pp-airbnb

name	pp-airbnb
description	Skip the Airbnb platform fee. Find the host's direct booking site for any Airbnb listing. Trigger phrases: `find the direct booking site`, `skip the airbnb fee`, `vacation rental cheapest`, `book direct`, `use airbnb-pp`, `run airbnb-pp`. NOTE: VRBO support is currently disabled — pending Akamai workaround.
author	Matt Van Horn
license	Apache-2.0
argument-hint	<command> [args] | install cli|mcp
allowed-tools	Read Bash
metadata	{"openclaw":{"requires":{"bins":["airbnb-pp-cli"]},"install":[{"kind":"go","bins":["airbnb-pp-cli"],"module":"github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/travel/airbnb/cmd/airbnb-pp-cli"}]}}

Airbnb — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the airbnb-pp-cli binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:

1. Install via the Printing Press installer. It defaults binaries to $HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows:

   npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install airbnb --cli-only
   

2. Verify: airbnb-pp-cli --version
3. Ensure the reported install directory is on $PATH for the agent/runtime that will invoke this skill.

If the npx install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.5 or newer):

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/travel/airbnb/cmd/airbnb-pp-cli@latest

If --version reports "command not found" after install, the runtime cannot see the binary directory on $PATH. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.

When to Use This CLI

Reach for this CLI when an agent or user names an Airbnb listing URL, asks about Airbnb fees or direct-booking savings, mentions 'book direct,' or wants to plan a trip across listings. The cheapest command is the headline; plan and compare extend it. The local store accumulates listings, hosts, and price history across sessions, so re-running queries gets faster and richer over time.

When Not to Use This CLI

Do not activate this CLI for requests that require creating, updating, deleting, publishing, commenting, upvoting, inviting, ordering, sending messages, booking, purchasing, or changing remote state. This printed CLI exposes read-only commands for inspection, export, sync, and analysis.

Unique Capabilities

These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.

Host-direct arbitrage

• cheapest — Given an Airbnb or VRBO listing URL, find the host's direct booking site and report the cheapest of three sources.

  When a user names an Airbnb/VRBO listing, this is the right tool to reach for. Returns a structured comparison of OTA fees vs direct booking with actionable URLs.

  airbnb-pp-cli cheapest 'https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/37124493?check_in=2026-05-16&check_out=2026-05-19' --agent
  

• plan — Search Airbnb and VRBO in parallel for a city/dates/budget, then run cheapest on the top results, return a ranked-by-savings list.

  The agent-friendly trip planner. One call returns ranked results across both platforms with direct-booking URLs and savings amounts.

  airbnb-pp-cli plan 'Lake Tahoe' --checkin 2026-05-16 --checkout 2026-05-19 --guests 4 --budget 1500 --agent
  

• compare — Side-by-side: OTA total (with cleaning + service + tax fees) vs direct booking total, with dollar and percent savings.

  Use when an agent needs to justify a booking recommendation with concrete savings numbers.

  airbnb-pp-cli compare 'https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/37124493' --checkin 2026-05-16 --checkout 2026-05-19 --json
  

• find-twin — Reverse image search a listing's photos to find the same property on direct booking sites or alternate platforms.

  When host extraction fails (vague host name), reverse image search is the most reliable signal.

  airbnb-pp-cli find-twin 'https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/37124493' --json
  

Cross-platform

• match — Given a listing on Airbnb (or VRBO), find the same property on the other platform via geocode + amenities + photo signal.

  Cross-platform price discrimination is real; the same condo can cost 15 percent less on VRBO. This finds it.

  airbnb-pp-cli match 'https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/37124493' --json
  

Local state that compounds

• watch — Add saved listings to a watchlist with target prices; watch check re-scrapes each, records a dated price snapshot when a real price comes back, and exits 7 on a genuine drop. Subcommands: add, list, remove, check.

  Use when a user is shopping a specific listing and waiting for a price drop. Schedule watch check daily; act on exit code 7. A listing with no available price for the dates is reported under no_price and is never a hit (no false exit 7). Remove with watch remove <listing-url-or-id>.

  airbnb-pp-cli watch add 'https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/37124493' --max-price 350 --checkin 2026-05-16 --checkout 2026-05-19
  airbnb-pp-cli watch remove 37124493
  

• host portfolio — Given a host or property management company name, list every known listing under them across Airbnb and VRBO.

  Discover bulk patterns: which PMCs operate in this city, which have direct sites, where to focus arbitrage.

  airbnb-pp-cli host portfolio 'Vacasa' --json --select listings.title,listings.location
  

• wishlist diff — Track price changes on Airbnb wishlists over time; report which saved listings dropped, by how much, and over what window.

  User saved a listing months ago and forgot. This surfaces price movement so they can act before booking.

  airbnb-pp-cli wishlist diff --since 2026-04-01 --json
  

• fingerprint — Stable hash from photos + amenities + host + city; used by match for dedupe; exposed for power-user export workflows.

  Build your own external joins on listings; stable across sessions.

  airbnb-pp-cli fingerprint 'https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/37124493'
  

Discovery Signals

This CLI was generated with browser-observed traffic context.

• Capture coverage: 66 API entries from 299 total network entries
• Protocols: rpc_envelope (80% confidence), rest_json (75% confidence)
• Auth signals: api_key — headers: X-Airbnb-API-Key, X-Goog-Api-Key
• Generation hints: has_rpc_envelope, weak_schema_confidence
• Candidate command ideas: create_GetViewportInfo — Derived from observed POST /$rpc/google.internal.maps.mapsjs.v1.MapsJsInternalService/GetViewportInfo traffic.; create_StaysPdpSections — Derived from observed POST /api/v3/StaysPdpSections/{hash} traffic.; create_get_data_layer_variables — Derived from observed POST /api/v2/get-data-layer-variables traffic.; create_js — Derived from observed POST /js/ traffic.; create_marketing_event_tracking — Derived from observed POST /api/v2/marketing_event_tracking traffic.; create_messages — Derived from observed POST /tracking/jitney/logging/messages traffic.; create_realtimeconversion — Derived from observed POST /track/realtimeconversion traffic.; get_GetConsentFlagsQuery — Derived from observed GET /api/v3/GetConsentFlagsQuery/{hash} traffic.
• Caveats: empty_payload: API-looking request returned an empty or null payload; schema confidence is weak.; empty_payload: API-looking request returned an empty or null payload; schema confidence is weak.; empty_payload: API-looking request returned an empty or null payload; schema confidence is weak.; empty_payload: API-looking request returned an empty or null payload; schema confidence is weak.; empty_payload: API-looking request returned an empty or null payload; schema confidence is weak.; empty_payload: API-looking request returned an empty or null payload; schema confidence is weak.; empty_payload: API-looking request returned an empty or null payload; schema confidence is weak.; empty_payload: API-looking request returned an empty or null payload; schema confidence is weak.; empty_payload: API-looking request returned an empty or null payload; schema confidence is weak.; empty_payload: API-looking request returned an empty or null payload; schema confidence is weak.

Command Reference

airbnb_listing — Airbnb listings (search and detail) via SSR HTML scrape (openbnb pattern, no auth required).

• airbnb-pp-cli airbnb_listing get — Get full Airbnb listing detail (amenities, house rules, location, highlights, description, policies, host) via SSR...
• airbnb-pp-cli airbnb_listing search — Search Airbnb listings by location, dates, and guest count via the public SSR HTML page (openbnb pattern). Walks...

airbnb_wishlist — Airbnb wishlists (read user's saved listings; requires auth login --chrome).

• airbnb-pp-cli airbnb_wishlist items — Get items in a specific wishlist by listing IDs.
• airbnb-pp-cli airbnb_wishlist list — List the user's wishlists via Airbnb's GraphQL persisted query.

host — Host identity extraction (the linchpin of host-direct arbitrage).

• airbnb-pp-cli host extract — Extract the host's brand or display name from a listing URL across both platforms. Uses propertyManagement.name...
• airbnb-pp-cli host portfolio — List every known listing under one host or PMC across Airbnb and VRBO from the local store.

vrbo_listing — VRBO listings (search and detail) via /graphql with Akamai warmup pattern.

• airbnb-pp-cli vrbo_listing get — Get full VRBO property detail via the propertyDetail GraphQL operation (operation name discovered at runtime). Falls...
• airbnb-pp-cli vrbo_listing search — Search VRBO properties via the propertySearch GraphQL operation. Uses Akamai warmup (GET / first, wait 1.5s, then POST).

Freshness Contract

This printed CLI owns bounded freshness only for registered store-backed read command paths. In --data-source auto mode, those paths check sync_state and may run a bounded refresh before reading local data. --data-source local never refreshes. --data-source live reads the API and does not mutate the local store. Set AIRBNB_PP_NO_AUTO_REFRESH=1 to skip the freshness hook without changing source selection.

Covered paths:

• airbnb-pp-cli airbnb_wishlist
• airbnb-pp-cli airbnb_wishlist items
• airbnb-pp-cli airbnb_wishlist list

When JSON output uses the generated provenance envelope, freshness metadata appears at meta.freshness. Treat it as current-cache freshness for the covered command path, not a guarantee of complete historical backfill or API-specific enrichment.

Finding the right command

When you know what you want to do but not which command does it, ask the CLI directly:

airbnb-pp-cli which "<capability in your own words>"

which resolves a natural-language capability query to the best matching command from this CLI's curated feature index. Exit code 0 means at least one match; exit code 2 means no confident match — fall back to --help or use a narrower query.

Recipes

Find the cheapest way to book a saved Airbnb listing

airbnb-pp-cli cheapest 'https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/37124493' --checkin 2026-05-16 --checkout 2026-05-19 --json --select savings,direct.url,direct.total,airbnb.total

Returns just the savings and price comparison fields, not the full host-extraction trace.

Plan a 4-guest Tahoe trip across both platforms

airbnb-pp-cli plan 'Lake Tahoe' --checkin 2026-05-16 --checkout 2026-05-19 --guests 4 --budget 1500 --agent

Fans out across Airbnb + VRBO + direct discovery; ranks by total savings.

Watch for price drops on saved listings

airbnb-pp-cli watch add 'https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/37124493' --max-price 350 && airbnb-pp-cli watch check
airbnb-pp-cli watch remove 'https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/37124493'

Add to watchlist, then check with cron — exits 7 only when a real scraped price is at or below the threshold. A listing with no available price for the dates is reported under no_price (never a hit, never exit 7). watch remove accepts the listing URL or the bare id from watch list.

Keep price history current

airbnb-pp-cli sync                                 # re-scrapes watchlist + known listings, persists fresh snapshots
airbnb-pp-cli sync --resources airbnb_wishlist     # auth-gated wishlist sync (needs auth login --chrome)

sync re-scrapes what the store already knows (watchlist entries + previously-scraped listings) and writes fresh price snapshots; on an empty store it reports empty_store and makes no network calls. The authenticated wishlist sync is opt-in via --resources airbnb_wishlist.

Find a Vacasa property in Austin and book direct

airbnb-pp-cli host portfolio 'Vacasa' --city Austin --agent --select listings.title,listings.direct_url

Bulk discovery of one PMC's portfolio with direct URLs already resolved.

Compare deeply nested response

airbnb-pp-cli airbnb get 37124493 --agent --select listing.title,listing.coordinate.latitude,listing.coordinate.longitude,pricingQuote.structuredStayDisplayPrice.primaryLine.price,pricingQuote.structuredStayDisplayPrice.secondaryLine.price

Use --select with dotted paths to narrow Airbnb's deeply nested SSR Apollo cache to just the high-gravity fields.

Auth Setup

Public search and listing detail need no auth. Authenticated features (Airbnb wishlists, trip history) use cookie import via auth login --chrome. The web-search backend is pluggable: Parallel.ai (paid, best), DuckDuckGo HTML (free default), Brave Search API (free tier), or Tavily (free tier).

Run airbnb-pp-cli doctor to verify setup.

Agent Mode

Add --agent to any command. Expands to: --json --compact --no-input --no-color --yes.

• Pipeable — JSON on stdout, errors on stderr

• Filterable — --select keeps a subset of fields. Dotted paths descend into nested structures; arrays traverse element-wise. Critical for keeping context small on verbose APIs:

  airbnb-pp-cli airbnb_listing get --agent --select id,name,status
  

• Previewable — --dry-run shows the request without sending

• Offline-friendly — sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available

• Non-interactive — never prompts, every input is a flag

• Read-only — do not use this CLI for create, update, delete, publish, comment, upvote, invite, order, send, or other mutating requests

Response envelope

Commands that read from the local store or the API wrap output in a provenance envelope:

{
  "meta": {"source": "live" | "local", "synced_at": "...", "reason": "..."},
  "results": <data>
}

Parse .results for data and .meta.source to know whether it's live or local. A human-readable N results (live) summary is printed to stderr only when stdout is a terminal — piped/agent consumers get pure JSON on stdout.

Agent Feedback

When you (or the agent) notice something off about this CLI, record it:

airbnb-pp-cli feedback "the --since flag is inclusive but docs say exclusive"
airbnb-pp-cli feedback --stdin < notes.txt
airbnb-pp-cli feedback list --json --limit 10

Entries are stored locally at ~/.airbnb-pp-cli/feedback.jsonl. They are never POSTed unless AIRBNB_PP_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or AIRBNB_PP_FEEDBACK_AUTO_SEND=true. Default behavior is local-only.

Write what surprised you, not a bug report. Short, specific, one line: that is the part that compounds.

Output Delivery

Every command accepts --deliver <sink>. The output goes to the named sink in addition to (or instead of) stdout, so agents can route command results without hand-piping. Three sinks are supported:

Sink	Effect
stdout	Default; write to stdout only
file:<path>	Atomically write output to <path> (tmp + rename)
webhook:<url>	POST the output body to the URL (application/json or application/x-ndjson when --compact)

Unknown schemes are refused with a structured error naming the supported set. Webhook failures return non-zero and log the URL + HTTP status on stderr.

Named Profiles

A profile is a saved set of flag values, reused across invocations. Use it when a scheduled agent calls the same command every run with the same configuration - HeyGen's "Beacon" pattern.

airbnb-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
airbnb-pp-cli --profile briefing airbnb_listing get
airbnb-pp-cli profile list --json
airbnb-pp-cli profile show briefing
airbnb-pp-cli profile delete briefing --yes

Explicit flags always win over profile values; profile values win over defaults. agent-context lists all available profiles under available_profiles so introspecting agents discover them at runtime.

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
2	Usage error (wrong arguments)
3	Resource not found
4	Authentication required
5	API error (upstream issue)
7	Rate limited (wait and retry)
8	Bot challenge (datadome/Akamai). Wait, or refresh cookies via airbnb-pp-cli auth login --chrome
10	Config error

Rate Limiting

--rate-limit N (global flag) caps the request rate to N per second. Applies to BOTH the scrape path (search, get, cheapest, plan, compare) AND the GraphQL path (BookingPrice for pricing, wishlist list, wishlist items).

• Default (flag unset): 0.5 rps baseline. Non-regressive.
• --rate-limit N with N > 0: sets that as the new cap.
• --rate-limit 0: disables rate limiting.

The limiter is adaptive: on a 429 or a detected datadome/Akamai challenge it halves the current rate and records a ceiling. After 10 consecutive successes it ramps the rate up by 25%, capped at 90% of the discovered ceiling. Retry sleeps include 25% jitter to prevent a fleet of clients from synchronizing.

When sustained challenges fire, the CLI returns a typed BotChallengeError with a remediation hint (refresh cookies for datadome; wait for the Akamai sensor cooldown). The CLI does not synthesize fake data on failure.

Argument Parsing

Parse $ARGUMENTS:

1. Empty, help, or --help → show airbnb-pp-cli --help output
2. Starts with install → ends with mcp → MCP installation; otherwise → see Prerequisites above
3. Anything else → Direct Use (execute as CLI command with --agent)

MCP Server Installation

1. Install the MCP server:

   go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/travel/airbnb/cmd/airbnb-pp-mcp@latest
   

2. Register with Claude Code:

   claude mcp add airbnb-pp-mcp -- airbnb-pp-mcp
   

3. Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

1. Check if installed: which airbnb-pp-cli If not found, offer to install (see Prerequisites at the top of this skill).
2. Match the user query to the best command from the Unique Capabilities and Command Reference above.
3. Execute with the --agent flag:

   airbnb-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent
   

4. If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help: airbnb-pp-cli <command> --help.