Unexpected urban comparisons: Airbnb-ization in Cape Town, South Africa, and Broward County's coastal cities, Florida, United States

This paper employs an atypical comparative approach to investigate the significant influence of Airbnb in two distinct urban areas: Cape Town, South Africa, and Broward County, Florida, USA. Despite differing national histories and contexts, both locations share commonalities as tourist hotspots with robust facilities and attractions and lack strict Airbnb rental regulations. Leveraging open-source data from InsideAirbnb, OpenStreet Map, and census data, we utilize geospatial analysis and geovisualizations to evaluate various factors, including urban amenities, neighborhood cultural capital, accommodation types, pricing, and review scores. Optimized hot spot analysis reveals areas of high and low activity related to urban amenities. In Broward County, Airbnb hotspots align with the coast and Interstate Highway 95, following a uniform pattern. In Cape Town, they cluster within affluent neighborhoods inside Motorway 3. Word cloud analysis of positive comments highlights customer experiences related to coastal proximity, tourist attractions, dwelling amenities, and host responsiveness in Cape Town.