The Munich Rent Advisor: A Success for Logic Programming on the Internet

Abstract

Most cities in Germany regularly publish a booklet called the {\em Mietspiegel}. It basically contains a verbal description of an expert system. It allows the calculation of the estimated fair rent for a flat. By hand, one may need a weekend to do so. With our computerized version, the {\em Munich Rent Advisor}, the user just fills in a form in a few minutes and the rent is calculated immediately. We also extended the functionality and applicability of the {\em Mietspiegel} so that the user need not answer all questions on the form. The key to computing with partial information using high-level programming was to use constraint logic programming. We rely on the internet, and more specifically the World Wide Web, to provide this service to a broad user group. More than ten thousand people have used our service in the last three years. This article describes the experiences in implementing and using the {\em Munich Rent Advisor}. Our results suggests that logic programming with constraints can be an important ingredient in intelligent internet systems.