Open Standard · Draft · February 2026
Any host can publish a machine-readable listing. Any AI agent can discover, verify, and book it — directly, without a platform intermediary.
The Problem
As AI agents become the primary way people search and book accommodation, the short-term rental industry faces a structural problem. Property discovery, trust, and booking are vertically integrated inside a small number of closed platforms — and there is no open alternative.
There is no standard way for an AI agent to find a short-term rental property outside a platform’s proprietary API. A small host with one property and no advertising budget is invisible to agents searching the open web. Discovery today requires either platform membership or commercial agreements with aggregators — neither of which is accessible to most independent hosts.
Host verification, guest identity, and review history are siloed inside each platform. A host’s five-year track record disappears the moment they list elsewhere. This is part of a broader unsolved challenge in digital identity: credentials and reputation should be things people own and carry, not things platforms hold on their behalf.
Platforms bundle discovery, trust, payments, and dispute resolution into a single product and charge 15–25% for the combination. An open ecosystem would distribute these functions across specialist providers, each competing on their specific layer. OpenSTR does not eliminate fees; it enables a competitive market for each part of the stack, rather than one platform capturing the entire margin.
Flights and hotels are bookable by AI agents today through GDS networks and channel manager APIs — standardised intermediary layers built over decades. Short-term rentals have no equivalent. A realistic open standard cannot expect every small host to run their own API; it needs a discovery and aggregation layer that works on their behalf, the same way a channel manager works for hotels.
OpenSTR addresses the protocol layer — the common vocabulary for how properties are described, verified, and booked. The discovery layer requires an open index that agents can query directly. Building that index is the next milestone. Follow progress on GitHub →
The Protocol
A host implementing OpenSTR publishes three endpoints on their own domain. Any compliant agent can discover, verify, and book the property directly.
GET /.well-known/openstr.jsonA machine-readable property listing: classification, capacity, pricing rules, policies, safety disclosures, and host identity credential. Publicly accessible. No API key required.
POST /openstr/availabilityThe agent queries for specific dates. The host system resolves dynamic pricing and minimum stay rules and returns authoritative pricing — including all fees and applicable discounts — with a signed quote.
POST /openstr/bookingThe agent submits a booking request with a verifiable guest identity credential and a payment token. The host system validates both, confirms the booking, and returns the exact address and access instructions.
Both parties carry W3C Verifiable Credentials issued by recognised third-party providers. The host proves identity and right-to-let. The guest proves identity at the required verification level. Neither party is trusted by default.
Who Is This For
For developers & AI builders
OpenSTR gives your agent a standardised interface to discover properties, check availability, validate host credentials, and confirm bookings — without integrating with any platform's proprietary API.
For hosts, operators & proptech
The short-term rental market is shifting. As guests delegate travel planning to AI agents, properties that aren't machine-readable will become invisible. OpenSTR is how you get found.
Specification Status
All four core RFCs are drafted and available on GitHub. The specification is in early draft — feedback from implementers and the industry is actively sought. A fifth RFC covering the documentation layer is in pre-draft.
OpenSTR is in active development. Sign up to receive updates on new RFCs, version releases, the launch of the HostCredential certification scheme, and opportunities to contribute.
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