Our Methodology

Where the data comes from

Our selection began with a national United States accommodation dataset and was filtered down to Napa Valley in two stages. First by place name, then by a coordinate bounding check, because American place names repeat. There is a Deer Park in California and one in Texas, a Rutherford in California and an East Rutherford in New Jersey, and a St. Helena as well as a St. Helena Island. Filtering on a text field alone puts the wrong hotels on the page.

That process produced 61 properties across Napa, Yountville, Rutherford, St. Helena and Calistoga.

Selection thresholds

• Core A. Guest score of 8.5 or better with at least 50 reviews.
• Core B. Guest score of 8.0 or better with at least 50 reviews, kept only where the property supports a defined selection.
• Exception. Below the normal review-volume threshold but retained for strong branded demand, a unique position or necessary coverage in a category. Every exception is labeled as one on the hotel page itself, with the reason stated.

The Chateau Score

A single 0 to 100 figure so that properties can be ordered on more than a headline rating. The formula is identical for every property:

• Guest rating quality, 45 points. The guest score scaled linearly between 7.5 and 10.0. A 7.5 scores zero here, a 10.0 scores 45.
• Review confidence, 20 points. Review count on a base-10 logarithmic scale that saturates at 500 reviews. This is what stops a 9.8 on nine reviews from outranking a 9.1 on 548.
• Location fit, 15 points. From the distance band to the property's own town center reference point: 15 under 0.5 miles, 12 up to 1 mile, 9 up to 3 miles, 6 up to 8 miles, 4 beyond that.
• Stay features, 10 points. Confirmed spa, pool, restaurant, bar, terrace, pet policy, EV charging and shuttle, saturating at six of the eight.
• Category breadth, 10 points. How many of our selections the property qualifies for, relative to the widest-qualifying property.

The score is a comparison aid, not a verdict. It is shown broken down into its five components on every hotel page so you can see which part is carrying it.

Distance and walkability

Every distance figure on this site is a straight line from the property coordinates to one of these stated reference points. It is not a driving distance and it is not a walking route.

Distances are reported in bands rather than as precise figures wherever a walkability judgement follows from them. Our walkability classification is: Highly walkable for under 0.5 miles in a compact grid town, Reasonably walkable up to 1 mile in those towns, Car helpful from 1 to 3 miles, and Car recommended beyond 3 miles.

Our Downtown Napa cluster is every selected Napa property within 1.0 miles of the downtown reference point. Our winery corridor reference point is Rutherford, in the middle of the central tasting-room stretch.

Prices

We publish price bands, never nightly rates. Bands come from a stored source snapshot: $ below $175, $$ up to $275, $$$ up to $400 and $$$$ above that. A snapshot is not a live rate and it does not account for your dates, occupancy or taxes.

Two properties in our data carry an obviously corrupt price snapshot of $1.00. Both are five-star resorts, so we treat the value as a source defect and publish no price band for them at all rather than a wrong one.

What we will not publish

Facility claims we cannot source. Pet fees, weight limits and room restrictions, because our data records only whether pets are allowed. Pool heating and seasonal opening, because our data records only that a pool exists. Room features, views and fireplaces. Individual review quotes or themes, because we have not analyzed review text. First-person accounts of stays, because nobody on this site has stayed at these properties.

One page on this site currently fails its own test. Our Napa Valley vineyard hotels page cannot confirm a vineyard setting for any candidate from coordinates alone, so it carries a noindex directive and is excluded from our sitemap until each property is checked against an official source. We would rather show the gap than fill it.

Corrections and updates

Hotel data was last reviewed August 23, 2026. When we find an error we correct it, update the check date, and check whether the same error appears on other pages, because a data fault is rarely confined to one place. If you spot something wrong, tell us.

Commercial independence

Some hotel links on this site are affiliate links. The criteria on this page are applied whether or not a booking link exists for a property, and commission is not an input to the Chateau Score or to any selection. See our affiliate disclosure.