Add hotel stay cost forecasting example using Prophet

[akhil0404-tech]

Summary

This PR introduces a real-world forecasting example that predicts hotel stay costs using the Prophet library. The example includes a notebook with seasonal effects, holiday regressors, and evaluation metrics, along with interactivity via ipywidgets.

Files Added

• examples/HotelStayCostForecasting/notebook.ipynb: Full forecasting workflow
• examples/HotelStayCostForecasting/README.md: Overview and setup
• examples/HotelStayCostForecasting/hotel_stay_costs.csv: Example dataset
• examples/HotelStayCostForecasting/visuals/: Visual output

Features Demonstrated

• Time series forecasting with custom regressors (seasons)
• Holiday impacts added to improve accuracy
• Evaluation with MAE, RMSE, and R²
• Slider-based interactive forecast preview
• Saved model artifact (prophet_model.pkl)

Why It’s Useful

This example adds a real-world use case (hospitality sector) to Prophet’s examples. It can help users understand how to apply Prophet to pricing, logistics, and demand forecasting problems.

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Author: Akhil Chatla
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhil-chatla-07847b1a7

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[akhil0404-tech]

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[akhil0404-tech]

Hi @facebook/prophet-maintainers ,

I’ve completed the CLA and submitted a new forecasting example for hotel stay cost prediction using Prophet (PR #2666). Would love your review whenever you get a chance. Really excited to contribute to this amazing project! : )

Thanks a lot in advance!

[akhil0404-tech]

Hi @facebook-github-bot ,

CLA is signed and validated. Kindly requesting a review from the maintainers when convenient.

Thank you!

[akhil0404-tech]

Hi @bletham, @tcuongd, and @seanjtaylor,

I’ve submitted this pull request to add an example for hotel stay cost forecasting using Prophet. This example demonstrates how Prophet can be used in practical time series forecasting scenarios.

Could you please review this PR when you have some time? Let me know if there are any improvements or changes needed.

Thank you for your time and feedback!

Best regards,
@akhil0404-tech

[akhil0404-tech]

Hi @dreiss @hadley @javache,

This PR adds a real-world example on Hotel Stay Cost Forecasting to the examples/ directory.

• CLA is signed
  -No conflicts with facebook:main
  -All checks passed except one (Ubuntu 20.04 – deprecated runner per issue [#11101])

Please take a look whenever you get a chance. Happy to make any revisions if needed.

Thanks again for maintaining such an impactful library!

Best,
Akhil Chatla