Airbnb released an updated app last month, which includes a new system with an algorithm that matches users to specific homes and neighborhoods in destinations they travel to. Founders of Airbnb believe it's important to help users by improving their filtering system and making sure travelers end up in best neighborhoods that match their lifestyle preferences.
This major shift in how people choose a place to stay when traveling is the beginning of a new trend. It’s not enough to just provide a thousand of listings and apartment photos anymore, and trust that people will choose what’s best for them.
Airbnb’s data and testing proved that people would have higher satisfaction with their trip if their lifestyle preferences were taken into consideration, too. Personalized suggestions on neighborhoods are meant to make travel experience more unique, fun and fulfilling. Airbnb’s neighborhood feature covers some 691 specific areas within 23 cities, trying to introduce people to areas they might not have originally considered.
If personalized neighborhood suggestion is so important in travel industry, how about real estate then? If it’s important to get the right neighborhood match for one week's stay, then how important is it for a person who is moving in for a year or two or even buying a place?
So far, little progress has been made in this space of real estate industry, and users looking to rent or buy homes still have to go through thousands of listings in different neighborhoods and have to deal with many confusing maps.
One of the first breakthroughs in the neighborhood matching space for real estate was created by Place I Live portal and their neighborhood matching tool for New York City residents.
It is a system that takes into account a user’s personal needs and preferences and calculates their ideal neighborhood. Moreover, the system uses machine learning technologies to provide even more accurate search results with every inquiry made.
Place I Live covers 288 New York City neighborhoods, allowing New Yorkers explore neighborhood choices that were completely out of their radar. For example, a die-hard Upper-West-Sider might suddenly realize that if they lived in Brooklyn Heights, their commute to work in Manhattan would actually be shorter, they would pay less for rent, and would have a lovely running path in front of their beautiful brownstone – exactly as they were dreaming. Place I Live helps people choose neighborhoods to live in based on their needs, whether they are looking for good public schools, a dog park or a bike path nearby.
The co-founder of Place I Live Portal, Sarunas Legeckas, says that “New Yorkers think they know where they want to live in the city – but our simple test showed that many could do better in terms of neighborhood choice, due to the variety of new neighborhoods, rapid gentrification and other factors. Choosing a home is a very responsible task - and people should be fully informed before they commit to a neighborhood and a home.”
The founders of Place I Live are in the process of perfecting the algorithm that will keep improving with the help of machine learning technology based on the amount of people that use the portal. So everyone who lives in New York or is thinking of moving the city is invited to try the simple questionnaire. Users’ participation in this early stage will help fine-tune the algorithm so it can give the best suggestions to people seeking their ideal neighborhood.
Which is your ideal New York neighborhood? START TEST
