Movies have critics, books have critics, music has critics, so there's a place for critics on the internet. Anyone who publishes can expect commentary by readers or listeners, and the internet is no different. Just as you take the movie ratings with a grain of salt, so should you approach my INNSTAR ratings.

INNSTAR, designed by an Innkeeper who was frustrated in trying to place advertising in the most cost-effective of the many on-line guidebooks, evaluates the guidebooks in the areas of extent of descriptive Inn listings in area of coverage, informative quality of listings, ease of finding inns that meet various criteria, ease of using the guidebook's web pages, and methods used to provide "quality assurance" of the inns listed. Guidebooks which have extensive lists of inns with contact information once received a slight bonus; they no longer do. If you wish, you may examine the criteria (updated 02/2006) in more detail. You may also wish to review INNSTAR's Frequently Asked Questions or Disclaimer.

If you don't find a guide rated, it could be for several reasons. I may not have discovered the guide yet, or have had time to rate it. I may also suspend the rating of a guide with excessive innkeeper complaints about business practices, or if the ownership changes, or if design changes make the description inaccurate. In a few cases, a guide has insisted that it not be rated; I have obliged them.

Guidebooks are grouped by rating level, with 5 stars highest. Within each rating group, the North America-wide and U.S. nationwide (including those which say they're international) Guidebooks are listed first (highest scores first), followed by specilaty guides; regional and state/province-wide guides are no-longer rated. Each rating is linked to a detailed review of the Guidebook, which in turn includes a link to the Guidebook's home page.
The Innkeeper information line in each guidebook rating is enhanced with a discussion of the methoods the guidebook author uses to publicize an Inn's listing and its web presence (see FAQ for definitions of the terms used).

Because of the rapid increase in number of guidebooks appearing, ratings are limited to guidebooks covering North America (essentially USA & Canada); I have discontinued those that cover the rest of the world and those that cover a region or a single state.

In addition to the ratings pages in each section, there's also an alphabetical list of the rated guidebooks, with rating score and links to both their rating and their home page. A secondary list covers regional and specialty guides only.

State and Provincial Associations: Many have their own pages, either independent or with a guidebook. I'm partial to state associations, so a list of their pages is included.

Guidebook publishers info is additional information for the publishers of on-line B&B guidebooks.

Innkeepers' Info is additional information for innkeepers.

URL list is a list of URLs and identifying the associated guide.