MUNICH AIRBNB TRENDS
Munich, the capital city of the state Bavaria, is Germany's third largest city situated in southern Germany at the door step of the majestic Alps. It is home to BMW and the Football club FC Bayern Munich. It is the Silicon valley of Europe and hosts the largest fair in the world also known as Octoberfest.
Munich is a perfect base to explore nearby beautiful lakes which are perfect to beat the summer heat. In winter options are plentiful as well including ski resorts in Alps, thermal baths and saunas. Apart from outdoor activities there are still numerous attractions in the city to ensure quality time such as Deutsches Museum and BMW World. The city will captivate you with its vibe and diversity.
Munich is always on the tourist radar and lately there has been a surge in the number of tourists. Therefore I have done an analysis of Munich Airbnb data to provide an insight for the people who would like to visit. I will be answering following questions based on my analysis.
- What are the busiest times of the year to visit Munich?
- What is the average price per night for each Munich neighborhood ?
- Which neighborhoods are most popular with visitors?
- What is the average price per night for different room types?
BUSIEST TIME OF THE YEAR TO VISIT MUNICH
For this analysis Airbnb user review data from year 2011 to 2019 is used.
The busiest months to visit Munich since 2011 are September and October. This is not surprising at all because of the famous Octoberfest, which starts in the middle of September and ends in the first week of October. People flock to Munich for this fest, locals from other German cities and towns also visit in numbers on top of international tourists. That is the reason for the spike in the graph as seen in the following figure.
As spring starts from April we can see it gets more busy gradually until July. The dip from July to August could be because of school vacation as locals go on vacation.We see significant drop from October to November because Octoberfest comes to an end and cold winter sets in leading to Christmas in December.
PRICE PER NIGHT FOR MUNICH NEIGHBORHOODS
This analysis is done using Airbnb listings data for year 2019.
When visiting any city, the first question we all have is how much the accommodation will cost. Here I have come up with an analysis of how much each Munich district costs per night on average. Figure2 shows the average price for the year 2019 for each district.
For Munich ‘Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt’ is the most expensive. This district is magical and I would highly recommend to stay here if you are not on a budget. If you want ambience of the old city and save some money then you should go for Maxvorstadt.
The districts which are on the lower end of price per night such as Ramersdorf-Perlach and Hadern are worth staying as they are well connected to the old city with public transportation.
There is not a significant difference in average price per night in districts as can been seen in figure 2.
For more insight on price variation, I did a price variation per month for the district “Maxvorstadt” as seen in figure3. Prices increase roughly 10% from March to April, from April to August no significant change in price trend is seen. From August to September the price goes up by whooping 20%. This can be related to the increase in demand from September as seen in figure 1.
December has no value as no data was available for it.
NEIGHBORHOODS MOST POPULAR WITH VISITORS
This analysis is done using Airbnb listings data for the year 2019.
“Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt” is the most popular district for people visiting Munich as can be seen in figure 4.
Number of reviews per month are almost touching 1000 followed by Maxvorstadt with more than 750 reviews per month followed by Au-Haidhasuen with a significant drop of 33%.
This trend more or less follows the number of listings in each neighborhood with order change for some neighborhoods.
It will be interesting to see the number of listings per district to get an insight into demand and supply. If we compare the first five districts in figure 4 and 5 starting from left, they are same. Interesting cases are Altstadt-Lehel and Ramersdorf-Perlach. These two districts are high in demand despite having fewer listings as compared to other districts such as Bogenhausen and Laim to name few.
In Munich the majority of Airbnb listings are in the old city. This could be because apartment rents are higher and people want to offset higher rents by offering Airbnb listings.
In number of listings per district “Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt’” leads the way with more than 1000 listings followed by Maxvorstadt as can be seen in figure 5.
AVERAGE PRICE FOR ROOM TYPES PER NIGHT
This analysis is done on the listings data for the year 2019.
When it comes to price per room, shared room is the cheapest option followed by private room. This price trend is not a surprise, as prices go up with more privacy and luxury.
Room type availability on average during the year 2019 can be in seen in the following bar graph. People preferred entire home/apartments more as compared to private rooms despite they being more expensive. This can be because of more group tourists as compared to solo visitors.
I would like to comment on Hotel room type occupancy as it shows more than 200 free days. This could be because no Hotel room was booked using Airbnb platform. It does not mean all hotel rooms are empty in Munich.
CONCLUSION
In this blog post Airbnb listings and review data for Munich was analyzed to answer some of the questions which prospective travelers to Munich may have.
- If you are planning to visit Munich and want to avoid tourists, skip September and October as they are the most busy months because of Octoberfest.
- To enjoy the old city charm Maxvorstadt or Au-Haidhasuen are good alternatives to Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt. For budget travelers neighborhoods as Ramersdorf-Perlach, Trudering and Laim are good alternatives.
- Seeing the demand to stay in the old city, I would recommend to book in advance otherwise you will have to go for districts outside of the old city. They are new districts which are well connected to old city by public transportation.
- When traveling solo go for a private room as they are cheaper than entire apartments and also offer privacy which will not be in a shared room.