This is a suggestion for changing the way that Amenities are scored and used in the Guest Points calculation.
It is not explained anywhere precisely how the platform calculates the Guest Points value of a home. However, it appears to be:
GP = Amenities + Location + Beds(Sleeps)
Where Location = a score based on how far distant a home is located from a local, national, or international tourist site.
Beds = a score based on how many beds (and whether they are single or double) are available to guests in a home, and therefore how many guests can sleep in the home.
Amenities = a score based on the number and type of features and conveniences in a home (e.g. Stove, Washing Machine, TV, WiFi, Air Conditioning, Pool, etc).
The location and beds calculation is fairly simple and clear.
However, the amenities calculation is very obtuse and, in my opinion, not entirely logical and fair. The basic problem is that there seems to be a maximum limit on the value that a home may achieve for amenities, meaning that after a home possesses a certain number of amenities, then there is no extra value awarded for additional amenities. For example, consider two homes (A and B) in the Cote d’Azur of France… each one has exactly the same number of amenities. Each home has reached the maximum possible value limit for amenities. Neither home has a pool, or air conditioning, or a dryer machine.
If home A adds a pool and air conditioning and a dryer machine, then it would receive NO EXTRA value for its amenities! This makes no sense, especially because in a hot climate these are all very valuable amenities.
I propose that the Amenities calculation algorithm should be changed so that EVERY amenity has a value which is included to calculate a total value for the amenities in the Guest Points calculation.
Ascore = A / Amax x Agp
where
Ascore = the Amenities score to use in the GP calculation
A = the total amenity value for the house (giving a value to EVERY amenity in the house)
Amax = the maximum possible amenity value that a house can have (e.g. the amenity value a house would receive if it possessed all possible amenity features)
Agp = the weighted score for amenities in the GP calculation.
So, for an example house, given the following case in which “location”, “amenities”, and “beds” receive equal weight in the Guest Points calculation:
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the total value of all amenities in a house is 100
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the maximum possible value for amenities is 250
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the weighted score that amenities receives in the Guest Point calculation is 150
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the value of location in a house is 40
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the maximum possible value for location 80
-
the weighted score that location receives in the Guest Point calculation is 150
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the value of beds in a house is 80
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the maximum possible value for beds is 100
-
the weighted score that beds receives in the Guest Point calculation is 150
In this example, the Guest Points calculation would be:
GP = (40 / 80 x 150) + (100 / 250 x 150) + (80 / 100 x 150)
= (0.5 x 150) + (0.4 x 150) + (0.8 x 150)
= 75 + 60 + 120
= 255
In this algorithm, ALL amenities in a house will contribute to the GP calculation. It eliminates the current flaw in the algorithm in which once a house has a certain number of amenities, additional amenities have no impact on the Guest Point calculation!
In the example, the “weighting” score for amenities, location, and beds were all set to 150. This means that each of these factors contributes equally to the Guest Point calculation, and the maximum possible GPs that a house can possess is 450 (i.e. a house in the center of an international tourism site, with very many beds, and having every possible amenity). However, this algorithm gives flexibility for the Home Exchange team to change the weighting factors if they wish at some time to give more or less weight to location, amenities, or beds.