A rating, consisting of zero through five stars, that is assigned to each host during virtual machine placement to indicate the host’s suitability for hosting the virtual machine. The host rating is based on the virtual machine’s hardware and software requirements and anticipated resource usage. Host ratings also take into consideration the placement goal: either resource maximization on hosts or load balancing among hosts. The metrics for rating hosts can be customized for Virtual Machine Manager, for host groups, and for individual virtual machines.