Proximity Features: Privacy-Compliant Cold-Start Personalization at Airbnb

Jul 15, 2026

Airbnb has developed and deployed Proximity Features, a privacy-compliant system that addresses the cold-start personalization problem by grouping users based on geographic proximity using geo-IP data and adaptive clustering. This approach aggregates signals for groups of around 1,000 users, avoiding the need for persistent individual identifiers and operating within consent-gated privacy controls. Online A/B tests in production show statistically significant increases in bookings, particularly for users lacking recent or any history.

Why it matters: This work provides a scalable, privacy-preserving solution to cold-start personalization with demonstrated real-world impact at a major online platform.

Full story at: arXiv Machine Learning ↗