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expedia.com

compare-travel-options

Installation

Adds this website's skill for your agents

 

Summary

Search and compare Expedia travel inventory (hotels, Vrbo rentals, flights, cars, packages, activities) across dates, prices, ratings, fees, cancellation, and loyalty pricing, then build a shortlist. Read-only shopping — never books without explicit confirmation.

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SKILL.md
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Compare Travel Options on Expedia

Purpose

Shop and compare travel inventory on Expedia the way a traveler would by hand — search Stays (hotels and Vrbo vacation rentals), Flights, Cars, Packages, and Things to do; apply filters (price, dates, ratings, stops, amenities, cancellation, baggage); read each option's price, rating, fees, refundability, and loyalty/member pricing; then summarize tradeoffs and build a shortlist. Read-only and shopping-only: open and compare options, but never advance past a results/detail page into checkout or place a booking without explicit user confirmation. All dynamic results render in the browser from a single internal GraphQL endpoint; there is no usable public API, so a real (stealthed) browser session is the working surface.

When to Use

  • "Find me a romantic weekend stay near Seattle under $350/night" → Stays search + price/rating filters + shortlist.
  • "Compare hotel vs Vrbo for this trip" → a single Stays search returns both; filter by Vacation rentals / Hotels property type.
  • "Does changing my dates save money?" → re-run the same search across candidate date ranges and diff the totals (flights expose a flexible-date price strip directly).
  • "Find the best flight with a carry-on/checked bag and a reasonable layover" → Flights search + the Carry-on bag included / fare-feature filters + Stops/Layover filters.
  • "Build me a full itinerary from Expedia options" → run Stays + Flights (+ Cars/Activities) searches and assemble a combined summary.

Workflow

Recommended method: browser (stealth + residential proxy). Every result list (hotels, flights, cars, activities) is hydrated client-side by POSTs to a single internal endpoint https://www.expedia.com/graphql (persisted queries, behind Akamai Bot Manager). There is no documented or cookieless-usable public API — treat GraphQL as internal-only and drive the rendered pages. Deep-link search URLs are the fast path: most search state (destination, dates, occupancy, sort, and price band) is controllable from the URL, so you rarely need to operate the search form.

1. Stealth + residential-proxy session

sid=$(browse cloud sessions create --keep-alive --proxies --verified \
  | node -e "let s='';process.stdin.on('data',c=>s+=c).on('end',()=>process.stdout.write(JSON.parse(s).id))")

--verified --proxies is the configuration that loaded every search page cleanly during testing. Expedia sets Akamai Bot Manager cookies (ak_bmsc, bm_ss, bm_so) on every response and guards the search-results routes; a bare datacenter session is liable to Akamai challenges. A US residential proxy also fixes IP-geolocation (currency/market) for the result set.

2. Stays (hotels + Vrbo) — deep-link search

https://www.expedia.com/Hotel-Search
  ?destination=<URL-encoded "City, State, Country">
  &regionId=<market id>          # optional but locks the market; e.g. Seattle = 3121
  &startDate=YYYY-MM-DD
  &endDate=YYYY-MM-DD
  &adults=2&rooms=1              # &children=age,age for kids
  &sort=PRICE_LOW_TO_HIGH        # RECOMMENDED | PRICE_LOW_TO_HIGH | REVIEW | DISTANCE | PROPERTY_CLASS
  &price=0,350                   # min,max — see gotcha: this is TOTAL stay price, not per-night

Open it, then dismiss the fee-inclusive interstitial that auto-opens (pwaDialog=fee-inclusive-pricing-sheet) by clicking the Got it button before reading anything.

export BROWSE_SESSION="$sid"
browse open "<hotel-search-url>" --remote
browse click "@<ref-of-Got-it-button>" --remote   # close the "We include taxes and fees" dialog

3. Force the full result list to load, then extract

The result list is lazy/virtualized — only ~3 main cards exist in the DOM right after load. Scroll to hydrate the rest, then read the rendered text:

for i in 1 2 3 4; do browse eval "window.scrollBy(0,2200)" --remote; sleep 1.2; done
browse get markdown body --remote   # then parse

Parse the main list (not the promoted carousels — see gotcha). Each property card carries: name, guest rating (9.4 out of 10 + review count), $NNN nightly, $NNN total, an optional struck-through "was" price, refundability (Fully refundable), Reserve now, pay later, and badges (VIP Access, Member Prices). The detail link is /{City}-Hotels-{Name}.h{HOTELID}.Hotel-Information?... — h{HOTELID} is the stable property id.

4. Flights — deep-link search

https://www.expedia.com/Flights-Search
  ?leg1=from:City%20(SEA),to:City%20(JFK),departure:MM/DD/YYYYTANYT
  &leg2=from:City%20(JFK),to:City%20(SEA),departure:MM/DD/YYYYTANYT
  &passengers=adults:1
  &trip=roundtrip                 # oneway | roundtrip
  &mode=search

Results render progressively (wait ~5s after load). Each option shows airline, depart/arrive times, total duration, stop count, and the roundtrip total price. The left rail exposes filters that map directly to common asks: Stops (Nonstop / 1 Stop / 2+ Stops), Airlines, cabin class (Basic economy / Economy / Premium / Business / First), fare features (Carry-on bag included, Refundable fare, Changes included, Seat choice included), Layover airport, and a total-travel-time slider. A price-prediction widget and a 7-day flexible-date price strip (e.g. Fri, Jun 12 $416) are rendered inline — use the strip to answer "would different dates be cheaper?" without re-searching.

5. Other verticals (same pattern)

Navigate from the top nav (Stays → /Hotels, Flights → /Flights, Cars → /Cars, Packages → /Vacation-Packages, Things to do → /Activities, Cruises → /Cruises) or deep-link the search route (/carsearch, /things-to-do/search). All are JS-rendered lists that follow the same load → scroll → read-markdown extraction pattern.

6. Compare & shortlist, then stop

Aggregate the extracted options into a comparison (price, rating, refundability, fees, location/stops, loyalty pricing), surface tradeoffs, and return a shortlist with detail URLs. Do not click Reserve / Select / Continue into checkout unless the user explicitly confirms a booking — that is a separate, write-action skill.

browse cloud sessions update "$sid" --status REQUEST_RELEASE

Site-Specific Gotchas

  • Stealth + residential proxy recommended. Akamai Bot Manager is active on every route (ak_bmsc / bm_ss / bm_so cookies, X-Akamai-Reference-Id header). --verified --proxies loaded all search pages cleanly in testing with no challenge. The host pre-run probe reported "no antibots" on the homepage 301, but that only reflects the bare homepage — the value-bearing /Hotel-Search and /Flights-Search routes are the guarded ones, so do not start bare.
  • The price filter is TOTAL stay price, not per-night. The price=MIN,MAX URL param (which Expedia rewrites to price=MIN&price=MAX) drives the slider labeled "Total price". So price=0,350 on a 2-night stay means total ≤ $350 (≈ ≤ $175/night), and the filter chip reads "Less than $350". For a "under $X per night" request, multiply by the number of nights before setting the cap, or read the per-night value off each card and filter client-side.
  • Cards show both nightly and total prices. Each card renders $NNN nightly and $NNN total; don't conflate them. Expedia displays taxes-and-fees-included pricing by default (the reason for the "We include taxes and fees" interstitial).
  • A fee-inclusive interstitial dialog auto-opens on first results load (pwaDialog=fee-inclusive-pricing-sheet). It covers the results — dismiss the Got it button before snapshotting/reading or you'll capture the dialog instead of the list (screenshot 01 shows this state).
  • Results are lazy/virtualized. Only ~3 main cards are in the DOM immediately after load; a single get markdown body then will undercount drastically (saw 3 of 15). Scroll several times (window.scrollBy) to hydrate, then extract — yielded the full list (3 → 23 cards) after ~4 scrolls.
  • Promoted carousels pollute naive extraction. A horizontally-scrolling VIP Access properties (N) carousel and sponsored modules appear above/within the results and carry their own prices/ratings. A naive "grab every $NNN nightly" pulls these in and corrupts sort/order assumptions. Scope extraction to the main list, which begins after the ## Search results heading; main cards are titled ### Photo gallery for {name}.
  • Vrbo / vacation rentals are mixed into Stays results. /Hotel-Search returns hotels and Vrbo rentals (treehouses, cabins, guest houses, glamping) interleaved — convenient for "hotel vs Vrbo" comparisons. Use the Property type filter (Hotels vs Vacation rentals) to separate them.
  • regionId locks the market; plain destination text also works. Hotel detail links expose the resolved regionId (Seattle market = 3121, destType=MARKET), neighborhoodId, and latLong. Passing regionId avoids any typeahead-resolution ambiguity. To discover an unknown region, type the city into the Where to? typeahead and read the resolved link, or inspect a returned detail URL.
  • The GraphQL endpoint is internal — don't try to call it directly. All result data comes from POSTs to https://www.expedia.com/graphql (persisted-query hashes, client headers, valid Akamai/bm_* cookies, behind Bot Manager) plus telemetry to /api/uisprime/track. There is no public/documented API and no cookieless path; the rendered pages are the reliable surface. Treat it like OpenTable's GraphQL — a trap, not a shortcut.
  • robots.txt disallows the search routes for generic bots (/Hotel-Search, /search?, /Flights-Search, /carsearch, /things-to-do/search?, /api/v4/typeahead/, /api/ucs/shortlist/). This is policy, not a hard server block — a real stealthed browser session still renders them — but it confirms there's no bot-friendly data feed.
  • Member Prices / One Key loyalty require sign-in. Logged-out sessions see public rates plus "Sign in to unlock Member Prices" prompts; the discounted member rate is only realized after authentication. Report public pricing unless the user supplies credentials. Flights/Stays also surface "VIP Access" and bundle-savings ("save when you book stay + car") badges that are conditional.
  • Flight prices are roundtrip totals (for trip=roundtrip), and the inline flexible-date strip already prices ±a few days — read it instead of re-searching to answer date-flexibility questions.
  • READ-ONLY shopping. Stop at results/detail. Never click Reserve, Select, Continue, or reach /Checkout, /HotelCheckout, /FlightCheckout, or /MultiItemCheckout.

Expected Output

A shortlist/comparison object per vertical. Distinct shapes:

// Stays (hotels + Vrbo), filtered & sorted
{
  "vertical": "stays",
  "query": { "destination": "Seattle, Washington, United States of America", "regionId": "3121",
             "startDate": "2026-06-12", "endDate": "2026-06-14", "adults": 2, "rooms": 1,
             "sort": "PRICE_LOW_TO_HIGH", "priceFilter": { "type": "total_stay", "min": 0, "max": 350 } },
  "totalMatches": 15,
  "results": [
    {
      "name": "Ace Hotel Seattle",
      "propertyType": "hotel",
      "hotelId": "h2330513",
      "rating": 9.0,
      "reviewCount": 1007,
      "nightly": 156,
      "totalStay": 312,
      "currency": "USD",
      "taxesFeesIncluded": true,
      "refundable": true,
      "reserveNowPayLater": true,
      "badges": ["Member Prices"],
      "detailUrl": "https://www.expedia.com/Seattle-Hotels-Ace-Hotel-Seattle.h2330513.Hotel-Information?chkin=2026-06-12&chkout=2026-06-14&adults=2"
    }
  ]
}

// Vrbo / vacation rental within the same Stays search
{ "name": "Alki Beach Courtyard Cabin", "propertyType": "vacation_rental",
  "rating": 9.8, "reviewCount": 12, "nightly": 189, "totalStay": 378, "currency": "USD",
  "refundable": false, "detailUrl": "https://www.expedia.com/...h*.Hotel-Information?..." }

// Flights, roundtrip
{
  "vertical": "flights",
  "query": { "origin": "SEA", "destination": "JFK", "depart": "2026-06-12", "return": "2026-06-15",
             "trip": "roundtrip", "adults": 1, "cabin": "ECONOMY" },
  "lowestPrice": 477,
  "currency": "USD",
  "stopCounts": { "nonstop": 9, "oneStop": 73, "twoPlus": 42 },
  "results": [
    { "airline": "American Airlines", "depart": "09:25 AM", "arrive": "05:55 PM",
      "duration": "5h 30m", "stops": 0, "priceRoundtrip": 537,
      "fareFeatures": ["Carry-on bag included"] }
  ],
  "flexibleDates": [ { "date": "2026-06-12", "price": 416 }, { "date": "2026-06-13", "price": 467 } ]
}

// Comparison / itinerary roll-up across verticals
{
  "vertical": "comparison",
  "summary": "Cheapest sub-$350-total Seattle stay is the Green Tortoise Hostel ($73/nt); best value hotel is Ace Hotel Seattle (9.0, $156/nt, refundable). Cheapest reasonable SEA-JFK roundtrip is a nonstop at $477.",
  "shortlist": [ { "vertical": "stays", "name": "Ace Hotel Seattle", "tradeoff": "Best rating-to-price; refundable" },
                 { "vertical": "flights", "name": "American 09:25-17:55 nonstop", "tradeoff": "$537, carry-on included, 5h30m" } ]
}