Towards Data Science is a community-powered publication that showcases work in data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Every day newcomers, seasoned researchers and industry practitioners publish tutorials, research notes and real-world case studies that help the field move forward.

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A data scientist analyzed 25,000 hotel names worldwide using the Hotel Data API to uncover why hotels are named after cities they're not located in. The study revealed that Paris is the most borrowed city name (1,100+ hotels), followed by Vienna and Rome. Three main reasons emerged: proximity for search visibility, branding to evoke luxury and sophistication, and historical tradition dating back to 18th-century aristocratic travel patterns. The analysis used Python, pandas, and geographic distance calculations to map naming patterns across countries.

I Analysed 25,000 Hotel Names and Found Four Surprising Truths

who wakes up one day and decide to just, “Let me check how many hotels have the same name.” Cause I know I won’t. But hey, researchers will be researchers. Can’t do anything about those guys.

I wonder how far she went to consider translations of city names, like “Nueva York / Neu York / Nova Iorque / Nyū-York”, “Wien / Viena, Bécs (yup)”, “Venezia / Venecia / Veneza”, etc. Paris just may seem lucky in that sense (same spelling everywhere).

I hope to explore the tourism subject this year in my data science studies. Thank you so much for the inspiring work!!!

China really claimed the word Venetian. It kind of reminds me of how people sometimes get random Asian characters as tattoos. China just picked this word instead. Anyway, I love your writing style, and I hope you get to visit the Venetian someday!