What makes a street quiet?

The stay sits on a residential street, a living street, a lane or a minor road; no main road is within 100 metres; and at most 3 bars, cafés or restaurants are within 150 metres of the door.

What makes a street lively?

The stay sits on a major road or main road, or 10 or more bars, cafés and restaurants are within 150 metres of the door.

Is this a safety rating?

No. The otter reads roads, venues, stops and street-lighting tags from the map. It doesn't use crime figures or score neighbourhoods as safe or unsafe. Where a part of town isn't a good base for a visitor, the otter's area notes say so in one plain sentence.

How it's measured

The otter's street reading.

A listing shows the bedroom. The street reading is what the otter measures outside the door: the road the stay sits on, what's within a walk, and what the walk back looks like at night. It comes out as one word, quiet, moderate or lively, with the numbers behind it on every pick.

The three readings

Quiet

A small street, no main road within 100 m, and 3 or fewer bars, cafés or restaurants within 150 m of the door.

Moderate

In between: a local through-road, or a small street with a main road or a few places close by.

Lively

On a major road or main road, or 10+ bars, cafés and restaurants within 150 m. Good for nights out; light sleepers, take note.

Quiet or lively isn't better or worse. When you ask for a quiet street, or a calm trip, the reading is part of the ranking; otherwise it's shown so you can decide.

What else is counted

Within a 10-minute walk (800 m): bars and pubs, cafés, restaurants, and grocery shops when you ask for them. The pick's map draws each one.
Your spot: the straight-line distance and the walk in minutes from the place you named, placed from checked pins or the map, never a guess from the listing's own description.
The nearest stop: train, subway, tram, bus or ferry, with the walk to it.
The area: the otter's own notes on which parts of town make a good base for a visitor, and which don't, marked on every pick as a judgment call.

Walking back at night

Under each pick's map, a few facts for the walk home after dark, each one checkable on the map: how many bars and pubs are within a 5-minute walk (400 m), so whether people are about late; how far the nearest main road is; how long the walk is from your spot; and, where OpenStreetMap has them, how many of the streets around the stay are tagged as lit. Many cities don't tag lighting, so a missing line means the map doesn't say, not that the street is dark.

Sources, and what a map can't tell you

Roads come from Mapbox Streets; venues, groceries and stops from OpenStreetMap, read through Geoapify's index; street lighting from OpenStreetMap's own public servers. Every line on a pick says when it was checked. A map can't hear a party next door, see roadworks that started last week, or know about a festival on your dates, so read the reading as a strong hint, and the guest reviews for the rest.

Questions

What makes a street quiet?: The stay sits on a residential street, a living street, a lane or a minor road; no main road is within 100 metres; and at most 3 bars, cafés or restaurants are within 150 metres of the door.
What makes a street lively?: The stay sits on a major road or main road, or 10 or more bars, cafés and restaurants are within 150 metres of the door.
And moderate?: Everything in between: a local through-road, or a small street with a main road or a handful of places close by.
Is this a safety rating?: No. The otter reads roads, venues, stops and street-lighting tags from the map. It doesn't use crime figures or score neighbourhoods as safe or unsafe. Where a part of town isn't a good base for a visitor, the otter's area notes say so in one plain sentence.

More on the method: How it works · the price side: the price drop tracker.