Hey all -

New poster here! I wasn't sure where to post this question, so please direct me to the right forum if I need to ask

elsewhere.

I have a hypothetical question about the order of an array in which 3 factors of a specific object need to be maximized.

Let's say I want to go on vacation, but I don't necessarily know where I want to go. Price means the most to me, so the

cheaper the better. However I want a place that has been reviewed favorably. Third of all, I want a place that has a lot of

amenities (let's say I want to go to a beach resort and a pool and a golf course would be great amenities I would look for).

So in theory, I want the cheapest spot, with the best reviews and the most attractions. However, there is obviously no way I

can find one that is #1 in all 3.

I want to be able to populate a list that will order a lit from "best to worst" (I quote bc it is subjective to the consumer)

So in example (assuming there are 20 important attractions) :

Resort A: $150/night...98/100 in favorable reviews...18 of 20 attractions
Resort B: $99/night...85/100 in favorable reviews...12 of 20 attractions
Resort C: $120/night...91/100 in favorable reviews...16 of 20 attractions


All 3 are pretty similar, and Resort B looks the most appealing in price, but it is 3rd in the other 2 categories. Wherein, I

can choose resort C for only $21 more a night and get more attractions and better reviews. Price is still important to me,

but Resort A has outstanding reviews and a ton of attractions - is $51 more worth the splurge?

I know that in terms of an actual website, you would have the option to bargain shop and read up more on each resort. But

let's say I needed something as objective as possible in an algorithm that sorts from 1 to n (n being the number of resorts to

choose from).

How would I go about maximizing the value for each resort? Should I put a weight for each factor (ie: 55% price, 30% reviews,

15% amenities) and come to the result of a set number and order them that way?

Do I need a mode, median and range for all the hotels and determine the average price, and have the hotels around the average

price hold the most weight?

I hope this makes a little bit of sense, but if it is a little confusing then check out Hipmunk: Better Flight and Hotel Search. They have an

airplane sort (and a hotel sort which is similar to my question) that they use as their own. I used resorts as an example to make my question hopefully make a little more sense. How does one put math to a problem like this?

Thanks for any help!