What is your next destination? Boston or Seattle!
An analytical approach to pricing, availability of Airbnb homes using data science!
Boston is located on the east coast of the US, whereas Seattle is located on the west coast. If we compare the weathers, this is what we see:
Boston, Massachusetts
Summer High: the July high is around 82.4 degrees
Winter Low: the January low is 19.2
Rain: averages 47.4 inches of rain a year
Snow: averages 48.1 inches of snow a year
Seattle, Washington
Summer High: the July high is around 75.8 degrees
Winter Low: the January low is 37
Rain: averages 38 inches of rain a year
Snow: averages 4.6 inches of snow a year
Source: https://www.bestplaces.net/climate/?c1=55363000&c2=52507000
As we can see, Seattle is a slightly more comfortable place to visit. Let’s see what we can infer using the Airbnb data.
Question 1: Which place is cheaper to stay? Boston or Seattle.
To answer this question I downloaded the Boston and Seattle data for the past few years and calculated the average pricing for each year. The following figures explain it.
Although 2017 Seattle Airbnb data is missing, if we compare the last two years we can see that Seattle is cheaper to visit. For the past two years, the average Airbnb price in Seattle is $159 whereas, the average Airbnb price in Boston is $206 dollars
Question 2: What is the best time to visit these places?
To address this question, we have to look into the availability of Airbnb housing and price change during the season.
From this graph, we can see that since Boston has more extreme weather compared to Seattle, Boston has more price variation. Also, from the end of spring to the end of fall (March — November), Boston Airbnb's price is higher than average. So for Boston, May and July should be avoided if you want to save money. March and November are the best months to visit. During the winter season, February has the least price.
Similarly for Seattle, July and August should be avoided and February is the cheapest month of the year. From spring to the end of fall March, April, May, October, and November are the best months to visit.
Question 3: Which city is more popular and what is the ideal time to visit?
Over the last few years, the average occupancy of Boston and Seattle is 58% and 60% respectively. which suggests that Seattle is more popular among visitors. So what time people usually try to visit these cities?
As we can see, during early winter Boston is more occupied than the yearly average (more than 4% of the yearly average).
Seattle has more occupancy in January and from July — December, which also suggests Seattle being more popular among the two.
Question 4: What are the popular areas to stay and what is the recommended type of housing?
As we can see from the above graph roughly 50% of the hosing is located in Dorchester, Downtown, Jamaica Plain, South End, and Back Bay.
So what are the recommended neighborhoods in Boston?
If 75% of the hosts in each neighbourhood are rated more than 8, that neighbourhood can be recommended.
From the graph above the recommended properties are Allston, Beacon Hill, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Leather District, Mattapan, North End, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, South End, West Roxbury
If you prefer a popular neighbourhood, Jamaica Plain, Dorchester, and South End are recommended.
In terms of rating, most places in Hyde Park, Leather District, Mattapan, Roslindale, West Roxbury are highly rated, but further research is needed since these places have a lesser number of hosts.
Which places should be avoided in Boston?
From the graph above, we can see that Downtown and Misson Hill have the most number of hosts with less than 7 ratings. So these places should be avoided.
What is the recommended type of housing in Boston?
If our goal is to save money, then we see that Bungalow, Guesthouse, In-law, and Villa are among the cheaper options to stay in Boston (Costs $150 or less).
I did a similar analysis on Seattle Airbnb data and found out that the recommended properties are Arbor Heights, Atlantic, Broadview, Columbia City, Crown Hill, Fremont, Genesee, Georgetown, Harbor Island, Leschi, Loyal Heights, Madison Park, Madrona, Mann, Maple Leaf, Mount Baker, North Admiral, North Beacon Hill, North Delridge, Olympic Hills, Phinney Ridge, Rainier Beach, Ravenna, Seaview, Seward Park, South Beacon Hill, Victory Heights, West Queen Anne, and West Woodland
If you prefer a popular neighborhood, Fremont, North Beacon Hill, and Mann are recommended.
Most places in Arbor Heights, Crown Hill, Georgetown, Harbor Island, Madrona, Rainier Beach, Seaview are highly rated, but further research is needed since these places have a lesser number of hosts.
We can see that Montlake, South Park, and View Ridge have the most number of hosts with less than 7 ratings. So these places should be avoided.
We see that Camper/RV, Dome house, Hostel, and Treehouse are among the cheaper options to stay in Seattle (Costs less than $100).
For more in-depth analysis, please check out my Github repo.
The dataset can be downloaded from here.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I found out that in terms of weather conditions and housing prices, Seattle is a better place to travel compared to Boston.
From this analysis, the conference holders can also decide what’s the ideal time to hold big events in Boston/Seattle.
In future work, I am planning to predict the Airbnb price using machine learning.
