Know your host better!

To help create comfortable, reliable stays for guests, we check if all the hosts meet these basic requirements for their listings:

• Be responsive: Maintain a high response rate by replying to booking inquiries and reservation requests within 24 hours.

• Accept reservation requests: Make guests feel welcome by accepting requests whenever you’re available.

• Avoid cancellations: We take cancellations seriously and check if all hosts avoid cancelling on guests–their travel plans depend on it.

• Maintain a high overall rating: Guests like to know they can expect a consistent level of quality, no matter where they book.

Providing essential amenities

A host providing essential amenities in all their listings influences a guest greatly to tell us they consider these things important for a comfortable stay. This includes toilet paper, hand and body soap, towels, linens, and pillows.

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Given the constraint of the data we have shortlisted the metrics that could help gauge this hidden rating for the hosts. Those are,

• Experience and number of listings : A host with more days under the belt is always a bliss to be with.

• Acceptance Rate: Guests feel more welcome by accepting requests whenever you’re available.

• Response time : Higher the response rate by replying to booking inquiries and reservation requests within 24 hours higher the host rating

• Superhost : A plaque given when the host meets specific criteria

• Risk Rating : A security deposit/price, this gives the value of security they need in number of days. So, higher the days they receive a security the lower the trust on the customer and that in turn causes a negative outlook on the host

Superhosts have a response rate of at least 90%, have hosted at least 10 trips, do not cancel, and have at least 80% five-star ratings.

Using the above criteria, we create a weighted score calculator(oomph factor!). The final score rating helps understand if the host is the best you are looking for.

The graph depicts the comparison of price against the "oomph factor" and the size of the bubble indicates the the experience of the host. The idea behind the graph is to see if oomph factor of a host is influenced by the experience of the host and together do they have a relation with the price? It's evident that less experienced hosts are likely to have a lower oomph than their peers with higher experience. So, with time the hosts understand what their customers like the most and that influences their overall oomph factor. The calculations were done in R and the plot was made in Vega- Lite.