The growth of short-term rental services like Airbnb has significantly impacted the hospitality industry, providing an alternative to traditional hotel bookings. Nashville, Tennessee is known for its vibrant music scene, cultural heritage, and growing tourism, has become a popular destination for travelers, making it a valuable market for Airbnb hosts.
This project aims to conduct an Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) on the Nashville Airbnb Ecosystem to uncover insights, patterns, and trends that could prove useful to stakeholders involved - customers, current hosts and potential investors.
The data for this project was obtained from the Airbnb. The data was extracted in separate csv files used individually and also merged into one final file used in this project. The dataset supports both time-based data analytics as well as data visualizations. The Listings dataset contained the summary information and metrics for the Airbnb listings in Nashville and collected several key information about the Airbnb ecosystem in Nashville, Tennessee such as the unique listing ID, Host Id, Listings Owned by Hosts, Yearly Availability, among others. The Reviews dataset contained summary review data by the listing ID of the Nashvile Airbnb rentals and spanned about 15 years from April 2009 until March 2024.
Insights for Renters:
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There are 8951 unique rental properties in the Nashville Airbnb ecosystem and 90% of these Nashville Airbnb listings are such that the customers (renters) get the entire homes or apartments to themselves. This makes Nashville Airnbnb rentals desirable for customers who enjoy their personal space and prefer little or no shared spaces with others while patronizing a rental property.
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In Nashville, TN, Airbnb rental prices could be as low as 19 dollars and as high as 4163 dollars, with a right-skewed distribution. Averagely, the nightly price of an Airbnb rental listing is 197 dollars, while its median pricing point is around 158 dollars. Also, potential renters need to know that the listings in Nashville are a bit pricey as only 15% of all rentals have a nightly rate below 100 dollars, 33% of all rentals have a nightly rate below 150 dollars and 48 % of all rentals have a nightly rate below 200 dollars. This indicates that roughly 67% and 50% of Nashville Rentals are priced above the median and average rental prices respectively. Furthermore, 28% of Nashville Airbnb rentals are above 1000 dollars nightly to be secured. The prices also vary by neighbourhood as certain Nashville neighbourhoods have high nightly prices compared to others.
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87% of the listings provide short-term stays while 13% of listings provide long-term stays. This high percentage indicates that the Airbnb ecosystem in Nashville primarily provides listings for short-term/temporary lodging rather than long-term rentals. Also, the average minimum nights requirement is 6 nights, confirming the prevalence of short-term rental listings.
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In terms of year-round availablility, the rental listings in Nashville have encouraging availability for potential renters. 67% of Nashville Airbnb listings are available for more than 6 months in a year, indicating that listings can be booked ahead of time and are less likely to be unavailable. However, about 18% of Nashville Airbnb listings are only available for less than 3 months in a one year period, implying that these listings are sought after and booked most of the year.
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For customer commute, the average distance of Nashville Airbnb rental listings from the Nashville Airport is just under 7 miles, and would be enticing to customers who prefer shorter commute times when heading to a rental as 56% of Nashville Airbnb Listings are within a 7 mile radius of the Nashville Airport while 44% of Nashville Airbnb listings are located beyond a 7 mile radius of the Nashville Airport.
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For walkability or proximity to the Nashville downtown area, the average distance of Nashville Airbnb rental listings from the Downtown Nashville area is just under 3 miles, and would appeal to customers who priortize walking or biking to the many attractions in the Nashville downtown area. For more context, 66% of Nashville Airbnb Listings are within a 3 mile radius of the Nashville Downtown area while 34% of Nashville Airbnb Listings are located beyond a 3 mile radius of the Nashville Downtown area.
Insights for Current Hosts:
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Despite the fact that the average nightly listing price in the Nashville Airbnb Ecosystem has been on the rise since 2009, the average nightly rental price has slowed down in its yearly increases as more listings and hosts enter the market. The Airbnb Ecosystem in Nashville is also friendly to investors of all sizes as investors could enter the market with single listings or multiple listings. This implies that current hosts need to provide some sort of differentiation in their services to stay competitive such as rate discounts for longer listings or even taking daytime listings to accommodate consumer needs.
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The average nightly rental prices also differ by neighbourhoods/districts. The lowest average nightly rental prices in the Nashville Airbnb Ecosystem are in Districts 12, 16, 29, 31 and 33 while the highest average nightly rental prices in the Nashville Airbnb Ecosystem are in Districts 34, 11, 25, 17 and 28. For current hosts, their pricing could be set using these neighbourhood/listing differences in price. Also, current hosts could expand their listings into neighbourhoods/districts with higher pricing on rental listings.
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The yearly increase in the number of new Airbnb hosts and the total bookings made by rental customers is also an indicator that Nashville Airbnb Ecosystem is not saturated yet. The yearly host count and total Airbnb bookings made was up 33% and 25% respectively between 2022 and 2023. This implies that current single hosts who own one listing might need to expand their listings if they aim to capture a considerable amount of the yearly increases in bookings in the Nashvile Airbnb Ecosystem as more entrants come into the market.
Insights for Potential Businesses/ Investors:
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The Airbnb ecosystem in Nashville is one that should appeal to investors who intend to go into the Airbnb rental property business as the average nightly listing price in the Nashville Airbnb Ecosystem has been on the rise since 2009. From 43 dollars per night in 2009 to 186 dollars at the end of 2023, the average nightly rental price has grown 322% since the first Airbnb listing in Nashville, Tennessee.
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Going by neighbourhoods/districts, investors may choose to enter the Nashville Airbnb Ecosystem using the average nightly rental pricing in the neighbourhoods across Nashville. The lowest average nightly rental prices in the Nashville Airbnb Ecosystem are in Districts 12, 16, 29, 31 and 33 while the highest average nightly rental prices in the Nashville Airbnb Ecosystem are in Districts 34, 11, 25, 17 and 28. Also, investors could price their listings based upon the neighbourhood/district their rental property is located in.
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The year-on-year increases in price peaked between 2011 and 2013 but more recently, slowed down to a less than 2% between 2022 and 2023, probably due to the prevailing economic conditions in the US. However, the current average nightly price for rental listings in the Nashville Airbnb Ecosystem is close to 200 dollars and investors who bring in well-differentiated properties into the rental markets would be able to price their listings well above the average nightly price as more than 50% of rental listings in Nashville are prices above 200 dollars.
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The yearly increase in the number of new Airbnb hosts and the total bookings made by rental customers is also an indicator that Nashville Airbnb Ecosystem is not saturated yet. The yearly host count and total Airbnb bookings made was up 33% and 25% respectively between 2022 and 2023. This year-on-year increase in new entrants (hosts) into the Nashville rental ecosystem is an indicator of the potential rental investors see in the Nashville area as yearly bookings made keep trending upwards.
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The Airbnb Ecosystem in Nashville is also friendly to investors of all sizes. The market has hosts with single listings and hosts with multiple listings. This would imply a considerable low barrier to entering the market as 75% of Airbnb hosts own just one property while 25% of hosts own multiple properties with 18% owning between two and four listings, 4% owning between five and ten listings , 1.4% owning between eleven and twenty listings and 1.6% owning above twenty listings.