In short: Payotte ranks firms, not people: estate agencies, notarial offices, property survey firms. One firm is selected per trade and per area, on a 100-point scale built only on public data: Google reviews (35), age of the business (30), title verifiable at the official register (15), local footprint (15), bonus (5). The ranking is never paid. No firm can buy its place or its recommendation.
Google reviews: 35 points
Rating and number of reviews of the establishment's Google listing, with the date they were read. Formula: 11.229 + 3.696 × ln(1 + number of reviews) + 6.075 × (rating − 4.8), bounded between 0 and 35. A reading is matched to the listing only if the town (the arrondissement in Paris, Lyon and Marseille) and the name match and the establishment is not closed; otherwise no rating is kept.
Review floor. The 85+ tier requires a rating of at least 4.0 out of 5 and at least 10 reviews. Below that, the total is capped at 84.
| Rating | Reviews | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 4.5 | 10 | 18 |
| 4.8 | 10 | 20 |
| 4.8 | 50 | 26 |
| 4.9 | 100 | 29 |
| 5.0 | 300 | 34 |
Age of the business: 30 points
The age of the company or establishment in the Insee SIRENE register, in full years since its creation date. When the date is missing, the criterion scores 0 rather than an estimate.
| Age of the business (years) | Points |
|---|---|
| 3 | 9 |
| 7 | 15 |
| 12 | 21 |
| 17 | 25 |
| 22 | 28 |
| 27 | 30 |
Verifiable professional title: 15 points
15 points when Payotte read the title at the official register (agent's card, ORIAS, certification, Order, appointment order): only then does the page say "verified", with the date of the reading. 12 points when the title is declared by the firm without having been read at the register: the page says "declared, verifiable with…" and names the body. 0 when no title is given.
Local footprint: 15 points · Bonus: 5 points
An establishment in the area (8), pages about the area (3), activity figures published by the firm itself (2), languages or specialty (2). Bonus: media (2), awards (1), video (1), publications (1), professional association (1).
Thresholds
85 and above: top tier (subject to the review floor). 70 and above: selected. 50 to 69: published as "partial". Below 50: not published, the place stays vacant. Estate agencies must publish their professional card number; a network or brand gets at most three pages.
What a firm's page shows, and what it never shows
The name of the business, its legal form and SIREN number, the address of the establishment, the trade and the area, the title at the register, the score and its breakdown, the Google rating (dated), the age of the business, and the firm's website and phone number. No person is named: no manager, notary, agent or employee; no personal email or phone, no review text, no photo. A sole trader has no page.
Sources and re-checks
Insee SIRENE register, the official registers of each trade, the firm's website, and the establishment's Google rating (dated reading). Each page is checked again at least every 12 months and removed within 30 days of a striking-off, a closure or a request from the firm.
Never paid
The ranking is never paid. No firm can buy its place or its recommendation, and no page promotes another firm, paying or not. A firm can correct, complete or remove its page (in French), free of charge.