What Makes a Good Image? Airbnb Demand Analytics Leveraging Interpretable Image Features

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Zhang, Shunyuan; Lee, Dokyun; Singh, Param Vir; Srinivasan, Kannan
• 署名单位: Harvard University; Boston University; Carnegie Mellon University
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2021.4175
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 5644-5666
• 关键词: sharing economy; Airbnb; property demand; computer vision; Deep learning; image feature extraction; content engineering

摘要

We study how Airbnb property demand changed after the acquisition of verified images (taken by Airbnb's photographers) and explore what makes a good image for an Airbnb property. Using deep learning and difference-in-difference analyses on an Airbnb panel data set spanning 7,423 properties over 16 months, we find that properties with verified images had 8.98% higher occupancy than properties without verified images (images taken by the host). To explore what constitutes a good image for an Airbnb property, we quantify 12 human-interpretable image attributes that pertain to three artistic aspects-composition, color, and the figure-ground relationship-and we find systematic differences between the verified and unverified images. We also predict the relationship between each of the 12 attributes and property demand, andwe find thatmost of the correlations are significant and in the theorized direction. Our results provide actionable insights for both Airbnb photographers and amateur host photographerswho wish to optimize their images. Our findings contribute to and bridge the literature on photography and marketing (e.g., staging), which often either ignores the demand side (photography) or does not systematically characterize the images (marketing).