Decoding Airbnb: Price Influences in New York City

Analyzing factors influencing Airbnb listing prices in NYC.

Decoding Airbnb: Price Influences in New York City

Introduction

In this project, we undertake an exploratory analysis of the Airbnb Open Data available on Kaggle. Airbnb is an online marketplace for lodging, homestays, and vacation rentals, providing a platform for hosts to offer a variety of accommodations to travelers. This dataset offers a comprehensive compilation of Airbnb listings and reviews data in New York City from 2008 to 2022, covering various factors such as listing price, location, ratings, and other relevant attributes.

To complement our analysis and provide a broader context for our findings, we have integrated additional demographic and housing data obtained from the New York City Planning website’s 2020 Census page. This census dataset includes vital statistics such as total population, housing unit counts, and occupancy details stratified by neighborhood. The primary dataset utilized for our core analysis remains the Airbnb Open Data, which we have enriched with the census information to gain a more nuanced understanding of the factors influencing Airbnb listing prices.

The main question driving our research is: “What factors significantly influence the price of an Airbnb house listing?” We hypothesize that a variety of factors, from the geographical location of a listing to the ratings left by previous customers, have a significant impact on how hosts set their prices. Our goal is to analyze the dataset to identify any patterns, correlations, and potentially causal relationships between these factors and the prices of Airbnb listings.

The significance of this project lies in its potential to provide insights that could be useful for Airbnb hosts looking to set competitive prices, for guests trying to find the best value for their stays, and for policymakers interested in understanding the impact of the sharing economy on traditional lodging and tourism industries. By examining the diverse factors that can affect Airbnb pricing, this project aims to contribute valuable information to the ongoing discussion about the economics of sharing economy platforms like Airbnb.

Data

  1. The Airbnb Open Data can be obtained directly from Kaggle here or from this repository here.
  2. The New York City 2020 Census Data can be obtained directly from the New York City Planning website here or from this repository here.

Website

This project is online here.

Report

A pdf version of the report can be obtained here. The code to reproduce the report can be obtained here.