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 2026 awards, the nomination deadline is January 6, 2026.
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.
Nominees are first selected based on their most applicable category. If there are not enough nominees in a category, a candidate’s secondary categories may qualify them as a nominee.
Primarily based on reviews over the previous year, we will announce up to 3 candidates per category per region. 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 listing! 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 2026 awards, the voting period is February 10–26, 2026.
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.
The top nominees 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 February 26, 2026.
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.

Recognition will be given to all known finalists in attendance.
We will first announce the winners at our Idaho’s Best Awards Ceremony scheduled for the evenings of April 7–8, 2026 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 enjoy drinks, dessert, live entertainment, 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.

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