StayGainesville Best of the Best 2025: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the StayGainesville Best of the Best contest?

StayGainesville, a vacation-rental company based in Gainesville, Florida, runs the Best of the Best contest at staygainesville.com/best-of-the-best. The 2025 edition invites the public to celebrate local favorites across Gainesville and the nearby communities of High Springs, Newberry and Melrose, with restaurants, shops, venues and more among the things supporters can vote for. Taking part costs the participant nothing, and the organizer frames the ballot as something anybody may weigh in on.

The company behind it is best known around town for short-term stays. Its site advertises vacation rentals near UF campus, large-group houses, private and community pools, downtown Gainesville properties, budget options and homes with Shands Hospital access. The contest extends that local footprint into a favorites vote, asking residents and visitors to back the businesses they rely on week to week.

Readers comparing ballots across Florida can file this program under the best-of family of public votes; its closest relatives covered here appear in the section below.

When did the 2025 vote run, and what did StayGainesville leave unstated?

The 2025 cycle followed a two-step shape. Nominations were due by June 30, and voting opened the following day, July 1, so the whole competitive stretch falls inside July. StayGainesville told nominators, "We'll add your nomination to our contest and will open up voting on July 1," and the contest carried the 2025 banner through that month.

Beyond those anchors, the organizer printed little else about timing. No closing day for the vote appears on the contest pages, and no results or announcement date is given either.

Only 2025 is on file for this program.

This is the first confirmed edition; whether it returns next year is not yet published; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

Planning for any future round is therefore provisional: expect a new cycle, if it comes, to reset the nomination and voting dates. The organizer also leaves several practical points unstated: no prize description, no eligibility fine print and no announcement plan accompany the 2025 ballot.

How does a supporter vote in the Best of the Best 2025?

Voting happens at the contest address, staygainesville.com/best-of-the-best, in a browser on any device. The page sorts restaurants, shops, venues and more into its category lineup; a supporter picks a category, chooses the Gainesville-area business worth championing and submits the vote, and the ballot then welcomes another visit a day later.

Because the reset comes each day, the rhythm of the contest favors businesses whose customers come back again and again rather than voting a single time and drifting away. The organizer leans into that cadence in its own copy, telling readers to "Vote daily and support local favorites."

The ballot behaves like any other web page on a phone, so a quick daytime visit works as well as sitting down at a computer. Nothing about the process needs special software, joining requires no payment, and the only real hurdle left is remembering to return. Supporters who want a favorite restaurant, shop or venue in Gainesville, High Springs, Newberry or Melrose to finish strong should plan a daily visit for as long as the July ballot stays up.

Where does this ballot sit among Florida's other favorites polls?

Florida carries a crowded field of favorites ballots, and this program occupies a particular niche within it. Statewide and big-metro contests dominate the category: the Best of Florida Awards span the entire state, while the Best of Orlando, the Best of Tallahassee and Best of the Bay each anchor a single city or region, and the Miami Readers' Poll speaks to South Florida. A pet-themed entry, the BEST BUDS Pin Up Paws calendar vote, rounds out the set.

What separates the StayGainesville ballot is its sponsor and its geography. Rather than a newspaper, a chamber or a broadcast station, the organizer is a vacation-rental business rooted in Gainesville, and rather than a single large metro, the contest spreads across four Florida communities: Gainesville, High Springs, Newberry and Melrose.

That gives it a small-town texture the bigger ballots lack, and it ties the vote to a business whose guests are already in town, staying near UF campus or using Shands Hospital services. Anyone weighing which local ballot deserves a daily click can treat this program as the neighborhood option among the Florida contests covered here.

How can a nominated business build daily support in this contest?

With nominations locked on June 30 and the vote live from July 1, the lineup was fixed and the remaining lever was turnout. Because support resets daily on this ballot, the efforts that succeed turn casual customers into daily voters: a reminder at checkout, a sign by the register, a note to an email list, a post whenever the day's window reopens.

StayGainesville's contest pages print no rule about organized vote drives either way, so a business designing a push should keep the organizer's own framing at the center: participation at no cost, a welcome for everyone, and a fresh chance when the day turns over.

Tactics suited to a daily-reset ballot, from reminder timing to social prompts, are gathered in our votes guide.