Every year, Caring celebrates senior living communities and senior care agencies who have a high volume of great reviews — and who respond to any 1-star or 2-star reviews — on their Caring.com listing. Any senior living community or senior care agency listed on Caring.com can qualify for the Caring Stars award — there’s no application process or fee. It’s based on consumer reviews.
Have a question about Caring Stars? Please contact our team: reviews@caring.com or (650) 762-8190.
The Caring Stars criteria can shift from year to year, but some themes have remained constant for winners over the years. Caring Stars have a high overall average rating, many published reviews, some 5-star reviews, recent reviews, and responses on all negative reviews. Learn how Caring helps businesses get reviews.
While you don't have to be a Caring partner to earn the Caring Stars award, we've found that winning partners have averaged more than twice as many prospective customer inquiries and nearly four times more move-ins as Caring's community partners without the honor. Learn how 2024’s winners are making the most of this distinction in their sales and marketing.
In addition to a special badge on the Caring.com listing that's also shown in search results, Caring Stars receive free publicity materials, get featured in local and business press, realize benefits for recruiting and retention, and truly stand out as the best in their county and state.
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Partner with us to discover how we'll help you amplify your online presence, leverage feedback to your advantage, and work toward winning the Caring Stars award!
Already a partner and need help with reviews? Contact reviews@caring.com or 650-762-8190.
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2024's Top in the Nation: Senior Living
375
Communities
156
Super Stars
36
States
In addition to a special badge on the Caring.com listing that's also shown in search results, Caring Stars receive free publicity materials, get featured in local and business press, realize benefits for recruiting and retention, and truly stand out as the best in their county and state.
2024's Top 5 in the Nation: Senior Care
432
Home Care Agencies
326
Super Stars
47
States
In addition to a special badge on the Caring.com listing that's also shown in search results, Caring Stars receive free publicity materials, get featured in local and business press, realize benefits for recruiting and retention, and truly stand out as the best in their county and state.
Frequently Asked Questions
Caring Stars
In The News
Caring Stars
In The News
A Digital Marketing Academy presentation on Thursday, January 18, 2024 for Caring Stars 2024 award winners, recognizing service excellence in senior living and senior care. In the presentation, Denise Graab — Caring's reviews program director and Caring Stars manager — provided an overview of the award and why it matters; explained the criteria and benefits of winning; and provided promotional examples for sales, marketing, PR, social media and recruiting. Any Caring Stars of 2024 who didn't yet receive their promotional materials and winner gifts should contact reviews@caring.com for assistance.
More information about Caring Stars 2024 is available in the Caring Stars info center. This includes all winners nationwide, per state and county, as well as Caring's news media releases about 2024 winners — senior living release (November 2023) and senior care release (December 2023) - with quotes from our CEO, Jim Rosenthal.
This webinar, co-hosted by Emily A Hay and Alison Spitzer of Hay There Social Media, outlines three key strategies for growth on social media. You will learn how to use social media to engage with your local community and specific tactics to achieve specific goals.
Join us as Evan Friedkin and Craig Simons from Roobrik share some of the results from their newly launched Roobrik Afford Survey! In this webinar, you'll learn key insights on how older adults and adult children are thinking about finances as they relate to senior living, their top concerns and how you can address them in your sales process.
Aug 26, 2025
Time to Shine: How to Qualify for Caring Stars 2026Each year, Caring recognizes the top-rated senior living communities and in-home care agencies with the Caring Stars award, based on consumer reviews from seniors and their families on Caring.com.
The first of its kind when originally launched and now a well-recognized signal of service excellence, Caring Stars 2026 marks two major milestones:
The 15th edition winner list for senior living (including all levels of community, from 55+ apartments, adult day care, and independent living, to assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing, and CCRCs)
The 10th anniversary winner list for senior care (including in-home care, home health, hospice, and geriatric care management)
With added promotions to celebrate these milestones, it’s a particularly opportune time to be among the featured communities and agencies honored! We detailed how to earn the Caring Stars 2026 award in our recent “Time to Shine” webinar (slides and recording in our events archive), and the following summary provides an overview for you, too.
When researching and selecting the best fit service providers, seniors and their families turn to online reviews to narrow their options and make decisions. Caring Stars and the over 400,000 reviews on Caring.com help them make well-informed, confident choices during these life transitions.
Over the many years we’ve hosted online reviews, we’ve seen firsthand how this peer feedback not only shapes trust, but also drive inquiries, tours, and move-ins. Research from BrightLocal’s Consumer Reviews Survey and data from Caring’s referral partnerships show that:
96% of Americans read reviews when considering local services, including for senior living and in-home care, and 74% are looking at multiple review websites. When this online research happens, you want your online reviews to help tell a story about the quality of your services and positively influence their decision-making.
Caring community partners with 16+ reviews have averaged nearly 3x more leads, almost 4x more tours, and over 4x more move-ins than those with only 1-2 reviews.
Earning the Caring Stars award builds on this influence. In 2023-2024, Caring Stars communities attracted nearly twice as many inquiries and over five times more move-ins compared to non-winners on Caring.com.
Community and care seekers use Caring Stars as a shortcut to trust. They see the award or badge in search results, on profile pages, and even filter the Caring.com directory results to view Caring Stars from the past three years. The award helps them quickly identify those communities and agencies with a track record of excellence — attracting them to learn more about their services.
Caring Stars gives honored businesses this valuable increased visibility in search, social media, and local PR. The award brings free promotional materials, media coverage, and a powerful differentiator in a crowded marketplace.
As a high integrity reviews platform, Caring charges no fees for Caring Stars participation, and there is no application process. Any community or agency in the United States with a stellar reputation profile on Caring.com can be considered — if meeting the minimum eligibility criteria by the qualification deadline (for Caring Stars 2026, that is October 15, 2025).
2026 Award qualification deadline: October 15, 2025
Senior living winners announced: mid-November 2025
Home care agency winners announced: mid-December 2025
To be considered for the 2026 award, we suggest exceeding the following reviews metrics by the qualification deadline ...
FOR SENIOR CARE AGENCIES AND SENIOR LIVING COMMUNITIES (with resident capacity of 31+):
FOR CARE HOMES OR SMALL HOUSING:
After the October 15th deadline, Caring audits all finalist profiles to confirm integrity and compliance. The audit includes:
Checking that all published reviews meet guidelines (evaluating them as a collection for each profile, in addition to the individual screening each went through when published). Communities and agencies must avoid adding the reviews for their customers — Caring can help any seniors who need that assistance in participating.
Verifying state-based licensing information for care levels where required, and ensuring the license information on the profile matches
For regulated care levels of senior living: Analyzing two years of inspection reports and citations. Finalists can be excluded from the winner list for serious deficiencies, a high volume of minor citations, or repeated year-over-year citations.
Screening of public news reports
These steps help ensure the award maintains consumer trust and truly represents the best service providers nationwide.
One of the most common mistakes is asking the wrong people to give reviews on Caring.com.
Here’s who may participate in our high integrity program:
During the “Time to Shine” webinar for Caring Stars 2026, we discussed the many services Caring offers to get and respond to reviews.
HOW TO GET REVIEWS
Online Review Forms: Every Caring.com profile has a dedicated review link you can share directly with cognitively-healthy seniors and their families. -Caring’s senior living partners can use Partner Portal to email this link directly to potential reviewers and track how many reviews you generate.
Review Call-in Line: For Caring’s referral partners, we offer a free “Review Us on Caring” handout with the phone number for our award-winning review call in line. -This is an excellent option for seniors who aren’t yet comfortable online — and it frequently results in very detailed, authentic reviews. We also have other reviews-by-phone services for Caring partners too — for both senior living and senior care.
Activated Insights Integration: If your home care agency is using Activated Insights (formerly Home Care Pulse), be sure to opt into this program that takes some of the consumer feedback collected in their surveys and transmits reviews for Caring.com profiles.
Once you have reviews published on your profile, don’t miss the opportunity to respond to them:
As announced earlier this summer, we also now have a partnership with ResponseScribe to help craft your responses. It comes with a free 14-day trial for reviews on both Caring and Google.
The October 15th deadline will be here sooner than you think, so don't delay in building your Caring.com profile for Caring Stars 2026 consideration. Don't be outshined by your local competitors — be among those featured for excellence in Caring Stars 2026.
Here's what just some of the 2025 winners have had to say about this honor for their organizations:
Have questions? Please reach out to reviews@caring.com or (650) 762-8190 for support.
Sep 13, 2024
Caring Stars 2025: How to Qualify by DeadlineIn our half-hour Time to Shine: Caring Stars 2025 qualification webinar in August, we shared why the Caring Stars award is worth your attention; how this industry distinction helps communities and agencies in the "digital drive-by" (or online research by seniors and their families) and supports the success of your business; what a stellar reviews profile looks like; and how to get and respond to reviews on Caring.com.
The soon-approaching deadline for the Caring Stars 2025 award is Tuesday, October 15, 2024. There is no application process or fees, but you do need recent reviews, review responses, a high overall average rating, and a good volume of published reviews too. Does your community or agency have the reviews profile needed to be considered?
Earning the Caring Stars award isn't easy, but the effort is worth it. For 2025, we've increased focus on recent reviews and review responses, while maintaining the high integrity standards this program has been known for since launching as the first of its kind in 2012.
To be considered for the 2025 award, we suggest the following reviews metrics to achieve or exceed...
For senior care agencies and senior living communities with a resident capacity of 21 or higher:
For smaller senior living communities and residential care homes having 20 or fewer resident capacity:
We also have quality assurance measures in our Caring Stars winner determination:
A common mistake that can hold you back from Caring Stars status is asking the wrong people for reviews — this leads to those reviews being declined or removed.
Here's who to ask and who to avoid asking:
As you can see: We're focused on publishing authentic reviews from cognitively-healthy seniors and their families. We host their first-hand feedback about your eldercare services, and we don't publish reviews submitted by your employees, any industry insiders, or anyone else with a conflict of interest. This policy is covered in our reviews guidelines too.
The fastest, easiest way for your customers to add reviews is via online forms on Caring.com. You can point your customers directly to the form for your profile or give them the general form link. By giving them the link, you save them time and make it as convenient as possible for them to submit their review (they don't have to go searching for where to enter it). Not sure of your review form link? Contact our team to help.
Have seniors willing to give a review who aren't yet comfortable online? With our free review-by-phone services for Caring partners, tech-challenged seniors can participate too! This service also includes a free "Review Us on Caring" handout with the toll-free number for our review call0in line, and we have review collection agents now taking calls seven days a week during daytime hours. Contact our team for more info.
Those are the two most common ways that communities and agencies ask for reviews. A couple additional methods among those we discussed in the Time to Shine webinar include:
We've been integrated with Activated Insights (formerly Home Care Pulse) since 2017 to generate reviews for senior care agencies. Opt-in via their system.
Caring's community partners can use Partner Portal to request reviews from many people at once. Find out how here.
Tip: Reviewers do not have to use Caring’s referral services to provide a review (our program isn’t limited to reviews from Caring referrals).
To be considered for Caring Stars, you need to respond to the published reviews on your profile.
Since the beginning years of the program, we’ve required all 1-star or 2-star reviews on your Caring.com profile (reviews of all dates, not just recent reviews) to either have a published response or be contested and removed by the 10/15 deadline.
For 2025, if you have no negative reviews: you should have at least one response to any review on the profile page. This demonstrates that you’re actively monitoring customer feedback and taking the time to respond to it.
Here are the 3 main ways to respond to reviews on Caring.com:
FOR SENIOR LIVING COMMUNITIES > Starting in August 2024, Caring partner communities also have a 4th way to respond to reviews — via Caring Partner Portal.
For an in-depth understanding of how to effectively contest reviews to have them removed, or for tips on how to optimize your published review responses, please refer back to the tips we provided in March and June, summarized here.
Don’t be outshined by your local competitors! Take action now to ensure your community or agency is on the Caring Stars 2025 winner list.
To learn more, please revisit the Time to Shine: Caring Stars 2025 webinar recording or read through the slides. Or contact reviews@caring.com or (650) 762-8190 to reach our team.
Aug 29, 2023
Time to Shine: How to Qualify for Caring Stars 2024In a recent webinar about qualifying for Caring Stars 2024, we shared the incredible journey of the Caring Stars award program and how it elevates senior living communities or in-home care agencies to the top of care seekers’ lists.
The deadline for the 2024 Caring Stars award is fast approaching: you must have the required stellar reviews profile on Caring.com by October 15, 2023. To help you understand and achieve this highly-coveted award, we’ve compiled the following critical information for maximizing your reputation on Caring.com.
Since its groundbreaking launch in January 2012 as the very first “best senior living ” award based on consumer reviews, Caring Stars has evolved into a powerful emblem of excellence within our industry — now encompassing all senior living and senior care directories on Caring.com.
You read that right: Any senior living community or senior care agency listed on Caring.com can qualify for the Caring Stars award.
And unlike other now-similar award programs, there is no application process or fees for Caring Stars, and Caring Stars winners get free promotional gifts too (there are no licensing fees for winners to use the Caring Stars badge). We also don’t require that you be a Caring partner to be eligible for this prestigious award — though our free reputation management support services for partners do help.
Here's why Caring Stars can be a game-changer for your business:
Positive PR and Marketing Buzz — Being a Caring Stars recipient is more than an accolade; it's a beacon that attracts attention and trust. This recognition generates positive PR and establishes your community or agency as a go-to choice for seniors and families. You can see real examples of this in the Caring Stars 2023 winner webinar.
Engagement and Excitement — Caring Stars doesn't just signify excellence; it engages and excites your stakeholders. It fosters brand loyalty and strengthens the connection between you and your constituents, which can be invaluable for maintaining and growing the success of your business.
Recruitment and Retention Support — In an industry where recruiting and retaining staff is a continuous challenge, Caring Stars showcases your commitment to quality and can make you an employer of choice.
A Trusted Guide — Caring Stars has become more than an award — it's a trustworthy go-to guide for seniors and their families. Its credibility is why for the past two years, Fortune has used it to rank the best cities for seniors and families.
This reviews program has been proven to attract prospective customers for Caring Stars winners — boosting inquiries and conversions for Caring partners in particular. For example, in 2021 and 2022, the senior living winners partnered with Caring averaged nearly twice as many new resident inquiries and almost three times as many move-ins as Caring’s community partners without the award. This proprietary data is another signal of the power of consumer reviews in helping seniors and their families find the best service providers.
Earning the Caring Stars status isn't easy, but the journey is worth it. The focus on obtaining and responding to reviews is the key.
To be eligible for the 2024 award, here are the essential review metrics to aim for…
For senior care agencies and senior living communities with a resident capacity of 21 or higher, you should have:
At least 15 published reviews on your Caring.com listing by the October 15th deadline
Across all of those published reviews, an overall average rating of 4.5 stars or higher
A minimum of 4 reviews since October 15 of the previous year (4 published reviews between 10/15/22 - 10/15/23)
One or more 5-star published reviews with dates in 2023 (at least one 5-star published review dated on or between 1/1/23 - 10/15/23)
A published response on every 1-star and 2-star review across all time
For smaller senior living communities and residential care homes having 20 or fewer resident capacity: The qualification criteria and reviews recommendations are different. In this case, you still need to have a 4.5 stars overall average rating or higher, with one or more 5-star reviews in 2023. You also need to have a response to every negative review. But your total reviews volume requirement is lower, both in total reviews across all time and in the recent year qualification time frame. If your senior living community aligns with this smaller capacity, make sure your Caring.com listing has up-to-date resident capacity information or you’ll be judged at the higher review volume thresholds instead.
Before we dive into specific resources to help you get and respond to reviews, let’s first help you avoid a common mistake that can hold you back: asking the wrong people for reviews to meet the Caring Stars requirements faster.
We’re focused on publishing genuine reviews from cognitively healthy seniors and their families. We host their first-hand feedback about your services, and we do not publish reviews submitted by your employees, any industry insiders, or anyone else with a conflict of interest. This policy is covered in our review guidelines too.
And here are two more important tips:
Don’t collect and/or upload reviews to Caring.com on behalf of your customers. Our dedicated staff is primed to assist seniors and their families who need a hand in submitting their reviews.
Encourage senior living community residents to steer clear of using their real names as their reviewer screen names — this is a simple measure to protect their privacy, since their home address is published on the listing.
The fastest, easiest way for your customers to add reviews is via your dedicated review entry form on Caring.com. Point your customers directly to it to save them time and make it as convenient as possible for them to help you achieve Caring Stars status. Not sure of your review form link? Contact our team for help.
With our reviews-by-phone services, we also have tech-challenged seniors covered! Communities and agencies in our partner network have free access to our award-winning Review Call-in Line and “Review Us on Caring” handouts.
And that's not all!
If your senior care agency is using Home Care Pulse: we’ve been integrated with them since 2017, with a monthly reviews feed for participating agencies. Many agencies on the 2023 winner list took advantage of this option to get reviews.
For senior living communities in our partner network: we’re doing automatic outreach to the care seekers we've directed your way – collecting their reviews about their tours and choice of your community. And you have access to a nifty tool in Partner Portal to streamline your review request outreach too.
For all review collection sources in both senior living and senior care: Don't worry if we didn't make the initial introduction of the customer – we’ll accept reviews for all qualified consumers even if we weren’t the original referral source of them to your business.
To earn the prestigious Caring Stars recognition, it's also crucial that any and all 1-star or 2-star reviews on your Caring.com listing (across all time) either have a published response or are contested and removed by the 10/15 deadline.
Here are three main ways to respond to reviews on Caring.com:
For partner communities and agencies, there are New Review Alerts — these emails are sent instantly for newly published reviews, have links to contest or publish a response, and you can adjust the emails on your account at any time via Partner Success.
For those using third-party monitoring services, we’re integrated with 6 review response companies, including Consumer Fusion, Influence Network, Reputation.com, ReviewTrackers, Shout About Us, and SAVANT.
For older reviews, if you’re lacking a New Review Alert, or if you aren’t using one of our response partners, you can simply email your response to reviews@caring.com.
For an in-depth understanding of how to effectively contest reviews to have them removed, or for tips on how to optimize your published review responses, please refer back to our prior webinar, “From Complaint to Compliment: How to Respond to Online Consumer Reviews.” The Caring Stars 2024 qualification webinar also has a summary of tips for review response.
Caring Stars deserve the spotlight, and we help shine it on them. Don’t be outshined by your local competitors! Make sure your community or agency is on the 2024 winner list.
To learn more, please revisit the Caring Stars 2024 webinar recording or read through the slides. Or contact reviews@caring.com or (650) 762-8190 to reach our Caring Reviews team.
Dec 07, 2021
Best Senior Care: Caring Super Stars 2022The Caring Super Stars of 2022 for senior care are home care, home health care and hospice agencies who have earned the Caring Stars reviews award for 2022 plus two or more additional years since this award program expanded to include home care agencies in 2017, after being the first-of-its-kind for senior living communities since 2012. These are the repeatedly stellar home care agencies that seniors and their family members praise — year after year.
ALABAMA — 6 agencies
ARIZONA — 10 agencies
ARKANSAS — 4 agencies
CALIFORNIA — 39 agencies
COLORADO — 10 agencies
CONNECTICUT — 9 agencies
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — 1 agency
FLORIDA — 30 agencies
GEORGIA — 6 agencies
HAWAII — 1 agency
ILLINOIS — 15 agencies
INDIANA — 5 agencies
IOWA — 1 agency
KANSAS — 1 agency
KENTUCKY — 1 agency
LOUISIANA — 2 agencies
MAINE — 1 agency
MARYLAND — 7 agencies
MASSACHUSETTS — 10 agencies
MICHIGAN — 14 agencies
MINNESOTA — 3 agencies
MISSISSIPPI — 2 agencies
MISSOURI — 8 agencies
MONTANA — 1 agency
NEBRASKA — 1 agency
NEVADA — 4 agencies
NEW HAMPSHIRE — 3 agencies
NEW JERSEY — 11 agencies
NEW MEXICO — 1 agency
NEW YORK — 18 agencies
Right at Home North Shore Long Island
NORTH CAROLINA — 6 agencies
OHIO — 15 agencies
OKLAHOMA — 4 agencies
OREGON — 5 agencies
PENNSYLVANIA — 10 agencies
SOUTH CAROLINA — 4 agencies
TENNESSEE — 5 agencies
TEXAS — 26 agencies
UTAH — 7 agencies
VIRGINIA — 11 agencies
WASHINGTON — 5 agencies
WEST VIRGINIA — 1 agency
WISCONSIN — 9 agencies
Congratulations to these 333 home care agencies across the United States!
***See the full list of Caring Stars of 2022.
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