Airbnb (Air Bed and Breakfast) Listing Analysis Through Machine Learning Techniques

Machine learning is a broad field that contains multiple fields of discipline including mathematics, computer science, and data science. Some of the concepts, like deep neural networks, can be complicated and difficult to explain in several words. This chapter focuses on essential methods like classification from supervised learning, clustering, and dimensionality reduction that can be easily interpreted and explained in an acceptable way for beginners. In this chapter, data for Airbnb (Air Bed and Breakfast) listings in London are used as the source data to study the effect of each machine learning technique. By using the K-means clustering, principal component analysis (PCA), random forest, and other methods to help build classification models from the features, it is able to predict the classification results and provide some performance measurements to test the model.

THE FIRE, THE BURGLARY AND THE PRAETORIAN EDICT DE NAUTIS, CAUPONIBUS ET STABULARIIS

The travel and tourism industry is the world’s largest industry. This industry is also seen as one of the priority growth areas for the South African economy. In South Africa travel and tourism activity is expected to grow at a rate of 4.8% per annum in real terms between 2007 and 2016. This will mean an increase in travel and tourism economic activity in South Africa from R198.1 billion in 2006 to R511.5 billion in 2016. Based on these figures it is estimated that the travel and tourism industry will contribute 9.3% of the South African Gross Domestic Product (“GDP”) by 2016. One of the main benefits of the travel and tourism industry is its potential for attracting foreign currency. Already, tourism is the fourth largest foreign exchange earner in South Africa. Furthermore, the travel and tourism industry has major potential for generating employment. It is expected that by 2016 the travel and tourism industry will provide 1.5 million jobs (or one in every 11.6) in South Africa. South Africa’s travel and tourism industry has experienced significant growth in the last decade. This resulted in a substantial number of guest houses and bed-and-breakfast establishments opening their doors in every city, town and in between. This growth is evidenced, for example, in that South Africa is well on its way to reaching its target of attracting 10 million foreign visitors per year with a reported 7.6% increase in foreign visitors in the first five months of 2008 to a total of 3 983 061. With the rise in travel and tourism activity, it can be safely forecasted that there will be a rise in litigation revolving around the respective rights of tourists and tourist service providers. In a nascent travel and tourism law jurisprudence, each case decided in this regard ought to be carefully considered by both legal practitioners and the industry. A matter came before the then Cape High Court during 2002, based on an action whose (continued) existence in South African law had been questioned more than eighty years earlier. The case was Gabriel v Enchanted Bed and Breakfast (2002 2 SA 597 CPD (hereinafter the “Gabriel case”)). Just to confirm that this was not to be an isolated reliance upon an almost obsolete remedy, the Gabriel case was followed in 2005 by Roy v Basson NO (2007 5 SA 84 CPD (hereinafter the “Roy case”)). The legal remedy in question is the Praetorian edict de nautis, cauponibus et stabulariis. (Considering the fairly unique nature of the legal ground under consideration in these two cases it is somewhat surprising to note that the court in the Roy case did not refer to the Gabriel case at all). Both these cases concern the liability of the proprietor of an inn in terms of the Praetorian edict de nautis, cauponibus et stabulariis and are therefore of particular relevance for the South African travel and tourism industry. It is therefore opportune to consider the Praetor’s edict and its application anew.

The Future of Shared Economy: A Case Study on Airbnb

One of the most popular IT-facilitated peer-to-peer economic model driving the world, the sharing economy attained its importance in India of late and witnessed a sudden acceptance among people. This model emphasizes the sharing of underutilized goods or service capacity, without transferring the ownership, with the aid of an intermediary, which was widely accepted by the Indian market mainly because of high mobile penetration, high millennial concentration and its aspirational population. Though there are numerous examples of shared economy prevailing in India, this case is on the initiation, hiccups, acceptance, growth, and the pandemic led to sudden blow in the business of Airbnb, the bed and breakfast startup founded by Brian Chesky, Joe Gabberia and Nathan Blecharczyk. Though the young workforce, dominated by millennials and Gen Z generations, acted as a catalyst in the growth of Airbnb, the unanticipated pandemic catapulted the business of Airbnb, invalidating its business model. The business model that provided a handful of earning opportunities to both the hosts and the business is no more in existence. However, Airbnb adopted a series of measures to protect the rights of both parties. This case discusses the possible strategies Airbnb can adopt to get its business back to track post-pandemic days.

The Malaysian Homestay Program and the Japanese Minshuku: A comparative study

This paper discusses the characteristics of rural tourism in Malaysia and Japan by comparing the Malaysia Homestay Program and the minshuku. Japan has been chosen as a comparative case study since Japanese tourists are the second-highest number of foreign tourists visited the Malaysian Homestay Program until 2018. Findings have shown that the Malaysia Homestay Program was derived from the English bed-and-breakfast, while the minshuku has been influenced by the European farm-stay. Although they differ in concepts, organizations, regulations, and community participation, both have contributed to the development of the tourism sectors in both countries. Keywords; Malaysia Homestay Program; minshuku; lifestyle experience; urban-rural interchange eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5iSI2.2525.

The role of customers’ motivations in the relationships between e-stimuli and behavioral intention on a bed and breakfast website

Purpose This study examined relationships among e-stimuli and customers’ behavioral intentions and identified whether customers’ hedonic or utilitarian orientation moderation effects of e-stimuli on a bed and breakfast (B&B) website’s flow experience. Design/methodology/approach The proposed hypotheses were tested by using structural equation modeling. Two group comparisons were conducted to test moderating effects in the relationships between stimuli and flow experience. Findings This study determined e-stimuli affected customers’ flow experiences and causal relationships among emotions, satisfaction and behavioral intentions. It also found moderating effects of hedonic/utilitarian motivation. Practical implications Findings from this study could help B&B operators develop online marketing strategies. Originality/value This study developed a framework of e-stimuli in a B&B website setting to address customers’ psychological behaviors to understand the practical needs of the B&B industry and customers’ expectations.

Sustainable tourism in the Corsican mountains: the mare to mares trail

Purpose This study aims to develop a managerial contribution with actors whose mission is the development of sustainable tourism in the mountains. Lastly, they present and discuss the findings. Design/methodology/approach A case study was conducted on the third stage of Mare in Mares, where at the end of this stage, the village stage gîte located 850 m above sea level accommodates hikers. The study began in 2016 and included tourism professionals (bed and breakfast managers, stage gite managers and guides), local elected officials, as well as representatives of the Local Mediation Group, the Regional Natural Park of Corsica, the Corsican Environment Office, SIVOM de la Bravone, the Development Office and breeders in the pig and beef sector. Findings The results show that the hiker numbers at Mare a Mare (800 hikers over a short period) are not an obstacle to sustainable mountain tourism. In contrast, wild fishing, pig and cattle wandering and the deficit of waste water treatment plants in some of the villages of Mare a Mare, contribute to endangering the strategy of sustainable development and sustainable tourism in mountains. Research limitations/implications The limitations of the study are its focus on just one stage of the Mare-to-Mare sentier de grande randonnée footpath and, secondly, the possibility that the paths may not be usable in future as climate change impacts occur. Originality/value The purpose of this study is to make a managerial contribution in relation to the action that needs to be taken, beginning with a trial in Corsica. Specifically, managerial support would involve a training course on the actions needed for – decision-makers, managers, politicians – whose responsibility it is to develop sustainable tourism in the mountains. Given this broad recommendation, the content of the training and action needed should be based on the concept of territorial resilience, as well as aspects of complex thinking and planning based on a systemic approach.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Tourist Satisfaction with B&B in Zhejiang, China: An Importance–Performance Analysis

After the outbreak of COVID-19 (especially in the stage of tourism recovery), the bed and breakfast (B&B) tourism industry faced big challenges in improving its health strategies. B&Bs are very important for the tourism industry in China and many other countries. However, few studies have studied the impact of B&Bs, under COVID-19, on tourism in China. Our paper is among one of the first studies to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on tourist satisfaction with B&Bs in China. The work/travel restrictions started from 20 January 2020, and work/after travel resumed from 20 February 2020 in Zhejiang, China. Data were collected from 588 tourists (who experienced B&Bs in Zhejiang, China) from a WeChat online survey, from 1 March to 15 March 2020. The current study attempted to fill the gap by studying the changing tourist satisfaction levels with B&Bs before/after COVID-19. Moreover, some suggestions are given to the B&B industry for tourism resumption after COVID-19 by an importance–performance analysis (IPA).