AirBnbs IN Seattle, WA

Questions:
1. Is there an upwards trend in new Airbnbs listings and total Airbnb visitors to Seattle?
2. Is there more Airbnb usage near well-known landmarks like:
a. Space Needle
b. Pike Place Market
c. Ferris Wheel
d. Seattle Art Museum
e. UW (Cherry blossoms)
f. Capitol Hill
g. Washington State Convention Center

Report:
2A. Findings

The average number of days an Airbnb listing is available in a year that is within a 1-mile radius
of a major landmark in Seattle is 236.5424 or 237 days. The average number of days an Airbnb
listing is available in a year is 244.7727 or 245 days. Using a one sample T-test with the
alternative hypothesis that the average number of days a listing is available is lower for listings
near major landmarks. With a confidence interval of 95%, the p-value was .008981. This means
that there is a significant difference in the mean Airbnb availability between all listings and
listings near major landmarks.
This line graph represents the total listings closed by date between January 2016 and January
2017. The total listings closed can be assumed to be the total number of visitors in Seattle. Based
on the graph, there does not appear to be an upward trend in new Airbnb listings and the total
number of Airbnb visitors in Seattle. At the beginning of the year, there appears to be above
2000 listings closed, meaning there are around 2000 people in Airbnbs. Then, in between
February and April, there appears to be a steep downward trend. However, somewhere in April,
there is a huge spike of people coming in and staying in Airbnb. Then, in May and July, the
number of people staying in Airbnbs are constant. However, again in July, there is a huge spike
of people coming to Seattle and staying in Airbnb. Finally, from there the number of people
staying in Airbnbs appears to decrease on a steady downward trend. It is estimated that the
number of people coming to visit Seattle and stay in an Airbnb is expected to continue to decline,
as seen on the graph but, may rise again as the yearly festivities happen again.
This is a bar graph visualization of the most commonly used words in Airbnb descriptions by
customers. On the y-axis, it shows the number of times the word was used among Airbnb
descriptions and on the x-axis it shows the word.

2B. Recommendations
Based on our findings, we recommend Airbnb to raise the prices of the Airbnbs that are closer to
popular tourist landmarks. To support this recommendation, our finding is that out of one year,
the number days an Airbnb is available is about 245 days in comparison to an Airbnb that is
within 1-mile of a landmark is about 237 days. This means that the closer an Airbnb is to a
popular landmark, the more desirable it is to customers.
On the flip side, to make the Airbnbs that are not as close to landmarks more marketable would
be to potentially add more amenities or features that customers want. Based on the bar graph of
the most commonly used words by customers in Airbnbs, one can see what features are desirable
in Airbnbs.

2C. Data Wrangling Process

To get the coordinates of major landmarks, I manually searched for them and created a database
with the name, longitude, and latitude. Then I added a column with the distance of the Airbnb
listing to each of the major landmarks. I then filtered out listings that were not within 1 mile of
major landmarks to end up with the final database of Airbnb listings within 1 mile of a major
landmark. I then used a one sample T-test, under the assumption that the data table of listings in
Seattle contained all listings (therefore is the population).

HeatMap Near Landmarks:

 Screenshot of the Data Visualization on Tableau (View Link Below)

View the Heat Map Visualization (Press 1 on the Keyboard to View):

http://students.washington.edu/joncady/datathon/arbnbMap.html

External Sites:

Data Visualization
https://public.tableau.com/shared/4347TYGPR?:display_count=y​​es
Python code:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WtmQ1FmbkIhPnfPiy91wDHKU017gJTx8/view?usp=shar
ing
Heat Map Visualization: ​http://students.washington.edu/joncady/datathon/arbnbMap.html

T-Test Code:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JAIS2TV7716L4vp05YTs3SQSiNf7LXDw/view?usp=shari
ng