How we calculate the ranking of Exoticca’s best vacation packages
Every article in this series ranks Exoticca’s best vacation packages using a score calculated from verified Trustpilot reviews. This article explains, in full technical detail, how that score works and why we built it this way.
Where the data comes from
The underlying data is every review and rating collected on Trustpilot between January 1, 2023 and June 30, 2026.
Every one of these reviews comes from a verified customer: when writing a review, reviewers are asked to specify which exact trip they’re reviewing. Exoticca has no way to influence, hide, or edit these reviews once they’re published, which makes them a solid, neutral basis for this kind of ranking.
Why an average rating alone isn’t enough
The obvious first instinct when comparing vacation packages is to sort them by average Trustpilot rating. The problem is that a plain average doesn’t distinguish between a package with 3 five-star reviews and one with 300 reviews averaging 4.6 stars. The second case represents a far more reliable opinion, backed by hundreds of real travelers, but a simple star average doesn’t capture that difference.
That’s why only packages with 10 or more verified reviews are eligible for this ranking: it’s the minimum volume we consider necessary for a rating to start being representative.
The formula
Each package’s score combines two ingredients: its own review volume and rating, plus a small confidence adjustment based on the average rating across Exoticca’s full review base. The formula is:
Score = (N × R) + (10 × M) / (N + 10)
Where:
– N = number of verified reviews for the package
– R = the package’s average Trustpilot rating
– 10 = the minimum review volume we consider necessary for a rating to be trustworthy (the same threshold used to filter the ranking)
– M = a reference average rating calculated across Exoticca’s full review base (in our data, M ≈ 4.48)
In practice, this means a package’s score is mostly just its review count multiplied by its average rating (N × R), plus a small adjustment that depends on how many reviews it has. The fewer reviews a package has, the more that adjustment matters relative to its score; once a package has several dozen reviews, the effect becomes practically negligible.
A real example from our data
Two packages in our US ranking illustrate why this system makes sense:
- Grand Tour & Kasbah Route (Morocco): 263 reviews, 4.65★ average → Score 1223.16
- Escorted Eternal Cities (Italy): 257 reviews, 4.67★ average → Score 1201.17
If we sorted purely by average rating, Italy (4.67★) would edge out Morocco (4.65★). But Morocco has a slightly larger base of verified reviews, and that extra volume is enough to outweigh the small rating gap, so Morocco ranks just ahead of Italy in the final list. Our score reflects that balance between volume and quality.
How we handle packages that change names or IDs
Some Exoticca packages change their name, product ID, or URL over time, even when the trip itself is essentially the same. When we identify this, we combine the reviews from the different versions of the package into a single entry before calculating its score, so its verified reviews aren’t split across two separate listings and don’t unfairly hurt its ranking position.
In a small number of cases, a package had been fully discontinued rather than simply renamed. Where we found a clear, current successor covering the same core itinerary, we attributed the historical reviews to that current package rather than to a trip that’s no longer bookable.
What this methodology doesn’t cover
For the sake of transparency, two things worth keeping in mind:
- Trustpilot reviews are self-selected: people who had an especially good or especially bad experience tend to be more motivated to leave a review than people who had a neutral one.
- The reference average rating (M) is calculated across Exoticca’s full review base, not only the packages that end up clearing the 10-review threshold and appearing in the ranking.
Frequently asked questions
Can a package with few reviews but a perfect rating beat one with many reviews and a slightly lower rating?
It’s possible, but only if the rating gap is large enough. The more reviews a package accumulates, the less room the confidence adjustment has to make up for rating differences.
Why is the minimum review count set at 10 and not some other number?
It’s the threshold we use as a minimum confidence volume, and it matches the constant used in the formula itself to smooth the score of packages with fewer reviews.
Is this score unique to Exoticca, or based on an external standard?
It’s our own formula, inspired by the Bayesian averages used by other recommendation platforms (like movie or restaurant rating systems) to prevent a handful of very positive or very negative reviews from skewing a ranking.
Head back to the ranking of Exoticca’s best vacation packages to see the full list, with links to every package and the verified reviews behind it.
