Frequently Asked Questions

StayMapper helps you explore cities by showing you different neighborhoods (districts) on a map. You can discover points of interest like cafes, gyms, and tourist spots within each neighborhood. You'll also find helpful city-wide information like typical power plug types, common languages, and relative travel costs in the "Quick Facts" bar when viewing a city.

When you first visit StayMapper, you'll see a list of featured cities. You can find cities in several ways:

• Browse: Scroll through the city cards displayed on the homepage.
• Search: Use the search bar at the top to type the name of a city you're interested in. The list will filter as you type.
• Filter by Region: Use the dropdown menu below the search bar to narrow down cities based on their region or category.
• Pagination: If there are many cities, use the pagination controls at the bottom to navigate through the pages.
• Explore: Click the "Explore" button on a city card to view its detailed page.

The city detail page provides in-depth information about your chosen destination.

City Overview & Quick Facts

• Overview: On the left (desktop) or top (mobile), you'll find a general overview of the city, broken down into sections (like "Vibe", "Getting Around", etc.). Click on a section title to expand it.
• Quick Facts: Below the main map/overview section, the "Quick Facts" section provides stats like Wi-Fi speeds, safety/walkability scores, relative cost of travel, plug types, and common languages. Click the info icon () next to some stats for more details.

Interactive Map

• Districts: The map displays different districts/neighborhoods outlined with borders.
  • Hover: Move your mouse over a district to see its name appear in the top-left corner of the map. Recommended districts are marked with a star badge.
  • Click: Click on a district to select it. Once selected, you will have the option to view points of interest for that district.
• Points of Interest (POIs):
  • Toggle Categories: Use the category toolbar located in the top-right corner of the map to show/hide different types of POIs like Restaurants (), Cafes (), Bars (), etc. Click an icon to toggle its visibility. The "Top Rated" () filter shows only the top 25 highest-rated places for each selected category when the filter is active.
  • View Details: Click on a POI marker on the map to open a side drawer with more information, including descriptions, ratings, and, if available, photos or links.
• Travel Time Tool:
  • The Travel Time toggle button () can be found on the bottom-right of the map.
  • Click it to reveal transport options: Walking (), Cycling (), or Driving ().
  • Select a transport type. Your cursor will change to a crosshair.
  • Click anywhere on the map to drop a pin. An area showing roughly how far you can travel in 10 minutes using that transport mode will be drawn.
  • Click the 'X' button (near the transport options) or outside the map area to cancel pin-drop mode or clear the travel time data.
  • To remove the travel distance shape from the map, click anywhere on an empty region of the map or click on the shape itself.

District Cards

Below the map/overview section, you'll find cards for the recommended districts.

• Each card shows an image and the district name.
• Click the "View on map" button to select that district on the map. You should see a red border indicating the district boundaries.
• Inside the card, there are sections which provide details about the district's vibe, highlights, etc. Click a section title to expand it.

The map is intentionally focused on the main city area you are viewing. Zooming and panning (moving the map) are limited to keep the view centered on the relevant neighborhoods and to help the map load quickly and efficiently.

Neighborhoods highlighted in a golden-orange color are often central, popular, or recommended areas. Other neighborhoods are shown in a standard grey. When you click on and select any neighborhood, its border will turn red so you know which one is active.

Points of Interest (POIs) are specific places like restaurants, cafes, gyms, coworking spaces, grocery stores, bars, hotels, and tourist attractions. You can control which types of POIs are displayed by using the category filter buttons (e.g., "Food," "Coffee," "Attractions") in the top-right corner of the map.

Selecting the "Top Rated " filter narrows down the currently visible POIs to show only a small number of the highest-rated ones within the selected neighborhood. It works in conjunction with the other category filters you have active (like "Food" or "Coffee"). It doesn't show any POIs on its own; you need at least one other POI category selected for it to have an effect.

The scores in the "Quick Facts" bar (like Walkability, Safety, Cost of Travel) are relative indicators, usually on a scale of 1-100.

• Walk Score: Higher means more walkable.
• Safety Score: Higher means generally safer.
• Cost of Travel: Higher means more expensive relative to other cities in our list.

These scores provide a quick comparison. Always consider the detailed tooltips (often available by hovering or clicking the info icon ()) for more context. These scores are not meant to be an absolute source of truth, as they can be inherently subjective and vary based on personal experience. They are intended as a quick reference to help you get a feel for the city based on an average traveler's perspective.

The underlying map visuals are based on OpenStreetMap data.

Neighborhood boundaries are sourced from various official or open data, specific to each city.

Points of Interest information is gathered from publicly available data.

City overviews and neighborhood descriptions are generated with AI assistance, using reliable source information where possible, and are then reviewed for accuracy.

The "Quick Facts," like plug types, safety scores, and costs, are manually researched and added.

Images are typically sourced from services like Pexels.

While we strive for accuracy, some errors may occur. Please use the feedback buttons if you spot something that needs correction!

Currently, data is updated on an as-needed basis, for example, after community feedback, when there are significant changes in a city, or after a certain period has passed. The goal is to keep the data as fresh as possible, but much of this data, in reality, doesn't change very frequently.

Currently, photos are selected using a mixture of an automated process and static references. For cities, there are usually plenty of photos, so a static reference to a known good photo is used. For district pictures, StayMapper uses a photo service and queries to attempt to fetch relevant images for each district. Because the request for an image of a specific district in a specific city is quite niche, the results often end up being far from perfect. If there is a reasonable way to improve this, we will do so in the future.

Your feedback is crucial for improving StayMapper! It's regularly reviewed to enhance the information and your experience.

• See something inaccurate? Use the thumbs-down button. You'll be prompted to enter a brief description of what needs to be corrected.
• Find something helpful or accurate? Use the thumbs-up button to let us know the information is good and to share some positivity.

Help decide which cities get added next! You need to be logged in to participate. Visit the Vote page.

• Log In: Use the "Sign In" button in the header or on the voting page if you aren't already logged in. Logging in is achieved by sending a one-time code to your email—no need to remember another password!
• Suggest a City: Don't see the city you want in the list? On the Vote page, use the search bar under "Suggest a New City." Select a city from the dropdown list that appears as you type, then click "Vote For This City." This will cast your vote if you have any remaining votes. The table on the page only shows the top 10 voted-on cities, so if you don't see your newly suggested city appear there immediately, don't worry; your vote is accounted for!
• Upvote Existing Suggestions: Scroll down to the table of suggested cities. Click the "Upvote" button next to a city you'd like to see added.
• Vote Limit: Each user is limited to 3 votes. Your remaining votes are displayed at the top of the Vote page. If you've voted for a city that gets added, your vote for that city will be restored so you can vote again.

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