Best of the Boat FAQ
In the Steamboat Pilot & Today’s Best of the Boat contest, readers have the last word.
For years, residents have looked forward to voting in the readers’ choice contest to support their favorite local businesses, organizations, people and attractions. We’re proud to host it as a way to recognize the places and people that make this region special.
Sign-In Rules
Registration and sign-in are available during the contest’s open periods. If you see a countdown, please return once it completes to register/login or to nominate and/or vote.
Newly registered users can nominate and vote immediately for the first seven (7) days without logging in on the same device.
Once the 7-day period has ended, or should you wish to participate from a different device, you will need to click the “Sign In to Continue Voting” link near the top left of the contest page in the colored bar under the header and contest copy. After entering the email address you registered with, you will receive an email from noreply@mail.revfluent.com containing your personal login link to continue nominating and/or voting. Please check your spam folders in case your email client sent it there. If indeed it was delivered to spam, please mark it as “Not Spam” to ensure you receive communications in your inbox going forward.
Bookmark your personalized login link for quick access! Users do not need to sign in daily from the same device unless browser cookies are disabled.
Sign-in sessions remain active for 30 days. Once a session expires, users will need to sign in again using the bookmark in the email or requesting a new email by clicking the “Sign In to Continue Voting” link again.
Before requesting support, please search your entire email inbox for a message from noreply@mail.revfluent.com containing your login link.
If you still have not received the email, contact support by clicking the “Have a Question” near the top right of the contest page in the color bar under the header and contest copy and we will reply as soon as possible. Please provide the email address you believe you registered with.
Nominations and Voting
- Nomination round: The contest starts with a nomination round, where readers can propose businesses, organizations and names for all of the categories, including new categories. This keeps the contest fresh as new businesses and organizations come to the area and as existing ones change and grow.
- Voting round: In the voting round, readers vote to narrow the big list of nominated businesses, organizations and names down to just a winner, 2nd- and 3rd-place finishers in each category. Anyone may vote once per day in any or all categories.
Nomination Guidelines
Our Best of the Boat team does its best to vet all nominees. Here are the guidelines we use, with exceptions as noted below:
Businesses, organizations and businesspeople in Routt County, Colorado are eligible.
All categories are open to businesses that may be local, chains, nationals or franchises.
We reserve the right to disqualify a business or organization from a category that does not represent a significant focus of its activities.
Nominees must, in most categories, be open to the general public. That is, no restrictive membership organizations.
Nominations for individual categories, like Real Estate Agent, must include the nominee’s full name and place of business.
Application of our criteria is not an exact science. The Best of the Boat team uses its best judgment; if you think we’ve made an error, please email best@steamboatpilot.com.
Fair Voting Rules
Nominees/entrants are prohibited from soliciting votes by offering payments or exchange of value of any kind.
Voting is limited to one vote in each category per person per day.
Even though we require sign-ups, we recognize that some people, in their enthusiasm, may be tempted to vote several times using different email accounts. Please note that voting under multiple email accounts violates the rules.
We do have systems in place to detect fraudulent voting. When we see evidence of fraudulent voting, we may eliminate all suspect votes at our discretion. In extreme cases, we will remove entrants, as well.
Category Exceptions and Special Notes
- Health: In the categories where we asked for practices, we try to exclude individual practitioners, unless they operate solo practices named after themselves.
- Home & Garden: The Real Estate Firm category is not intended for individual agents unless they are sole proprietors of an agency or brokerage, in which case that agency or brokerage may be nominated under their name. Individual agents should be nominated in the Real Estate Agent category.
- Services: The Insurance Agency category is open to locally based offices or teams of agents or brokers selling insurance directly to buyers. The category is not intended for individual agents, unless they are sole proprietors of an agency or brokerage, in which case that agency or brokerage may be nominated under their name.
We reserve the right to change these guidelines. Check back here for current guidelines.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What are the key dates for 2025?
- Nomination period: May 23-June 7
- Voting round: July 25-August 12
- Winners announced: October 10
Q: I nominated my business, but I don’t see it showing up on the website in the list of nominees. Why is that?
A: If you’re looking at the site during the nomination period and don’t see a business you nominated, fear not! All valid entries are considered and reviewed. But in order for a nomination to show up on the site, we have to approve it manually. Because we receive thousands of nominations, we can get backlogged.
The good news is your business only has to be nominated once to make it to the voting round, assuming it meets the guidelines. And if it did meet the guidelines, it does not matter if it showed up on the site during the nomination period.
Q: My business was nominated, and I saw it on the website during the nomination period, but it is not showing up in the voting round. Why?
A: See the “Nomination Guidelines” section above. Our team does its best to vet all nominees. While your business may have appeared during the nomination period, our team may have determined it was ineligible for the voting round.
Q: My business was nominated, but did not make it to the voting round. I think it should have. How do I register a complaint?
A: Email us at best@steamboatpilot.com no later than 24 hours after the voting round opens. You must identify the group and category and tell us why you think your business should have been included.
Like most humans, we sometimes make mistakes, and if we have, we’ll add your business within moments of our decision.
Q: What guidelines are used to determine whether a nominated business qualifies for the voting round?
A: Please see the sections above on “Nomination Guidelines” and “Category Exceptions and Special Notes.”
Q: How are the winners selected?
A: Winners are those that received the most votes in their category. 2nd place goes to those that received the second-most votes in their category and 3rd place goes to those that received the third-most votes in their category.
If there is a tie, we will announce both.
Q: Why does this contest allow people to vote every day?
A: The Best of the Boat contest allows daily voting—once per person per day per category—because daily voting rewards entrants with passionate supporters. With a single vote per person, entrants with the best name recognition have a distinct advantage, as some voters skim over categories and cast their votes casually. Name recognition is an important part of finding the Best of the Boat, but we also want to reward the passionate loyalty some people have for their local favorites, which can be captured in daily voting.
Also: This contest is fundamentally about celebrating and supporting great area institutions by raising their profile and helping them gain new fans. With daily voting, the contest raises the visibility of those businesses and organizations that use it to reach out to new and existing customers to ask for their support, through advertising and through their own channels.