Airbnb Search & Listings - MCP Bundle (MCPB)

A comprehensive MCP Bundle for searching Airbnb listings with advanced filtering capabilities and detailed property information retrieval. Built as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server packaged in the MCP Bundle (MCPB) format for easy installation and use with compatible AI applications.

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🚀 Prefer not to run a local server? Try openbnb.ai

👉 openbnb.ai is a hosted MCP server that solves the same problem — searching Airbnb listings — without any local setup.

If you don't want to deal with installing and running this server yourself, openbnb.ai is a separate, fully-hosted alternative you can connect to directly from your MCP client. It goes beyond what this open-source server offers:

• ✅ Zero setup — no Node, no npx, no config files, no updates to manage
• ✅ Advanced filters — richer search controls beyond the base tools here
• ✅ MCP UI — interactive UI components for browsing results, not just plain text
• ✅ Managed & maintained — kept running for you

Head to openbnb.ai for setup instructions and the connection details for your MCP client.

If you'd rather self-host the open-source server, read on.

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Features

🔍 Advanced Search Capabilities

• Location-based search with support for cities, states, and regions
• International location support via client-side geocoding, so non-US queries (e.g. "Paris, France", "Copenhagen, Denmark") return results in the right city
• Google Maps Place ID integration for precise location targeting
• Property type filtering for entire homes, private rooms, shared rooms, or hotel rooms
• Date filtering with check-in and check-out date support
• Guest configuration including adults, children, infants, and pets
• Price range filtering with minimum and maximum price constraints
• Pagination support for browsing through large result sets

🏠 Detailed Property Information

• Comprehensive listing details including amenities, policies, and highlights
• Location information with coordinates and neighborhood details
• House rules and policies for informed booking decisions
• Property descriptions and key features
• Direct links to Airbnb listings for easy booking

🛡️ Security & Compliance

• Robots.txt compliance with configurable override for testing
• Request timeout management to prevent hanging requests
• Enhanced error handling with detailed logging
• Rate limiting awareness and respectful API usage
• Secure configuration through MCPB user settings

Installation

For Claude Desktop

This extension is packaged as an MCP Bundle (.mcpb) file. To install:

1. Download the .mcpb file from the latest release
2. Open the file — Claude Desktop will show an installation dialog
3. Configure the extension settings as needed

To ignore robots.txt, open Claude Desktop settings, navigate to the extension, and enable the Ignore robots.txt toggle.

For Cursor, etc.

Before starting make sure Node.js is installed on your desktop for npx to work.

1. Go to: Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations > New MCP Server

2. Add one the following to your mcp.json:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "airbnb": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": [
           "-y",
           "@openbnb/mcp-server-airbnb"
         ]
       }
     }
   }

   To ignore robots.txt for all requests, use this version with --ignore-robots-txt args

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "airbnb": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": [
           "-y",
           "@openbnb/mcp-server-airbnb",
           "--ignore-robots-txt"
         ]
       }
     }
   }

3. Restart.

Configuration

The extension provides the following user-configurable options:

Ignore robots.txt

• Type: Boolean (checkbox)
• Default: false
• Description: Bypass robots.txt restrictions when making requests to Airbnb
• Recommendation: Keep disabled unless needed for testing purposes

Disable third-party geocoding

• Type: Boolean (checkbox)
• Environment variable: DISABLE_GEOCODING
• Default: false
• Description: Skip the Photon/Nominatim geocoding step and let Airbnb resolve the location string on its own. Enabling this restores the pre-PR behavior — every search goes only to airbnb.com, no third-party calls.
• Recommendation: Keep disabled unless you specifically need zero third-party outbound traffic. With it enabled, non-US searches could return incorrect results. See External Services.

Tools

airbnb_search

Search for Airbnb listings with comprehensive filtering options.

Parameters:

• location (required): Location to search (e.g., "San Francisco, CA"). When supplied without placeId, the server geocodes this string client-side via Photon/Nominatim — see External Services.
• placeId (optional): Google Maps Place ID. Overrides location and skips client-side geocoding entirely (no third-party calls).
• checkin (optional): Check-in date in YYYY-MM-DD format
• checkout (optional): Check-out date in YYYY-MM-DD format
• adults (optional): Number of adults (default: 1)
• children (optional): Number of children (default: 0)
• infants (optional): Number of infants (default: 0)
• pets (optional): Number of pets (default: 0)
• minPrice (optional): Minimum price per night
• maxPrice (optional): Maximum price per night
• cursor (optional): Pagination cursor for browsing results
• propertyType (optional): Filter by property type — entire_home, private_room, shared_room, or hotel_room
• ignoreRobotsText (optional): Override robots.txt for this request

Returns:

• Search results with property details, pricing, and direct links
• Pagination information for browsing additional results
• Search URL for reference

airbnb_listing_details

Get detailed information about a specific Airbnb listing.

Parameters:

• id (required): Airbnb listing ID
• checkin (optional): Check-in date in YYYY-MM-DD format
• checkout (optional): Check-out date in YYYY-MM-DD format
• adults (optional): Number of adults (default: 1)
• children (optional): Number of children (default: 0)
• infants (optional): Number of infants (default: 0)
• pets (optional): Number of pets (default: 0)
• ignoreRobotsText (optional): Override robots.txt for this request

Returns:

• Detailed property information including:
  • Location details with coordinates
  • Amenities and facilities
  • House rules and policies
  • Property highlights and descriptions
  • Direct link to the listing

Technical Details

Architecture

• Runtime: Node.js 18+
• Protocol: Model Context Protocol (MCP) via stdio transport
• Format: MCP Bundle (MCPB) v0.3
• Dependencies: Minimal external dependencies for security and reliability

External Services

In addition to airbnb.com, the server makes geocoding requests to two third-party services to translate location queries into accurate map bounding boxes. This bypasses Airbnb's own server-side geocoder, which produces incorrect results for many non-US queries (e.g. "Paris, France" lands in Vendée; "Copenhagen, Denmark" lands in Wisconsin).

Service	Endpoint	Used for	Notes
Photon	photon.komoot.io	Primary geocoder, called on every search without placeId	Free OSM-based service hosted by Komoot. One request per search.
Nominatim	nominatim.openstreetmap.org	Fallback geocoder, called only when Photon does not return a bounding box	Subject to the OSMF usage policy (max ~1 req/sec).

Each search sends only the location string from the request to the geocoder — no other request fields, no IP geolocation, no tracking identifiers. The location string itself is, of course, the same string the user typed.

Opting out: there are two ways to skip the geocoders:

• Per-request: supply an explicit placeId. When placeId is present, the server uses Airbnb's own place lookup directly with no third-party calls.
• Globally: set the environment variable DISABLE_GEOCODING=true. The server will skip Photon/Nominatim entirely and pass the raw location string to Airbnb. This restores the pre-PR behavior for every search and guarantees zero third-party outbound traffic — at the cost of broken results for non-US locations that Airbnb's own geocoder mishandles. Defaults to false.

If a geocoder is unreachable or returns no result, the server falls back to sending the location string to Airbnb directly, exactly as it did before — so the worst case for an outage is that international searches degrade to the previous (broken) behavior, not that the search fails entirely.

Error Handling

• Comprehensive error logging with timestamps
• Graceful degradation when Airbnb's page structure changes
• Timeout protection for network requests
• Detailed error messages for troubleshooting

Security Measures

• Robots.txt compliance by default
• Request timeout limits
• Input validation and sanitization
• Secure environment variable handling
• No sensitive data storage

Performance

• Efficient HTML parsing with Cheerio
• Request caching where appropriate
• Minimal memory footprint
• Fast startup and response times

Compatibility

• Platforms: macOS, Windows, Linux
• Node.js: 18.0.0 or higher
• Claude Desktop: 0.10.0 or higher
• Other MCP clients: Compatible with any MCP-supporting application

Development

Building from Source

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the project
npm run build

# Watch for changes during development
npm run watch

Testing

The extension can be tested by running the MCP server directly:

# Run with robots.txt compliance (default)
node dist/index.js

# Run with robots.txt ignored (for testing)
node dist/index.js --ignore-robots-txt

Legal and Ethical Considerations

• Respect Airbnb's Terms of Service: This extension is for legitimate research and booking assistance
• Robots.txt Compliance: The extension respects robots.txt by default
• Rate Limiting: Be mindful of request frequency to avoid overwhelming Airbnb's servers
• Data Usage: Only extract publicly available information for legitimate purposes

Support

• Issues: Report bugs and feature requests on GitHub Issues
• Documentation: Additional documentation available in the repository
• Community: Join discussions about MCP and MCPB development

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read the contributing guidelines and submit pull requests for any improvements.

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Note: This extension is not affiliated with Airbnb, Inc. It is an independent tool designed to help users search and analyze publicly available Airbnb listings.