
NightWells does not sort by rating. It sorts by how far apart the review platforms are about the same place, and it puts the disagreements at the top, because those are the ones where reading one platform would have misled you.
The rule in four lines
- Each platform is shown on its own scale and never averaged into another
- A platform needs at least 5 reviews before it counts toward a comparison
- Two platforms must clear that bar or the place is marked as having only one opinion
- The gap between the kindest and the harshest platform is the sort key
Why Not Just Average Them
Because they are not measuring the same thing. Google and Yelp both use five stars, so those two can at least be compared. Facebook retired stars in 2018 and reports the share of people who said they would recommend the business. Turning 40 percent recommend into 2 stars and averaging it with a 4.2 produces a number that describes nothing that happened.
An average also hides the only interesting fact. A place at 4.8 and 4.7 and a place at 4.2 and 1.6 can average out close to each other. One of them is consistently well regarded and the other is two different businesses depending on who you ask.
What a Gap Means, and What It Does Not
A large gap usually means the business asks for reviews on one platform and not the others. The people who are asked are the people whose visit finished normally. The people who were not asked and are annoyed go and find somewhere to write it down. Both sets are real.
It can also mean Yelp’s filter has hidden the positive reviews, which it does aggressively to accounts with no posting history. That is a sampling artifact rather than a verdict.
What a gap is not is proof of dishonesty. NightWells flags it and tells you to read both. It does not accuse anybody.
A Worked Example
Columbus Sleep Consultants in Columbus is the widest gap currently in the Ohio data.
Same practice, same week, roughly 2.6 of a star between the platforms. See the full record.
What Is Not in the Ranking
Nobody pays to move up. There is no sponsored placement and no paid tier, because a ranking that can be bought stops answering the question it exists to answer. If that changes it will be said plainly on this page before it happens anywhere else.
What NightWells Cannot Tell You Yet
Sleep facility accreditation is the strongest quality signal in this trade and it is not in the data here. Until it is pulled and checked, no page on this site claims any place is accredited. Service flags are worked out from listing categories, business names and federal specialty codes, and every one shows which of those it came from.