A Place for Mom Helps Families Make Informed Senior Care Decisions

We source our data from a range of verified and credible sources to help families conduct their own independent research as they consider their senior living options and tour communities:

Community data:
We collect proprietary data from our network of 14,000+ senior living communities in the U.S., with regular refreshes of data and information

Third-party reviews:
We have 387,000+ reviews from senior living residents and family members that provide first-hand accounts about senior living communities

Independent reporting:
Our content is informed by community, caregiver, and family data, and a methodical fact-checking process designed to provide caregivers the latest available information on relevant topics

How we collect data from our 14K+ community partners

When a community joins our network, A Place for Mom staff members gather and verify initial community data. If a community switches owners/management, another gathering and verification of community data occurs.

Every 180 days, A Place for Mom staff members re-verify pricing for all of the 14,000+ senior living communities in our network. Once a year, we ask all of the communities in our network to provide us with updated information on up to 200 individual data points, which include:

• Pricing
• Community amenities and activities
• Resident demographics
• Dining
• Healthcare services
• Room features and layouts

A Place for Mom’s cost data reflects what families actually pay for senior living and care. When a senior chooses to move into one of the communities we referred them to, the community pays us a percentage of the senior’s first month of rent and care fees. This allows us to identify how much people are actually paying for senior living and care at a given community, for a particular care type, or in a city or state.

How we verify reviews from family members and community residents

To ensure the quality and veracity of the 387,000+ reviews posted on A Place for Mom, we categorize reviews against the following criteria:

• Verified reviews: Reviews marked with a ‘verified’ label are reviews where an A Place for Mom staff member speaks directly with the family member or resident submitting the review, and verifies its credibility.
• Reviews: Reviews that do not include a ‘verified’ label are reviews where direct connection with the reviewer does not occur. A valid email or phone number is required to submit a review. A Place for Mom screens all review submissions for community email addresses in order to filter out reviews submitted by community staff. In rare cases, a community may dispute a review, in which case an A Place for Mom staff member will reach out to the user directly to attempt to confirm the review.

What is the approval process for posting reviews on our site?

All reviews go through an approval process before being listed on the website. Reviews may be submitted by anyone who has engaged with the community, with the exception of current or former employees of the community. Most often, reviewers include residents and their families.

To ensure the integrity of reviews and the privacy of reviewers, we follow these policies and procedures:

• Submissions: When submitting reviews, users are not anonymous to us – we require the name and contact information for the reviewer to help validate the authenticity of the review. This information also enables us to perform checks for duplicates and follow up if necessary. Our system is designed to identify submissions from the same IP address, and we prohibit reviews from a community’s email domain.
• Public posting: When reviews are posted publicly on our site, they do not display the full personal details of the reviewer, to protect their privacy. In certain cases, reviewers can choose to display their name or a pseudonym alongside their review, but this is at their discretion.
• We do not alter reviews except to remove the name and personal contact information. Reviews are only removed from the site due to profanity, slander, or an inability to verify the legitimacy of the reviewer.

When submitting a review, individuals have the opportunity to provide comments and rate each community on the following categories:

• Cleanliness
• Friendliness
• Meals and dining
• Care services
• Activities
• Value for cost
• Staff

How we deliver independent, objective content

Published content is informed by community, caregiver, and family data, extensive research, and a methodical fact-checking process designed to help you make informed care decisions.

A Place for Mom’s community network has no influence over the content we surface on our website. We do not alter the data we collect from communities, residents, or families, except to protect privacy and to aggregate data at care type, city, state, or national levels.

How we use data to better serve families

To help our Senior Living Advisors make quality recommendations

When families use our service, our Senior Living Advisors use our data to tailor their recommendations to the communities that best fit their needs and budget. Learn more about how our service works.

To help seniors and families make better, more informed decisions

We surface reviews, cost, amenity, and regulation information across our website in order to make senior living data and insights available to caregivers, seniors, and the general public.

Assisted living, memory care, and independent living communities are regulated by state governments, which means that rules and requirements will vary by state and care type.

To score and rank communities in a location

Our goal is to help caregivers and their aging loved ones find high-quality senior living and senior care options that fit their needs. Using our 20+ years of experience in senior living, we developed a proprietary ranking system informed by the following factors:

• Review scores based on recent, high-quality reviews. The standard five-star rating systems used on many websites let you see an average rating based on all reviews – no matter how old those reviews are. Our review score prioritizes reviews that are recent – the past 24 months – because we know families need current information when choosing senior care. Communities with many recent, positive reviews receive a high review score, while communities with mixed or negative reviews receive a lower score. Communities with no recent reviews will not have a review score even if older reviews are positive. The maximum A Place for Mom review score a community can receive is 10.
• Facility details. We know that families and seniors want to learn all they can about the communities that interest them. Communities that provide us with quality images and information are prioritized over facilities that don’t offer the same level of transparency.
• Location: Facility options vary based on proximity to your zip code or designated city/state combination.

This rating system allows us to identify and surface the top options in a given location, and is also used to drive results for our Best of Senior Living Awards.

To compare cities and states against each other

We aggregate our review scores and community data at the city and state level in order to provide you with contextual details on how location impacts senior living.