Tier Rating shows each home’s tier (Platinum, Gold, Silver or whatever ladder you use) as a badge on search result cards (under the home name or over the photo) and on the property page, with a popover that explains your rating system.
What it does #
If you rank your homes, guests only benefit when they can see the rank. A tier tucked into a tag list or a blog post does not help someone comparing twenty cards in a row.
Tier Rating reads a tier from one of your property taxonomies, such as Tags, and turns it into a small badge on each card. You decide which terms count as tiers, what order they rank in, how each one looks, and whether the badge sits under the home name or in the top-left corner of the photo.
For example, you tag your best homes Platinum and the next level Gold. You list Platinum first, give it five stars and a light tint, and every Platinum home shows a “Platinum” badge with five stars under its name in your search results.
What your guests see:
- A badge on every search result card (under the home name by default), including cards that appear after Load More or after filtering.
- The same badge on the property page, wherever you place the shortcode.
- An info popover when they hover, focus or tap the badge. It shows the tier name and its description, your short intro to the rating system, and a link to the page that explains it.
If a home carries two tier terms, it shows the higher-ranked tier. A home with no tier shows no badge, and no empty space is left in the layout.
Tier Rating does nothing until you add at least one tier.
How to turn it on #
1. Switch on the module #
In the HomeRunner Toolkit Hub, switch on Tier Rating and open its panel.
2. Choose where it shows #
Under Where it shows, both options are on by default:
- Results cards puts a badge on Explorer cards. The position setting in step 4 decides where.
- Property page enables the
[hrtk_tier_rating]shortcode.
3. Set up your tiers #
Under Tiers, pick the Source taxonomy that holds your tier terms (Tags by default). Select Add tier for each tier and fill in the row. List them from highest to lowest, because the order is the rank. You can have up to 10 tiers.
Each row has a term, a badge label, optional stars, an optional image and an optional tint. If you leave the label blank, the term name is used. If you leave the description blank, the popover uses the term’s own description from WordPress, so later edits to the term carry through.
4. Choose what the badge shows and where #
Under Badge, pick one of:
- Stars (or image) and the tier label
- The tier label only
- Stars (or image) only. The label stays in place for screen readers.
- The tier image alone, with no pill around it. Use this for art that already carries the tier name. A tier without an image shows the full badge instead, and the info popover icon is left off.
Under Position on cards, choose Under the home name (the default) or Top-left over the photo. Over the photo, the badge leads the card’s labels row when the card has one, and takes that spot otherwise. If you use Label Designer overlay positions, keep your labels off the top-left corner.
The Preview below the options updates as you change your tiers.
5. Write the popover #
Under Info popover, fill in the System name (for example “Property Style Ratings”), a one or two sentence Intro on how homes are rated, and your Ratings page address with its link text. Then select Save Settings.
6. Add the shortcode to your property page #
Place [hrtk_tier_rating] in your property template, under the title. It prints nothing for a home without a tier. You can adjust it per placement:
show="badge",show="stars",show="both"orshow="image"overrides the badge style.popover="0"turns the popover off for that placement, andpopover="1"turns it on.post_id="123"shows the tier for a specific property instead of the current one.
Settings #
| Setting | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Results cards | Shows the badge on Explorer cards. On by default. |
| Property page | Turns the [hrtk_tier_rating] shortcode on or off. On by default. |
| Source taxonomy | Which taxonomy holds your tier terms. Tags by default. |
| Term | The term in that taxonomy that marks a home as this tier. |
| Badge label | The text on the badge, up to 40 characters. Blank uses the term name. |
| Stars | 0 to 5 stars for the tier. 0 shows none. |
| Image | An optional image for the tier. When set, it replaces the stars. |
| Tint | The badge background color. Text switches between dark and light automatically so it stays readable. Blank uses the default badge style. |
| Tier description | Shown in the popover. Blank uses the term’s own description. |
| The badge shows | Stars or image with label, label only, stars or image only, or the tier image alone. Stars or image with label is the default. |
| Position on cards | Under the home name, or top-left over the photo. Under the home name is the default. |
| Popover | Turns the info popover on or off. On by default. |
| System name | A small heading above the tier name in the popover, up to 80 characters. |
| Intro | One or two sentences on how homes are rated, up to 600 characters. |
| Ratings page and link text | Where the popover link goes and what it says. Accepts a full address or a site path such as /property-ratings/. The link text defaults to “Learn about our ratings”. |
| Show the link in the popover | Shows or hides the link. It only appears when a ratings page address is set. On by default. |
Tips #
- The popover opens on hover or focus, and a click or tap keeps it open. Escape or a click outside closes it, and keyboard focus returns to the badge.
- Clicking the badge never opens the home. Guests can read the popover without leaving the results.
- If a home shows no badge, check that it carries one of the terms in your tier list and that the source taxonomy matches where you tagged it.
- A tint on a mid-grey color gets dark text, since white would be hard to read on it. Check your tints in the Preview.
- Pair Tier Rating with Property Rating Stats if you also show guest review scores. For everything else in the plugin, see Toolkit: Under the Hood.