How we score

Clear answers, not vibes.

Every stay is scored 0 to 3 per pathway on the quality of the evidence behind it, never on marketing language. Every score traces to a source you can read. No URL, no score.

0Not published

We looked and found nothing. Not a failing grade, a gap in the record.

1Claimed

Asserted with no specification, number, brand or third party behind it.

2Specified

A named system, product, standard or method, with no measurement yet.

3Measured

A number, a test result, a lab report, or a third party verification.

The standing rules

Cite or drop it. Every scored pathway needs a source URL on the record.
Where we are not there yet, we say so. Most records were scored in a bulk assessment pass whose evidence has not been transcribed claim by claim. Those records carry a notice saying exactly that, and they are excluded from search results until they have been sourced by hand. They stay visible here, and they stay in every total, because hiding them would misrepresent how much of this sector has actually been checked.
Marketing cannot buy a score. A property’s own copy caps at 1. Reaching 2 needs a named system. Reaching 3 needs a measurement or a third party.
Unassessed is not zero. A pathway we have not assessed leaves the denominator entirely, so a stay reviewed on seven pathways is scored out of 21, not 24.
The outside is not the inside. Regional air and water data is shown as context and never contributes to a score. A property cannot be marked down for the air outside it.
Corrections move records. Anyone can submit an answer with a source, and every change is logged.

Every certification, defined

Human Garage Certified Spaces sits at the top of this page because it carries the most measurements aligned to human biology of any property certification we have reviewed: assessed on site across all eight pathways, using Building Biology measurement methods combined with more than a decade of Human Garage’s work in how bodies respond to their environments. It is our own standard, which is a disclosed commercial relationship, always marked. Certification never changes an evidence score: it adds measurements to the record, scored on exactly the same rubric as everyone else’s.

Every other certification a property can hold is defined below, in the market’s own terms.

Every certification, defined

The full reviews →

What each certification in the market actually measures, in one line. Each name links to our full review of that standard against the eight pathways. Holding one never moves a pathway score on its own: it moves a score only through the evidence it publishes.

Human Garage Certified SpacesBiology first, hospitality only. On-site assessment across all eight pathways, Building Biology measurement methods, and a decade of Human Garage’s work on how built environments act on the body. The only certification with an engineered EMF pathway. How it works →
B Corp CertificationB Lab. Company-level certification of social and environmental governance. Nothing in it specifies a physical condition of a building or a guest room.
BIO HOTELSDie BIO-Hotels, Verein für Angebotsentwicklung und Marketing (Ötztal-Bahnhof, Austria). Membership standard for organic hotels, strongest on certified-organic food and toiletries. Real specificity in the kitchen, silence on most of the building.
EarthCheck CertifiedEarthCheck Pty Limited. Environmental benchmarking and certification for travel and tourism operators, audited annually. Carbon, water and waste again, at destination scale.
FitwelCenter for Active Design. Public-health design certification born at the CDC. Offices and residences in practice: it certifies no hotels.
Global Ecosphere Retreats Standard (The Long Run)The Long Run. Membership of nature-based tourism businesses committed to conservation, community, culture and commerce. Land stewardship, not building measurement.
Green GlobeGreen Certifications Inc., dba Green Globe Certification. Sustainability certification for travel and tourism, criteria across management, social and environmental performance. No biological measurement of guest spaces.
Green KeyFoundation for Environmental Education. Eco-label for hospitality, checklist-driven: energy, water, waste and awareness. Operational sustainability rather than guest biology.
GSTC Hotel StandardGlobal Sustainable Tourism Council. The Global Sustainable Tourism Council baseline criteria that most tourism eco-labels are accredited against. A floor, not a measurement.
LEED v4.1 (BD+C and O+M)U.S. Green Building Council. The green building benchmark. Energy, carbon, water and waste: it measures what a building does to the planet, not what it does to the body sleeping in it.
Nordic Swan Ecolabel, Hotels and other accommodationNordic Ecolabelling. The Nordic eco-label for hotels: chemicals, energy, waste and purchasing, audited. Environmental, not biological.
Standard of Building Biology Testing Methods SBM-2024Baubiologie MAES with the Institut für Baubiologie und Nachhaltigkeit IBN. The Building Biology measurement standard our own assessments draw on: room-by-room measurement of EMF, air, and materials in sleeping areas. A method, not a hospitality certification.
WELL Building Standard v2International WELL Building Institute. Building-wide health certification across ten concepts, air and water and light among them. Strong on measurement, no EMF concept, applies to every building type rather than hospitality specifically.
WITT CertifiedWellness in Travel and Tourism. An anonymous in-person audit of wellness services and amenities across five pillars: healthy eating, holistic healing, nature, movement and local impact. No EMF pillar, no materials-toxicity pillar.
IRESS 2026International Residential Environmental Safety Council. The one published EMF standard for spaces, with real thresholds, and a scope that explicitly excludes short-term accommodation. Homes only, no hotels, and no certified properties named publicly.

Where evidence comes from

Every claim on every record carries a provenance tier. Only the first three can move a score, and each maps to exactly one point on the scale. That is deliberate: it means a score is a restatement of the evidence rather than a separate opinion, so no total is ever hand entered.

Tier	Scores	What counts
Tier AVerified	3 of 3, Measured	A measurement of something this pathway covers: a test result, a laboratory report, a third party verification, or a published methodology. A number alone is not enough, and it has to measure the thing being scored. Floor area, land area, room counts and energy figures are numbers that measure nothing any pathway asks about, so they are not evidence here at all rather than weaker evidence. A measurement about the operator rather than about this building cannot reach this tier either.
Tier BSpecified	2 of 3, Specified	A named system, product, standard or method is published, but no measurement accompanies it. Named means a reader could go and check it: a species, a brand, a supplier, a grade, a certification, a documented method. A material class is not a name. "Reclaimed timber", "natural stone", "organic cotton" and "low VOC paint" describe a category and could be almost anything, so they sit at Claimed. "Dendrocalamus asper", "Oeko-Tex Standard 100", "MERV 13" and a supplier by name sit here.
Tier CClaimed	1 of 3, Claimed	Something relevant is on the public record with no specification, number, brand or third party behind it. That covers the property asserting it, and it covers a journalist reporting an impression from a visit. Neither can be checked by a reader, which is why both sit here.
Tier DRegional context	Never scored	Regional and public datasets. Never contributes to a property score, because a property cannot be marked down for the air outside it.
Tier EListing data	Never scored	Booking and review platforms, used for coordinates, key count and price band. Never contributes to a score.
Tier FThird party standard	Never scored	Another standard the property holds. Recorded and shown, but scored only through the evidence that standard publishes.

The eight pathways

Browse by pathway →

Pathway	In one line	What it covers
01Air Quality	Filtration, ventilation and what the air is measured at.	Filtration specification, including filter grade. Ventilation rate and fresh air supply. Carbon dioxide, volatile organic compound and particulate measurement. Mould inspection and remediation history. Combustion sources inside the building envelope.
02Water Integrity	Source, treatment, tested panels and how drinking water arrives.	Water source and the treatment train applied to it. Filtration specification at building and room level. Tested contaminant panels and the laboratory that ran them. Pool and spa water chemistry and sanitation method. How drinking water reaches the guest.
03Light Rhythm	Circadian lighting specification, flicker, blackout and daylight.	Circadian or tunable lighting specification. Colour temperature by time of day and flicker performance. Blackout provision in sleeping areas. Daylight access and glazing. Outdoor and exterior light discipline.
04EMF Harmony	Wired versus wireless topology, and what is measured where people sleep.	Wired versus wireless network topology in guest areas. Shielded cabling and demand switches. Field measurements taken in sleeping areas. Router, access point and smart meter placement relative to beds. Whether wireless can be switched off on request.
05Materials and Textiles	Named materials, finishes, bedding composition and cleaning chemistry.	Named low emission materials, finishes and adhesives. Mattress composition and any flame retardant treatment. Linen and textile fibre content and certification. Cleaning and laundry chemistry. Plastics in contact with guests, food and water.
06Food and Kitchen	Sourcing, on site growing, cookware, kitchen water and additive discipline.	Sourcing verification and supplier transparency. On site growing and the share of produce it covers. Cookware and cooking oil policy. Water used in the kitchen and for ice. Allergen, additive and seed oil discipline.
07Biophilic and Healing Design	Nature access, views, volume and natural material contact, designed with intent.	Direct nature access from guest rooms. Views, outlook and prospect. Spatial volume and ceiling height. Natural material and pattern contact. Whether the design intent is published rather than incidental.
08Sound and Sensory Ecology	Measured background noise, separation between keys, and scent load.	Measured background noise level in guest rooms. Acoustic separation between adjoining keys. Mechanical and plant noise, including air conditioning. Low frequency and infrasound sources. Scent, fragrance and chemical load carried in the air.

Categories are claims

Browse by category →

A category is a promise about what a stay is, and a listing that claims one it does not fit pays for the gap the moment a guest arrives. So no category here is ever chosen, by the property or by us. Each one is a rule computed from the record: a stay carries the label because its data qualifies, and loses it on the next build if the data stops qualifying. There is deliberately no category for a setting or a style, no Beachfront, no Design, because those would have to be read out of marketing photography, and we do not score marketing.

Category	The rule that earns it
Certified	Holds at least one certification that can be reviewed: a Certified Spaces assessment, or an independent third-party standard with the certificate on record.
Measured	At least one pathway is backed by a published measurement, a number from a lab or a third party, not a claim.
Fully documented	Six or more pathways assessed and something published on every one of them. No blank rows.
Intimate scale	Twenty keys or fewer. Read from the published room count, so a resort cannot opt in.
Opening soon	Not yet operating. The build is underway and the specification window is still open.
Nature	Biophilic and Healing Design proven at Specified or better: the coast, the island or the mountain is engineered into the stay, not just visible from it.
Luxurious	Five-star scale and service, marked on the record from the operator's own positioning. A browse label, never a score.
Jungle treehouse	The record itself speaks of treehouses, jungle, rainforest or canopy: sleeping up in the green.
Urban	In a city, where proving the air and the quiet is hardest and matters most.
Country	Farms, ranches, valleys and estates, by the record's own words, and not in a city.
Humble	Twenty keys or fewer and no five-star mark: a home away from home.

Conflicts, and what we do not do

A project of Certified Spaces Standards Inc. We take no commission, sell no bookings, and accept no paid placement. There are no affiliate links anywhere on this site, and a property cannot pay to change a score. Where we have assessed a property on site, that relationship is disclosed with a seal on the listing.

A low score means a property has not published information. It does not mean the property is unsafe, unhealthy or poorly run. Of the 87 stays in the index, 60 publish nothing at all about the wireless environment in a bedroom, and 4 publish at least one measurement somewhere. Those are facts about what is public, not about the buildings.

Found something out of date or wrong? corrections@certifiedspaces.org. We correct it and log the change.