How It Works

The Idaho’s Best Awards, are not like any other in Idaho. We go to great lengths to ensure we deliver the most accurate and fair results possible.

There are four stages of the Idaho’s Best Awards that span several months.

There is no cost for candidates to enter our awards program. It’s free to participate!
Idaho residents can nominate an eligible candidate for any Idaho’s Best category.
Candidates are encouraged to nominate themselves.
For our 2025 awards, the nomination deadline is January 24, 2025.
A candidate only needs to be nominated once to make it on our radar.
Nominations are subject to approval by Inbound Systems to ensure the category is relevant to the candidate.
Primarily based on reviews over the previous year, we will announce up to 3 candidates per category per region in February. Only these candidates will advance to Stage 2 as nominees.
IMPORTANT: Once you have been named as an official nominee, be sure to claim your nomination by March 13, 2025! Candidates that do so are the first to receive important notifications and may be given preference in the final results (i.e. tie breakers).

For our 2025 awards, the voting period is March 4 – 25, 2025.
To obtain the most reliable results, residents are restricted to one vote per category. Residents may vote for the same candidate more than once IF it’s in a different category. If a resident votes in the same category more than once, only the most recent vote will count.
To obtain votes, nominees may share the voting page via email, social media, radio ads, etc. Nominees may not incentivize or pay for votes or reviews.
In each region the top nominee with the highest score in each category (averaged, if multiple locations) move onto Stage 3.

This is where the Idaho’s Best Awards shine! First, we reference data from the Better Business Bureau to ensure finalists do not have a grade worse than “B” (no grade is okay). Lack of BBB accreditation does not influence results.
Rather than just a popularity contest of votes, we also count online reviews. Specifically, we’ll capture the previous 12 calendar months of online reviews leading up to March 25, 2025.
A finalist’s overall rating and the number of 5-star reviews (averaged, if multiple locations) on Google are included in the equation. Basically, the higher the rating and the more 5-star reviews received, the better the chances are of winning.
Because reviews are more difficult to obtain, we give them more value in the final calculation. A simplified summary of our formula for determining the winners of each category looks like this: 5-Star Reviews x Overall Rating + Votes
Finalists will be announced on our website as soon as we are able to verify the results. Finalists are also considered Regional Winners (as long as there were at least 2 nominees in the region for the category).

Recognition will be given to finalists, either as Statewide Winner or Regional Winner. The regions are Central Idaho, Eastern Idaho, Panhandle, and Treasure Valley.
We will first announce the winners at our Idaho’s Best Awards Ceremony scheduled for the evenings of April 22–23, 2025 in downtown Boise.
If you’re a finalist, be sure to get your tickets as soon as they become available! We expect to sell out very quickly. At the ceremony, expect to be entertained while you enjoy drinks and the revealing of winners live and on stage. It really is a great time!
For those who are not able to attend the event, we will also announce the winners here on our website within a few business days.
Finally, we’ll announce the finalists and winners in our annual Idaho’s Best Magazine that is scheduled to be published within a couple of months after the awards ceremony.

NOTE: We reserve the right to update and/or clarify these guidelines at our own discretion and without notice. Check back for updates.