So you want to visit Berlin?
An Exploration of AirBnB bookings
Berlin is a very popular tourist destination. Each year the number of people willing to see Berlin is growing. As Der Tagesspiegel notes, only last year 2018 a stunning number of 13 Millions guests visited the city: 4% more than in 2017.
This growth has of course consequences for the availability and affordability of acommodation. Housing in general is quickly becoming a very controversial issue in Berlin as recent protests show. (see: Bloomberg)
In this blog I will explore some AirBnB data for Berlin in order to provide insights into the following questions:
1. Which neighbourhoods in terms of offerings are most popular on AirBnB in Berlin?
2. Which neighbourhoods are most affordable in Berlin and why?
3. Which are the key factors driving prices for AirBnB accommodations in Berlin?
Tha data for my analysis is avalaible of the official AirBnB website.
1. Most frequent neighbourhoods in the AirBnB data
Supply follows the demand, therfore I assume that most frequently offered neighbourhoods in AirBnB dataset are probably also the most demanded ones.
From the data at hand it seems that most accommodations are located in the central locations of Berlin such as: Fridrichshain-Kreuzberg, Mitte and Pankow. The further from city center a location is the less accommodations there are being offered.
Are some neighborhoods better rated than the others?
Not really. The stats do not show any clear pattern here. It seems that people staying in different neighborhoods were equally happy about their accommodation.
2. Which neighborhoods are most affordable on AirBnB in Berlin?
The most frequently offered neighborhoods are all mostly located centrally. But how about the price of an accommodation? Do most frequent neighbourhoods also have the highest prices?
The question of the acommodation price can be statistically tricky. The average price of AirBnB acommodation in a particular neighbourhood could be driven by few outlier. For example one apartment could cost much more than all the other and therefore skew the average price for the entire neighbourhood. Therefore I will compare both the average and the median price of AirBnB accommodations in Berlin:
The differences between those two graphs are not that large. Overall Pankow, Charlottenburg and Mitte seem to be the most expensive neighbourhoods for acommodations. This is not suprising as these neighbourhoods are located centrally in Berlin and/or are the most affluent ones.
Big surprise is relatively high median price of Berlin Marzahn acommodations as it is not that centrally located. Possible reasons for relative high pricing in Marzahn could be: the quality of acommodations and some nicer corners within this large neighbourhood.
The neighbourhood that diverges most widely in the median and average price in this dataset is Berlin Tempelhof. This suggests that the average acommodation prices in Tempelhof are driven by outliers. The reason for outlier is probably simple: Berlin’s airport is located there. It is plausible to assume, that the acommodations offered near the airport are much more expensive than in other parts of Tempelhof.
Based on those visualisations it is clear that neighbourhoods play very large role in pricing of an acommodation. In the next step I will examine this question further by verifying which factors drive the price the most.
What are the biggest factors driving prices of AirBnB accommodations in Berlin?
This question is best answered with a regression analysis. Below some results:
The table shows basically that the largest factor driving prices, as expected, are the neighbourhoods. The type of an acommodation plays secondary role.
Summary
The biggest take away from this small analysis is that regardless of particular neighbourhood most visitors were happy with their accommodation choice.
Most acommodations are being offered in Pankow, Mitte and Kreuzberg with Pankow and Mitte being also the most expensive neighbourhoods.
Based on my analysis I recommend staying in Kreuzberg: this part of Berlin has relatively affordable prices and is centrally located with a good infrastructure.