We used information from the International Dark-Sky Association to collate a shortlist of Dark Sky Places for which the geographical coordinates are publicly available. In order to rank these Dark Sky Places, we researched 4 data points: the size and population of the Dark Sky Place, the average cloud cover of the area, the number of accommodation offers in the area and the median nightly price thereof. After obtaining the raw data, we assigned each data point a representative numerical value between 5 and 10, with 5 representing the lowest data point and 10 representing the highest data point. The hypothetical "perfect score" would be 40 out of 40. We used the following equation in order to calculate this for every factor:
Score(i) = 5 · (x(i) - xmin ) / (xmax - xmin ) + 5
Solitude: We used data from the International Dark-Sky Association to determine the size of each Dark Sky Place and population data from census.gov for the area or nearest town. The place with the lowest ratio of people per square mile was given a score of 10, and the remaining areas were awarded a score of 5 or higher.
Cloud Cover: We used historical weather data from Visual Crossing Weather to analyze the last year (July 1st 2021 - July 1st 2022) of data from the nearest weather station to each Dark Sky Place. The area with the lowest average cloud cover over the last year was given a score of 10, and the remaining areas were awarded a score of 5 or higher.
Accommodation Offers: We used HomeToGo inventory data to find the number of accommodation offers in the vicinity of each Dark Sky Place. The area with the highest number of accommodation offers was awarded a maximum score of 10, and the remaining areas were awarded a score of 5 or higher. Data was collected in July 2022, availability is subject to change.
Accommodation Price: We used internal HomeToGo data to find the median price per night for a vacation rental in the area between July 1st 2022 - December 31st 2022. The area with the lowest median price per night for a vacation rental was awarded a maximum score of 10, and the remaining locations were awarded a score of 5 or higher. Data was collected in July 2022, prices are subject to change.