Caring.com has released its list of “Caring Stars 2017,” and 254 senior living communities made the cut.

To earn the honor from the San Mateo, CA-based website, which serves as a resource for family caregivers, communities must have had 10 or more consumer reviews on their Caring.com listing, with an overall rating of 4.5 or higher on a scale of 1 to 5; received three or more reviews between Oct. 1, 2015, and Sept. 30, 2016, including at least one review that was posted during 2016 and at least one that had a five-star rating; and must have responded to every negative review they received on Caring.com.

“According to our data, Caring Stars-winning communities had twice as many inquiries and move-ins, on average, compared with non-winners,” Caring.com Vice President of Sales Katie Roper told McKnight’s Senior Living.

The 2017 list includes independent living communities for the first time. Previous lists were limited to assisted living and memory care communities.

The three states with the highest number of winners are California, with 55 communities on the list; Florida, with 34; and Texas, with 27. California has been in the top five since Caring.com launched Caring Stars in 2012. Roper attributes it to the tech-savviness of the state’s residents.

Seven states — Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming — are not represented on the list. Twelve states — Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Rhode Island — each have one community on the list.

The top four operators honored are Holiday Retirement, with 34 communities; Brookdale Senior Living, with 16 communities; and Atria Senior Living and Sunrise Senior Living, with 14 communities each. Thirty-nine communities on the list are small businesses.

Sixty-seven communities also have been named “Caring Super Stars” for having earned Caring Star awards in three or more years since the program’s inception in 2012. Reflecting their positions on the Caring Stars list, the states with the most Super Stars are California, with 18; Florida, with 11; and Texas, with seven.

Thirteen of the small-business communities made the Super Stars list. The multi-property operator with the most communities on the list was Brookdale, with 10.

The Caring Stars 2017 winners are posted on the Caring.com website. The latest Caring Super Stars and previous Caring Stars are posted online, too.