Get the most out of your money on Airbnb
Have you ever been searching for an Airbnb to find an apartment for your stay in another city? Then you probably had the same thoughts as me: „How can I get the most out of my money?“. In this article we will try to answer this question based on Airbnb data of Boston and Seattle. We will break this big question into three subquestions and answer them in this article.
At what times are the apartments most busy?
To answer this question, we are looking at the average availability of the flats. The lower the availability in the months, the busier the city will be.
We can see, that Boston is overall busier than Seattle, while both cities have around 3,500 listings on Airbnb. Seattle is clearly busier than normal in January, while Boston has the highest availability in January. For Boston September and October are the busiest months. So if you want to travel while there are not that much tourists, you should choose these months for Boston.
Is the price higher in busy months?
Now that we found the busy months, you are probably asking yourself if the price is higher in the busier times.
In the data we can see, that prices for Seattle are slightly higher in the middle of the year. These were no busy times, so we can say, that busier times do not mean higher prices for Seattle. However, looking at Boston, we see, that the busy months September and October are more costly. If you are planning a trip to Seattle you should keep this in mind.
Does a more expensive Airbnb lead to better reviews?
Last but not least, you may ask yourself, if you get a better experience if you book a more expensive apartment.
In the heatmaps above, we see the correlation between different review categories and the price for Boston and Seattle. The figures show, that there is no correlation between any of the reviews and the price. Thus, it seems like, that cheaper apartments are not necessarily worse than more expensive ones. So don’t be deterred by lower prices. Just keep in mind, that reviewers may also have lower expectations and tend to review cheaper locations better.
An interesting side information, which we found in the heatmap is, that there seems to be a medium correlation between all review categories, expect for the location. Thus, a clean apartment may also have better communication and check-in. While these are service-oriented categories, the location can not be influenced by the host. So many hosts, will try to provide a good experience in all categories.
Conclusion
In this article, we have checked how to get the best experience for your money on Airbnb. We have seen, that there are months, which are cheaper than others for specific cities, which correlates with the busier months in Boston, while for Seattle the prices tend to be stable over the year. Finally, we have shown, that cheaper apartments have equally satisfied customers than apartments with higher prices.
When will you plan your next trip to Boston? Will you go in the cheaper months?
