## ENTRY IN THIS COMPETITION CONSTITUTES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE OFFICIAL COMPETITION RULES.

*The Competition named below is a skills-based competition to promote and further the field of data science. You must register via the Competition Website to enter. To enter the Competition, you must agree to these Official Competition Rules, which incorporate by reference the provisions and content of the Competition Website and any Specific Competition Rules herein (collectively, the "Rules"). Please read these Rules carefully before entry to ensure you understand and agree. You further agree that Submission in the Competition constitutes agreement to these Rules. You may not submit to the Competition and are not eligible to receive the prizes associated with this Competition unless you agree to these Rules. These Rules form a binding legal agreement between you and the Competition Sponsor with respect to the Competition. Your competition Submissions must conform to the requirements stated on the Competition Website. Your Submissions will be scored based on the evaluation metric described on the Competition Website. Subject to compliance with the Competition Rules, Prizes, if any, will be awarded to Participants with the best scores, based on the merits of the data science models submitted. See below for the complete Competition Rules.*

**You cannot sign up to Kaggle from multiple accounts and therefore you cannot enter or submit from multiple accounts.**
1. COMPETITION-SPECIFIC TERMS
1. COMPETITION TITLE
Airbnb Booking Prediction Challenge
2. TOTAL PRIZES AVAILABLE
This is an **educational** competition. No monetary prizes will be awarded. The top-ranked participants will receive **recognition**
3. DATA ACCESS AND USE
The dataset is for **competition use only**. Redistribution is strictly prohibited.

### 2. COMPETITION-SPECIFIC RULES
In addition to the provisions of the General Competition Rules below, you understand and agree to these Competition-Specific Rules required by the Competition Sponsor:

#### 1. TEAM LIMITS
a. The maximum Team size is two (2).  

#### 2. SUBMISSION LIMITS
a. You may submit a maximum of two (2) Submissions per day.  
b. You may select up to two (2) Final Submissions for judging.


#### 3 COMPETITION DATA

a. **Data Access and Use**  
   The competition data can only be used for **participating in this competition on Kaggle.com**. Any **unauthorized use or sharing** of the dataset is strictly prohibited and may lead to disqualification.

b. **Data Security**  
1. Participants must take reasonable precautions to prevent unauthorized access to the competition data.  
2. Sharing the competition data outside of Kaggle is strictly prohibited.  
3. Any participant found redistributing the data may be **banned from Kaggle competitions**.

#### 4. EVALUATION METRIC

Submissions will be evaluated using **Mean Squared Error (MSE)**:
$$
MSE = \frac{1}{n} \sum_{i=1}^{n} (y_i - \hat{y}_i)^2
$$


where:  
- $$ \( y_i \) = actual \ number\  of\  booked\  nights\  in \ Q3 \ 2016  $$
- $$\( \hat{y}_i \) \ = \ predicted \ number \ of \ booked \ nights \  $$
- $$ \( n \) = \ total \ number \  of\  test \ properties\   $$

A **lower MSE** indicates a **more accurate model**.

#### 5. LEADERBOARD SYSTEM
- **Public Leaderboard**: Based on **70% of test data**.  
- **Private Leaderboard**: Final rankings determined using **30% hidden test data**.  

#### 6. SUBMISSION FORMAT

Your submission must be a **CSV file**