During the annual awards period, participating companies share the employee survey link internally with their team. The survey is open through December 15th, when the awards period closes and data is frozen and exported to determine winners.

Each employee selects your company, enters their own work email on your company's official domain, and confirms it with a 6-digit code we email to them. A response only counts once that code has been entered. Each employee can submit once.

You can see where your company stands in the Best Places to Work program in real time, with no password needed. Go to the status page, enter your work email, and we'll send a 6-digit code to confirm it's you (you must use your company's official domain). Your session lasts 24 hours.

On the status page you'll see your company's two compliance items, each with its due date and a live countdown, and a button to complete any item that is still open:

Your completion rate, response count and the list of employees who have responded are locked (shown blurred) until both compliance items are complete. Once both are done, that data unlocks automatically.

Companies that miss either deadline are considered ineligible. If you missed a deadline, complete the item in the app anyway and check your status page to see whether Hotel Tech Report has accepted it.

The HotelTechAwards Best Places to Work rankings are built entirely from verified, anonymous employee surveys. Every response is tied to a confirmed work email and limited to one per employee, so scores reflect real teams rather than whoever could be rallied to click a link. Each company's rating blends five dimensions of the employee experience (work/life balance, personal development, AI enablement, confidence in the future, and values/culture fit), and we apply confidence-weighting that pulls small-sample scores toward the field average. This statistical safeguard keeps a company with a handful of glowing responses from leapfrogging one with a deep, consistent track record.

On top of sentiment, we layer a size-adjusted participation bonus. Because a 20-person company getting 15 responses is a far stronger signal than a 2,000-person company getting the same, smaller teams have to clear a higher share of their headcount to earn full credit, which keeps the playing field level across companies of every size. Finally, integrity checks (domain and duplicate-voter screening, among others) filter out anything that looks like gaming before results are locked. The net effect is a ranking that rewards genuine, broad-based employee sentiment, not headcount, not marketing budget, and not whoever ran the most aggressive get-out-the-vote push.

Employees rate their company in the survey on the following factors:

Please do not conflate eligibility with making the list. Many companies will meet the minimum eligibility requirements but not make the list each year. Eligibility is a minimum prerequisite for contention, not the high bar of success.

To be eligible to make the list, your company must:

Who counts as an employee: full-time employees of your company who each have their own named email address on your company's domain (for example [email protected], not info@ or sales@). Contractors, part-time staff, and employees of parent, sister or subsidiary companies do not count toward your employee count and cannot vote for your company.

All registrants in the HotelTechAwards with at least one valid product entry are automatically entered into the Best Places to Work competition.

Share this link with your team: https://hoteltechawards.com/best-places-competition/survey. Each employee selects your company, enters their own work email on your company's domain, and confirms it with a 6-digit code we email to them. A response only counts once the code is entered. If the code doesn't arrive, ask them to check their spam and promotions folders. Each employee can submit once.

Go to https://hoteltechawards.com/best-places-competition/check-status, enter your work email, and confirm with the 6-digit code we send you. You'll see your compliance items with their due dates and your response progress. Your session lasts 24 hours. Your completion rate and response list unlock once both compliance items are complete.

Completion data unlocks only after both compliance items are done: (1) the Rules Agreement is signed and (2) your employee count is verified. The red banner at the top of the status page shows how many items you've completed and takes you straight to the open ones.

Yes. Once both compliance items are complete, the status page shows which employees have responded. You will never see any individual employee's ratings or written answers, because responses are anonymous.

On the status page, click the button next to the employee count item. Enter your total number of full-time employees and upload a full-page, unedited screenshot from your HR or employee-management system showing that total. The deadline is October 30, 2026.

Full-time employees of your company who each have their own named email address on your company's domain (for example [email protected], not a shared inbox like info@ or sales@). Contractors, part-time staff, and employees of parent, sister or subsidiary companies do not count and cannot vote for your company.

The Rules Agreement is signed electronically inside the app, from your status page. It is not sent by DocuSign. The deadline was October 20, 2026.

Companies that miss either compliance deadline are considered ineligible. Submit the missing item in the app anyway, then check your status page to see whether Hotel Tech Report has accepted it.

You need at least 15 verified responses, plus a minimum participation rate based on your verified full-time employee count: 85% for fewer than 25 employees, 50% for 25-49, 35% for 50-99, 20% for 100-199, and 15% for 200+. Meeting these minimums makes you eligible; it does not guarantee a place in the top 10.

You must use your own named email address on your company's official domain. Check your spam and promotions folders for the code. If your company uses more than one official domain (for example .com and .net), message us and we'll add it.

Only companies who make the top 10 will be recognized. If you participate and don't make the list there is no downside or mention of your company.

No, results of the employee surveys remain private and anonymous. If your company's management would like to receive your team's employee survey results, they may request an anonymized dataset. Aggregate anonymized results can be shared with you but will not be shared anywhere else or posted publicly.

Survey results are anonymized to ensure that employees have a safe place to share real, honest feedback about their place of work.

On January 1st, the top 10 companies as determined by the employee surveys will be notified, and the public announcement will be made together with the product category winners on January 15.

Yes, great culture is a strong predictor of future outcomes for clients. Each company that makes the top 10 Best Places to Work list receives an off-platform bonus toward the HotelTechAwards, which has historically impacted results, especially in very close product-level competitions.

You can fill out this form to request survey results. Premium members will receive anonymized results in 2-3 business days and basic members within 2-3 weeks.