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An Analysis of the Airbnb Market: A Detailed Look at Four Italian Cities

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Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2024 Workshops (ICCSA 2024)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14822))

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Abstract

The Sharing Economy, or the economy of sharing, is an economic phenomenon that has rapidly spread in recent years, transforming the ways in which resources and services are accessed and consumed. This phenomenon has had a significant impact on consumption dynamics, redefining the concept of ownership and promoting the idea of temporary and shared access to goods. An emblematic example is represented by Airbnb, a multinational company founded in 2008 and valued at 35 billion dollars. With over 4 million hosts and 800 million guests in more than 220 countries and regions, Airbnb offers communities the opportunity to make the most of their cultural and scenic heritage, attracting a variety of visitors eager for authentic experiences. In this regard, the present study proposes a methodological model capable of empirically analyzing the Airbnb market in four Italian cities, adopting an integrated approach that combines Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and clustering based on the use of the k-means algorithm, to arrive at a deeper understanding of the data. The results emerging from the research highlight a significantly negative correlation between price and distance from the city center, also revealing a negative correlation between reviews and price, as well as between reviews and distance from the city center. Through the analysis of the research results, it aims to make a relevant contribution to academic literature, providing new perspectives and insights for further studies on Airbnb dynamics, as well as on the economic and social implications of resource and service sharing in the context of the Sharing Economy.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Architecture and Design, University of Rome “Sapienza”, Borghese Sq. 9, 00186, Rome, Italy

    Francesco Paolo Del Giudice & Francesco Tajani

  2. School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, Viale dell’ Ateneo Lucano, 85100, Potenza, Italy

    Benedetto Manganelli

  3. Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Piazzale Vincenzo Tecchio 80, 80125, Naples, Italy

    Pierfrancesco De Paola

  4. Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne EPFL SDSC, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Federico Amato

Authors
  1. Francesco Paolo Del Giudice
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  2. Benedetto Manganelli
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  3. Pierfrancesco De Paola
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  4. Francesco Tajani
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  5. Federico Amato
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Francesco Paolo Del Giudice .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

    Osvaldo Gervasi

  2. School of Engineering, University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy

    Beniamino Murgante

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

    Chiara Garau

  4. Faculty of Information Technology, Clayton Campus, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia

    David Taniar

  5. Algoritmi Research Centre, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

    Ana Maria A. C. Rocha

  6. Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

    Maria Noelia Faginas Lago

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The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Note

The current study has been developed within the current research P.R.I.N. Project 2022: “INSPIRE—Improving Nature-Smart Policies through Innovative Resilient Evaluations”, Grant number: 2022J7RWNF.

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Del Giudice, F.P., Manganelli, B., De Paola, P., Tajani, F., Amato, F. (2024). An Analysis of the Airbnb Market: A Detailed Look at Four Italian Cities. In: Gervasi, O., Murgante, B., Garau, C., Taniar, D., C. Rocha, A.M.A., Faginas Lago, M.N. (eds) Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2024 Workshops. ICCSA 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14822. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-65318-6_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-65318-6_4

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