Examining the predictors of successful Airbnb bookings with Hurdle models

Recent studies on Airbnb have examined the predictors of room prices, successful reservations and customer satisfaction. However, a preliminary investigation of the listings from twenty-two cities across four continents revealed that a significant number of Airbnb homes remained non-booked. Thus, Poisson count-regression techniques cannot efficaciously explain the effects of predictors of successful Airbnb bookings. To address this gap, we proposed a text mining framework using Hurdle-based Poisson and Negative Binomial regressions. We found that the superhost status, host response time, and communication with guests emerged as the most significant predictors irrespective of geographies. We also found that the instant booking option strongly influences the bookings across cities with incoming business visitors. Additionally, we presented a machine learning-based variable-importance scheme, which helps determine the top predictors of successful bookings, to design customized recommendations for attracting more guests and unique advertisement content on P2P accommodation platforms.