Categorical or Quantitative? Airbnb is a large online marketplace for people to

Question

Categorical or Quantitative? Airbnb is a large online marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world. This online service has grown into a multibillion dollar industry that is even popular right here in Ames, IA. Classify each variable below as categorical or quantitative. Hint: Sometimes deciding between categorical and quantitative is not as straightforward as we would hope. As a rule of thumb, think about whether or not numerical operations such as addition, multiplication, etc. are meaningful – they tend to be meaningful mainly for quantitative variables. A second criterion is the number of distinct values the variable can take. If this number is small, e.g. 1, 2, 3 and 4, the variable is likely categorical in nature while for a larger number of possible values the variable is most likely quantitative.
(a) Month of the year with the most Airbnb reservations in Ames, IA. (b) Airbnb’s total annual prot. (c) Type of rental on Airbnb ( Type 1= whole house, Type 2 = private room, Type 3 = shared room, etc.). (d) Unique 10-digit reservation number for each Airbnb stay. (e) Number of house rentals available in a given county of Iowa.

Explanation / Answer

(a) This is Categorical variable. Because the value that this variable can take is one of the 12 months of the year i.e. January, Feb, ...,December. Also, numerical operations on this values do not make sense. Hence it is categorical variable.

(b) This is quantitative variable becaue (i) Numerical operations on its values does make sense. and (ii) It can take a large number of possible values. Annual profit is quantitative variable.

(C) This is categorical variable because numerical operations on its value (i.e. whole house, private room etc.) doesn't make sense.

(d) This is quantitative variable because the number of distinct values that the variable can take is very large (=10^(10)).

(e) This is quantitative variable because (i) numerical operations on its values does make sense and (ii) it can take potentially a large number of values.

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