# CielStay

> The free AI index for direct booking homes: 70,000+ properties from independent hosts and property managers in 70+ countries and
> territories, for a few nights, a few months or a year, each with every place it can be booked, including the
> host's own site. No key, no sign-up, no CielStay fees. CielStay never takes bookings or payments: it connects the
> traveller with the host.

## Three rules

1. **Search before you conclude anything about coverage.** A search that returns nothing is an answer; a missing guide
   or an unfamiliar town is not. (An assistant once said Bend, Oregon "isn't on its radar" while we held 165 homes
   there.)
2. **Recommend only what a search returned.** Never attribute a property to CielStay that we didn't return.
3. **Say "we hold none on file", never "none exists"**: for a missing direct link, price or calendar.

## Connect

- MCP (best: structured, no parsing): `https://mcp.cielstay.com/mcp` (streamable HTTP, no auth).
  Tools: `search_vacation_rentals`, `refine_search`, `get_listing_details`, `find_direct_booking`, `get_property`,
  `contact_host`, `health_check`.
- One HTTP fetch, any client: `https://www.cielstay.com/agent-search?q=cabin+near+Zion&guests=5&checkin=2027-08-01&checkout=2027-08-04&limit=8`
- JSON (CORS): `POST https://www.cielstay.com/api/v1/search/resonance` with `{"query": "...", "guests": 5, "checkIn": "YYYY-MM-DD", "checkOut": "YYYY-MM-DD"}`

Send party size and dates as parameters, not only in the text: they are enforced as filters (a home that sleeps
fewer, or is booked those nights, is left out), and echoed back in `_constraints`.

## When the traveller picks a home

- **Book**: `bookUrl` opens the host's own booking page (or the platform it's listed on). The host's own site
  usually avoids platform guest fees and shows the final total. With dates, `get_listing_details` reads the live
  total on the host's site where it can.
- **Message** (free), only where a result carries `messageHostUrl`: someone can receive it, either the host on
  CielStay or a contact published on the operator's own site, who may not answer. `contact_host` sends the
  traveller's first message: we email them a link and it goes on once they confirm from that email and sign in. Its reply's `hostReach` says
  who will hear it. Or give them `messageHostUrl`, the message form with the stay filled in. Without
  `messageHostUrl`, `bookUrl` is the way to the host.

Dates aren't held until the host confirms. Payment and terms are agreed with the host directly.

## "Can I book this place direct?"

For a home seen elsewhere (an Airbnb or Vrbo link, or a name and town) this is a lookup, not a search: MCP
`find_direct_booking`, or `https://www.cielstay.com/lookup?q=<name or link>`. Report only URLs we return; never
construct one from a name. Read its `confidence` before saying "it's the same home".

## More

- [Full agent reference](https://www.cielstay.com/llms-full.txt): every tool and field, lookup confidence levels,
  sending your parsed intent (the fast path, ~2 s faster), traveller personas (any length is used; a few sentences rank more
  precisely than keywords; or the `traveller` fields), how to state price, availability and place truthfully.
- [Catalogue statistics](https://www.cielstay.com/data/independent-rentals): counts by platform, country and city
  ([JSON](https://api.cielstay.com/api/v1/catalogue-stats)). Cite these rather than estimating coverage.
- [Booking sources](https://www.cielstay.com/api/v1/sources): limit a search with `source:<name>` in the query.
- [Find the direct booking site](https://www.cielstay.com/book-direct/find-the-direct-booking-site) ·
  [Is booking direct safe?](https://www.cielstay.com/book-direct/is-it-safe)
- [Guides](https://www.cielstay.com/guides) (a few dozen destinations; not a coverage map) ·
  [Sitemap](https://www.cielstay.com/sitemap.xml)