A quick guide to being a successful AirBnB host in Seattle.
By: Maaz Hasan
Tags: Airbnb, Seattle, Analysis

The city of Seattle is perhaps best known for its skyline which features the towering and minimalist space needle and the Grand Wheel.

The space needle itself brings approximately 1.3 million people per year and is an intrinsic part of American culture being featured in all popular shows like ‘Greys Anatomy’ by ABC to comedy shows and pranks like that of Almost Live! which declared on April Fools day that the needle had collapsed causing all out panic.

The significant potential the city of Seattle has for tourism allows other industries like that of AirBnB (Bread and Breakfast) to thrive thereby directly benefiting the local populace.

To better understand how much potential the tourism industry, particularly through AirBnB holds for a local, I decided to use the AirBnB Seattle dataset to find trends and characteristics of the AirBnBs and hosts which were most popular and had the highest rating.

This would help prospective hosts to know what are the facts that determine success, good rating and therefore a high turnover and what are the factors and amenities that need to be kept in mind when hosting potential AirBnB guests.

Crunching the data revealed much. I decide to therefore focus on three over aching questions which would be the most useful for potential AirBnB hosts.

1. Which amenities are the most important and played a role in obtaining a high rating therefore increasing revenue. Is there any relation between one service being offered with another?

We found the AirBnBs with the highest revenues kept the following amenities:

Shampoo;

From Left to Right: Figures of AirBnBs with highest, average, lowest ratings and the count of the amenity they offer.

2. Wireless Internet;

From Left to Right: Figures of AirBnBs with highest, average, lowest ratings and the count of the amenity they offer.

3. TV

From Left to Right: Figures of AirBnBs with highest, average, lowest ratings and the count of the amenity they offer.

4. Free Parking on Premises

From Left to Right: Figures of AirBnBs with highest, average, lowest ratings and the count of the amenity they offer.

We also noted that these amenities were found in most of the AirBnBs irrespective of them being popular or not.

Dryer, Washer and Hanger (all three of them were usually available together) Kitchen Heating Host verification via phone and email

2. What are the general characteristics of AirBnBs and their hosts with a higher rating.

Location: The vast majority of the most popular AirBnBs were located in Capital Hill followed by Central Area.

The most preferred room types were entire homes and apartments. Host should therefore consider renting out entire homes and apartments rather than opting to rent out a private room or worse — a shared room.

Number of people accommodated:

Rooms should ideally accommodate 2–4 people. This would enable the AirBnB to have a higher score rating.

With regards to the hosts it was found that the highest rated ones:

Host response time and rate:

From Left to Right: Figures of AirBnBs hosts with highest, average, lowest ratings and their response time.

From Left to Right: Figures of AirBnBs hosts with highest, average, lowest ratings and their response rate.

Highest rated hosts usually responded within an hour to a AirBnB request and the number of AirBnB requests they accepted was much higher than that of other hosts of lower scores hence increasing their rating.

Hosts identities

Their identities on social media were verified. Helping foster trust among st potential clients.

From Left to Right: Figures of AirBnBs hosts with highest, average, lowest ratings and the count of verified identities

The locations they provided to their AirBnBs were exact and accurate.

They were usually found in the neighborhoods of Capital Hill and Belton. Incidently those who lived in Ravenna neighborhood seem to have poorer ratings. The reasons for this needs to be explored.

From Left to Right: Figures of AirBnBs hosts with highest, average, lowest ratings and the neighborhood they lived in.

The majority of these hosts didn’t charge for including additional people.

From Left to Right: Figures of AirBnBs hosts with highest, average, lowest ratings and the amount they charged for additional people.

Their AirBnBs were usually available throughout the month and year therefore also increasing their chances for a higher rating.

From Left to Right: Figures of AirBnBs hosts with highest, average, lowest ratings and the number of days out of 90 when they were available.

From Left to Right: Figures of AirBnBs hosts with highest, average, lowest ratings and the number of days out of 60 when they were available.

3. How do the prices and the number of bookings vary with regards to time throughout the year?

Number of properties available throughout the year

Price range of the three property types(according to their rating) over the year.

The above graphs reveal hat it is best if:

The prices of AirBnBs change gradually with little fluctuations. The ideal time to earn the highest revenue is during the months of May — July while the beginning of the year has the lowest prices. In order to stay competitive as well as earn profit, is it imperative that the above mentioned trends/variations in prices in kept in mind. It would ensure that the AirBnB remains competitive and a lucrative offer to prospective host.

So there you have it, a quick guide to be a successful AirBnB host in Seattle. You can find a detailed analysis of insights here.