Smart Airbnb Search in Chicago – Web GIS Application and Mobile Application Design

Summary
Chicago ranks the top U.S. cities for international and domestic visitors, which sees a robust Airbnb home rental market as more than 7,500 Airbnb listings can be found online. To assist Airbnb tourists better planning their next rental places, the Smart Airbnb Home Search application is launched, solving the problem of how to decide the most convenient and walkable Airbnb locations that can be accessed easily by public transportation. The target users of this application would be the cost-conscious travelers who prefer using public transportation as their major mean to travel.

Study Areas
This web GIS mapping project is focusing on the City of Chicago within its boundaries. To better understand the Airbnb rental home location pattern, the “Airbnb Home Location Density Map in Chicago” map was created to demonstrate different density levels across 178 neighborhoods in Chicago.

Noting the distribution pattern of Airbnb home locations is not even, there are three neighborhoods holding the highest concentration of Airbnb locations in Chicago with the dark red-shaded on the map, which are River North, Lake View and Wicker Park neighborhoods. Followed by the three highest level of Airbnb location density, other Airbnb locations are stretching along Chicago CTA “L” Rail Lines and near “L” Train Stations.

GIS model

 

 

Result I: Web App Builder (GIS model) – Smart Airbnb Search in Chicago

Result II: Mobile Application – Discover the landmark in Chicago