Dev.to AI 🤖 Ai Thu, 15 Oct 2026 18:27:53 +0000 👁 0 📖 3 min read

Add Google Hotels to Claude Desktop as an MCP server (2-minute setup)

If you use Claude Desktop or Claude Code, you can ask Claude in plain English to find and compare hotels for a trip. Prices are live from Google Hotels, with the rate every booking site is charging (Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda, Hotels.com, Vrbo, …), and the answer comes back as structured JSON that Claude turns into a short recommendation.

The glue is a small open-source MCP server I built: huynhtanan/google-hotels-mcp. This post is a 2-minute install plus one real example.

Disclosure: the server calls three paid Apify actors I wrote. The Apify Free plan ships $5 of credit per month — about 60 full-city searches — before you need to upgrade. No card required to sign up.

1. Get an Apify token

2. Add the MCP server to Claude Desktop

Open claude_desktop_config.json (Settings → Developer → Edit Config) and add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-hotels": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "git+https://github.com/huynhtanan/google-hotels-mcp.git",
        "google-hotels-mcp"
      ],
      "env": { "APIFY_TOKEN": "apify_api_..." }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. In the slash-command menu you'll now see three tools: search_hotels, hotel_price_calendar, search_vacation_rentals.

If you prefer Claude Code, one line does it:

claude mcp add google-hotels -- uvx --from git+https://github.com/huynhtanan/google-hotels-mcp.git google-hotels-mcp

(then set APIFY_TOKEN as an env var).

3. Ask Claude a real question

"Find hotels in Lisbon from 2026-11-10 to 2026-11-13, two adults, EUR, best value under €120 per night."

Claude calls search_hotels and gets 40 live results. Below are the top 3 cheapest with the live rating from Google (one of 40 items returned, trimmed for the post — the raw JSON is 100 lines):

Patio São Vicente Guest Houses   €109/night   4.9★ (349 reviews)   4-star hotel
Home - Lisbon Hostel             €73/night    4.8★ (2,370 reviews) 2-star hotel
Magnolia Guesthouse, Lisbon      €71/night    4.7★ (139 reviews)   —

Here is the actual tool response for one item (lightly trimmed):

{
  "name": "Patio São Vicente Guest Houses",
  "rating": 4.9,
  "reviewsCount": 349,
  "ratingDistribution": {"3": 3, "4": 16, "5": 330},
  "hotelClassText": "4-star hotel",
  "pricePerNight": 109,
  "pricePerNightText": "€109",
  "totalPrice": 372.1,
  "totalBeforeTaxes": 328.48,
  "currency": "EUR",
  "checkIn": "2026-11-10",
  "checkOut": "2026-11-13",
  "nights": 3,
  "checkInTime": "3:00 PM",
  "checkOutTime": "11:00 AM",
  "latitude": 38.7155846,
  "longitude": -9.1280593,
  "nearbyPlaces": [
    {"name": "National Pantheon", "travelTime": "6 min"},
    {"name": "Voz Operário",      "travelTime": "2 min"}
  ],
  "reviewTopics": [
    {"topic": "Location", "mentions": 88, "positive": 84, "positiveShare": 0.977}
  ],
  "website": "https://www.patiosaovicente.com/",
  "googleHotelsUrl": "https://www.google.com/travel/hotels/entity/..."
}

So Claude sees not just the price, but the rating distribution (how many 5-star reviews, how many 1-star), the review topics with sentiment, nearby places with walking time, direct website and Google Hotels URL. That is enough context to actually recommend a hotel instead of just listing names.

Two more prompts that are useful

Daily price calendar for one property. The hotel_price_calendar tool returns one row per date for ~3 months, so you can ask:

"Give me a 3-month price calendar for this Hoxton Paris URL and show the 7 cheapest dates."

Each row is { "date": "2026-12-14", "price": 189, "currency": "EUR", "available": true }.

Vacation rentals, Airbnb vs Vrbo. The search_vacation_rentals tool hits Google's rentals page:

"Compare 3-bedroom vacation rentals in Lisbon for 2026-11-15 to 2026-11-22, 4 guests, show the Airbnb rate and the Vrbo rate side-by-side."

With include_provider_prices=true, each rental comes back with a providers array containing the price Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com and the other 15+ OTAs are each quoting.

Pricing

Pay-as-you-go on the Apify Free plan.

Call	Cost
1 hotel in `search_hotels`	$0.002
1 hotel with per-OTA rates	$0.004
1 date in `hotel_price_calendar`	$0.0015
1 vacation rental	$0.002

A full-city search with 20 hotels and per-OTA rates is about $0.08. The $5 free monthly credit covers about 60 of those.

How it compares

A hosted MCP by HasData exists for Google Hotels. The difference:

	huynhtanan/google-hotels-mcp	HasData hosted MCP
Open source	✅ MIT	❌
Tools	3 (hotels, calendar, rentals)	1 (hotels)
Daily price calendar	✅	❌
Vacation rentals	✅ Airbnb + Vrbo + Booking.com	❌
Per-provider rates	✅ 15+ OTAs	✅
Install	`uvx` or `pip` + Apify token	hosted, their key

If you only need a one-off hotel search, HasData is fine. If you want calendars, rentals, or you want to see the raw actor code, go with this one.