Senior Care Search Greatly Aided By Online Reviews and Review Response

Caring.com's Annual "Caring Stars" List Helps Americans Find Best Senior Living Communities and In-Home Care Agencies; More Trusted than Yelp or Facebook Reviews

San Mateo, CA; October 25, 2016 — When Baby Boomers go online to find a senior living community or in-home care agency for their aging parents and other senior loved ones, they are turning to senior care websites like Caring.com to read reviews from people just like them — and trust those peer reviews more than the ones they find on Yelp or Facebook. To help ease their research further, Caring.com — which welcomes about three million unique visitors monthly — has released its annual "Caring Stars 2017" list featuring the senior living communities and in-home care agencies with the best and most consumer ratings and reviews.

According to a Summer 2016 survey Caring.com conducted with 2,512 individuals seeking senior care information online (primarily American women age 50+ caring for parents age 80+):

• Only 41% had existing knowledge of senior living communities in their area;
• Online directories, recommendations from others, and online reviews were among the top tools they used in their senior care search;
• For reading reviews: 48% said they trusted senior care websites more than general review sites like Yelp (12%) or social sites like Facebook (2%) — that's up from 43% in 2015;
• And when asked about the influence of a senior living community or in-home care agency's response to reviews: 32% said, "It lets me know the business cares and is listening," and 22% said "It depends on what the business says."

Given this importance of online senior care reviews, Caring.com analyzed its extensive collection of consumer ratings to identify the most-acclaimed providers or "Caring Stars of 2017", providing a quick reference of the best senior care providers nationwide (including 254 senior living communities and 142 home care agencies in 44 states).

"Finding professional senior care for an aging parent or ailing spouse can be overwhelming and time-consuming, particularly if your need is urgent and you have little-to-no knowledge of your options," says Caring.com CEO Karen Cassel. "At Caring.com, we're focused on helping ease that burden for family caregivers, and the annual Caring Stars list is one of the free resources we offer to support them in the senior care search. Everyone wants the very best care for their loved ones, and Caring Stars helps family caregivers find the providers that have delivered excellent service for others like them."

To qualify as a Caring Star of 2017, these highly rated senior living communities and in-home care agencies had to:

• Have 10 or more consumer reviews on their Caring.com listing, with an overall average rating of 4.5 or higher (on a scale of 1 to 5);
• Receive 3 or more reviews between October 1, 2015 - September 30, 2016, including at least one that was posted during 2016 and at least one that had a 5-star rating; and
• Respond to every negative review they had ever received on Caring.com.

Caring Stars was the first-of-its-kind in the senior care industry when initially launched in 2012, and the 2017 list now includes: in-home care agencies, independent living and assisted living communities, board and care homes, and memory/Alzheimer's care communities. On average, prior years' winners received twice as many inquiries and move-ins as Caring.com partners who hadn't earned the award — further demonstrating how this annual list is truly helping to identify the most-popular providers.

For more information, and to view the Caring Stars 2017 list, please visit: https://www.caring.com/bestseniorliving

With millions of visitors to its flagship website, Caring.com, Caring is a leading senior living referral service and the nation’s top site for senior care reviews. Founded in 2007, Caring’s mission is to help as many seniors and their caregivers as possible through empathetic, expert guidance. Applying cutting-edge technology to this humane mission, Caring provides relevant senior care information and support, as well as comprehensive senior living and senior care directories for the United States, including nearly 400,000 consumer reviews. Through a toll-free referral line at (800) 558-0653, Caring’s trusted, nationwide team of Family Advisors — who are among the most highly trained, highly skilled, and knowledgeable experts in senior care — helps seniors and their families research and connect to the most appropriate services and support for their specific situations. For more information about our organization and our free services for seniors and their families, please visit http://www.caring.com/about and join with Caring on Facebook.