Using Inside Airbnb's open data, our team explored options for a client planning to invest in multiple Melbourne properties. As group leader, I shaped the analytical direction and helped turn the team's findings into clearer, more useful recommendations.
What I learned
Client focus
Council-level review totals described the market, but did not tell our client where to buy. I proposed suburb-level comparisons to make the analysis more actionable. I learned to question whether a technically valid answer actually helps the person making the decision.
Resourceful problem-solving
When pricing information was missing, I explored alternative fields and worked to understand definitions such as minimum-stay rules. This taught me to investigate what data can reliably tell us before discarding it, while keeping data-quality problems separate from valid listings outside the client's scope.
Commercial judgement
Considering acquisition-cost estimates alongside modelled revenue showed me why the highest-revenue property is not necessarily the strongest investment. I learned to connect analytical results with the costs and constraints behind a decision, and to distinguish estimated gross yield from an investor's actual return.
Team leadership
Our preferred inner-city location had weaker winter activity. Rather than stop at average seasonality, I guided the team to investigate a tourism-focused location that might complement it. Explaining why this better addressed the client's multi-property goal helped the team move from describing a problem to exploring a solution.
My takeaway
This experience reinforced how much I enjoy improving an approach—not simply completing the analysis, but making it more useful to the person relying on it. I particularly enjoyed developing workable ideas, testing the reasoning and helping the team explain them clearly.
Tools used by the team Python · pandas · Jupyter · Geospatial analysis · Regression · Data visualisation
Academic group project using Inside Airbnb open data. Findings were estimates, not realised investment returns.