Booking.com Vacation Stays Skill Pack Files

Booking.com Vacation Stays

Global accommodation booking platform. The session touched only the search results page and a single vacation-home detail page, with focus on a vacation-home-only filter. Hotels, apartments, hostels, B&Bs, the room-options modal, multi-room booking, reviews tab, host messaging, and the user account are all not covered.

Browser Access

No login required for browsing search results or opening detail pages. Booking shows aggressive anti-bot challenges (chal_t query param appears in URL after challenge). Member prices ("Genius") require login. Currency selector affects displayed prices.

Known Surface Map

URL pattern	Purpose	Confidence
/searchresults.html?ss=<destination>&checkin=...&checkout=...&group_adults=...&group_children=...&age=N&age=N	Search results	high
/hotel/<country>/<slug>.html	Property detail page (also used for vacation homes)	medium
/?...	Homepage with global search	none — not exercised

Country segment in detail URLs uses 2-letter codes — /hotel/de/... for Germany.

Confirmed URL Filter Parameters

Parameter	Effect	Notes
ss=<text>	Free-text destination	Use + for spaces
checkin=YYYY-MM-DD / checkout=YYYY-MM-DD	Dates
group_adults=N	Adult count
group_children=N	Children count
age=N (repeated)	One per child, with their age	E.g. &age=8&age=10&age=12 for three children
nflt=ht_id%3D220%3Bdistance_to_water%3D2	Multi-filter — pipe-encoded	ht_id=220 = Vacation Home property type; distance_to_water=2 = within ~2 km of water
chal_t=<n> / force_referer=	Anti-bot challenge tokens — appended automatically

Known property-type IDs (ht_id) observed by name: 220 = Vacation Home. Other type IDs not enumerated.

distance_to_water=N — observed values 1 and 2; implied unit is km. Larger values not tested.

Listing Card / Results Page

Element	Selector	Notes
Property card container	[data-testid="property-card"]	Stable test ID
Title	[data-testid="title"]	Property name
Price	[data-testid="price-and-discounted-price"]	Often "€ N,NNN" formatted
Distance / location	Inside the card text — e.g. "20.5 km from Bad Saarow"	No dedicated test ID confirmed
Property link	child <a> of the card	URL contains &hapos=, &srpvid=, etc. for tracking
Result count	top of page text — 8\nProperties (English)	Sometimes "no properties found" header is displayed even when results exist below

Detail Page — Known Fields

Captured for one Vacation Home (exklusive-seevilla-berlin-direkt-a.html):

Field	Where	Notes
Title	h1 / h2 near top	E.g. "Exklusive Seevilla Berlin direkt am Zeuthener See (Vacation Home) (Germany) Deals"
Address	After "Show map" link in body	E.g. "Moßkopfring 31, Treptow-Köpenick, 12527 Berlin, Germany"
Capacity / size	"200 m² size", "Max adults: 6" lines
Sleeping	"Bedroom 1: 1 queen bed" lines per bedroom
Amenities list	"Most popular facilities", "Property highlights"
Price	"Includes taxes and fees" total per dates
Review count	"No reviews yet" or "Scored X.X N reviews" near top	Booking review scale is /10

Known Domain Knowledge

• Property categories visible in vacation-home tab: Vacation Home, House, Apartment, Two-Bedroom House, Three-Bedroom House, Five-Bedroom House, Hotel (when not filtered out).
• Booking shows quality rating ("Awarded by Booking.com") for home-style properties, separate from review scores.
• "Limited supply" warning on detail pages ("16 vacation homes like this are already unavailable on our site") indicates demand pressure.
• Free cancellation and Non-refundable flags are surfaced per rate plan.
• Review scale: 0–10 with band labels (Excellent ≥9.0, Very Good ≥8.0, Good ≥7.0, Pleasant ≥6.0).

Known Gotchas

• Anti-bot challenge can append chal_t to URLs. Hard-coded URLs without challenge token still loaded results in this session, but expect intermittent CAPTCHAs.
• "No properties found" headline can render alongside actual cards when the destination is too narrow or the filter combination is uncommon. Verify by counting [data-testid="property-card"] rather than reading the header.
• Children require both group_children=N and age=N repeated for each child — without ages the search may silently ignore the children count.
• Pricing varies with party composition — re-quote if guest count or ages change.
• Detail-page URL captured from search results includes long tracking params (aid, label, srpvid, etc.). These can be stripped to the bare /hotel/<country>/<slug>.html for canonical reference, but you may lose the dated price quote.

Unknown / Not Tested

• Login (Genius rates), saved properties, trips, messaging, payment
• Hotel category filters (star rating, breakfast included, free WiFi, etc.)
• Map-based search and zoom interactions
• Multi-room / multi-traveler booking flows
• Property-type ID catalog beyond 220 = Vacation Home
• Sort orders (popularity, price, distance)
• Pagination
• Reviews tab and review filtering
• Mobile site DOM
• Localization beyond DE/EN URL patterns
• Booking confirmation flow
• Cancellation flows