spb/wp4_uqo

1% ============================================================================2% UQO Working Paper No. 43% Hedonic Pricing of Short-Term Rental Properties:4% A Multi-Method Analysis of Airbnb Listing Prices in Quebec5% ============================================================================6\documentclass[12pt,letterpaper]{article}78% --- Encoding & Language ---9\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}10\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}11\usepackage[english]{babel}1213% --- Page Layout ---14\usepackage[letterpaper, margin=1in, headheight=15pt]{geometry}15\usepackage{setspace}16\onehalfspacing17\setlength{\parindent}{1.5em}18\setlength{\parskip}{0pt}1920% --- Typography ---21\usepackage{newtxtext,newtxmath}22\usepackage{amsmath,amsfonts}23\let\Bbbk\relax24\usepackage{amssymb}25\usepackage{mathtools}26\usepackage{microtype}2728% --- Tables ---29\usepackage{booktabs}30\usepackage{threeparttable}31\usepackage{tabularx}32\usepackage{array}33\usepackage{siunitx}34\usepackage{multirow}35\usepackage{longtable}3637% --- Figures ---38\usepackage{graphicx}39\usepackage[40  font       = small,41  labelfont  = bf,42  labelsep   = period,43  skip       = 8pt,44  justification = justified,45  singlelinecheck = false46]{caption}47\usepackage{subcaption}48\usepackage{float}4950% --- Colors & Links ---51\usepackage[dvipsnames]{xcolor}52\usepackage[bookmarks, bookmarksnumbered]{hyperref}53\hypersetup{54  colorlinks  = true,55  linkcolor   = NavyBlue,56  citecolor   = NavyBlue,57  urlcolor    = NavyBlue,58  pdftitle    = {Hedonic Pricing of Short-Term Rental Properties: A Multi-Method Analysis of Airbnb Listing Prices in Quebec},59  pdfauthor   = {Simon-Pierre Boucher}60}6162% --- Bibliography ---63\usepackage[authoryear,round,semicolon]{natbib}64\bibliographystyle{aer}6566% --- Headers & Footers ---67\usepackage{fancyhdr}68\pagestyle{fancy}69\fancyhf{}70\fancyhead[L]{\small\itshape Hedonic Pricing of Short-Term Rentals in Quebec}71\fancyhead[R]{\small\thepage}72\renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0.4pt}73\renewcommand{\footrulewidth}{0pt}74\fancypagestyle{plain}{%75  \fancyhf{}76  \fancyfoot[C]{\small\thepage}77  \renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}78}7980% --- Section Formatting ---81\usepackage{titlesec}82\titleformat{\section}{\large\bfseries}{\thesection.}{0.5em}{}83\titleformat{\subsection}{\normalsize\bfseries}{\thesubsection.}{0.5em}{}84\titleformat{\subsubsection}{\normalsize\itshape}{\thesubsubsection.}{0.5em}{}8586% --- Appendix Support ---87\usepackage{appendix}88\usepackage{enumitem}89\renewcommand{\theHequation}{\thesection.\arabic{equation}}9091% --- Graphics Path ---92\graphicspath{{figures/}}9394% --- Custom Commands ---95\newcommand{\E}{\mathbb{E}}96\newcommand{\Var}{\mathrm{Var}}97\newcommand{\Cov}{\mathrm{Cov}}98\newcommand{\R}{\mathbb{R}}99\newcommand{\eps}{\varepsilon}100\newcommand{\pval}{\textit{p}-value}101102% ============================================================================103% METADATA104% ============================================================================105\newcommand{\WPnumber}{4}106\newcommand{\WPtitle}{Hedonic Pricing of Short-Term Rental Properties: A Multi-Method Analysis of Airbnb Listing Prices in Quebec}107\newcommand{\WPsubtitle}{}108\newcommand{\WPdate}{October 2026}109\newcommand{\WPversion}{1.1}110\newcommand{\WPabstract}{%111We estimate hedonic price functions for a province-wide cross-section of112Airbnb listings in Quebec, Canada, from a scrape of 5,000 listing cards113collected in early 2026 (3,456 with a displayed price). The displayed114price field is bimodal: about 28\% of priced listings, mostly small115Montreal rental units, show the total price of a stay of roughly three116weeks rather than a nightly rate. A two-regime mixture of hedonic117regressions estimated by EM separates the two populations sharply and118leaves 2,480 nightly prices, on which all estimation is based. A119semi-logarithmic hedonic model with city fixed effects, estimated with120heteroskedasticity-robust and clustered standard errors, explains 51\%121of the variance of log prices. Guest capacity (elasticity 0.33),122bathrooms (0.44) and bedrooms (0.16), a shared bathroom ($-32$\%), the123number of photos, the displayed rating (3.4\% per tenth of a point) and124local listing density are the priced attributes; the Superhost and Guest125Favourite badges carry no premium conditional on capacity, type and126location. Quantile regressions show that cheap listings are priced per127guest and certified by reviews, whereas expensive listings are priced128per room and are cheaper when heavily reviewed. Spatial lag, error and129Durbin models find moderate spatial dependence ($\hat\rho \approx 0.20$,130$\hat\lambda \approx 0.28$) with direct impacts within a few percent of131the OLS coefficients. Gradient-boosting models raise the out-of-sample132$R^2$ from 0.47 to 0.56 under random cross-validation and from 0.41 to1330.48 when whole areas are held out, and their SHAP decomposition ranks134the same attributes as the hedonic model. The paper provides the first135provincial hedonic evidence for Quebec's short-term rental market and a136template for detecting and handling stay-price contamination in scraped137platform prices.%138}139\newcommand{\WPkeywords}{hedonic price function, short-term rentals, Airbnb, implicit prices, quantile regression, spatial econometrics, machine learning, Quebec}140\newcommand{\WPjel}{C21, C31, C45, L83, R31, Z30}141142% --- Author ---143\newcommand{\WPauthor}{Simon-Pierre Boucher}144\newcommand{\WPaffiliation}{%145  D\'epartement des sciences administratives\\146  Universit\'e du Qu\'ebec en Outaouais%147}148\newcommand{\WPemail}{simon-pierre.boucher@uqo.ca}149\newcommand{\WPaddress}{%150  Gatineau -- Pavillon Alexandre-Tach\'e\\151  283, boulevard Alexandre-Tach\'e\\152  Gatineau, Qu\'ebec, Canada J9A 1L8%153}154155% ============================================================================156% DOCUMENT157% ============================================================================158\begin{document}159160% --- Title Page ---161\input{sections/titlepage}162163% --- Main Body ---164\input{sections/introduction}165\input{sections/data}166\input{sections/methodology}167\input{sections/results}168\input{sections/robustness}169\input{sections/conclusion}170171% --- References ---172\newpage173\bibliography{references}174175% --- Appendix ---176\newpage177\appendix178\renewcommand{\thetable}{A.\arabic{table}}179\renewcommand{\thefigure}{A.\arabic{figure}}180\setcounter{table}{0}181\setcounter{figure}{0}182\input{sections/appendix}183184\end{document}185