The Importance of Live Availability

Hello from Nomad Stays 👋

As the founder of Nomad Stays, I spend a lot of time watching how travellers discover and book places to stay. In the nomad market especially, things move quickly. What worked last year can feel outdated only a few months later.

The biggest shift we are seeing right now is not a new booking website or advertising channel. It is who (or what) is doing the searching.

We are already in the age of AI agents

Some days surprise even us. As of January 2026, Nomad Stays has received up to 33,000 visits from AI agents in a single day, compared with around 2,000 visits from human visitors.

An AI agent is simply a computer program working on behalf of a traveller. You can think of it as a very fast digital assistant that never sleeps. A traveller might say:

“Find me a furnished apartment in Lisbon for June with a kitchen and good Wi‑Fi.”

The agent then goes off and does the searching, comparing, and shortlisting.

These agents care deeply about detail and accuracy. And when they move towards a booking, they expect one thing above all else: correct, up‑to‑date availability.

If availability is missing or unclear, many agents simply move on.

Why availability matters so much for agent‑driven bookings

When a booking is initiated by an AI agent, there is no back‑and‑forth phone call. No waiting for an email reply. No “let me check and get back to you.”

Agents make decisions in seconds. If they cannot clearly see whether your Stay is available for the requested dates, your property is very likely skipped, even if it would have been a perfect fit for the guest.

The message is simple but important:

Without live availability, your site and your business are likely to be overlooked.

How an AI agent looks for availability information

AI agents follow a kind of priority list when they search for information. They always start with the easiest and most reliable sources first.

First stop: AI‑friendly servers

AI agents prefer to read information from servers that are designed especially for them. The newest and most talked‑about of these is called an MCP server.

You can think of an MCP server as a small, specialised helper whose job is to answer very specific questions clearly and quickly, such as:

• Is this Stay available on these dates?
• How many rooms are free?
• What is the price for a two‑week stay?

First fallback: schema.org

If no MCP server is available, agents often fall back to something called schema.org.

Schema.org is a shared “label system” for websites. It allows a site to clearly mark information like price, location, and availability in a way computers can easily understand.

This technology is around 25 years old and has often been overlooked by web designers. Humans do not see it directly, but AI agents love it because it is structured, consistent, and predictable.

Tip: If you are curious about your own website, you can do a simple check. Right‑click on a page and choose “View Page Source.” This shows your site as a computer sees it. Then use your browser’s Find feature and search for “schema.org” to see whether it is present.

Last resort: reading your web pages

If neither of the above options works, an agent may try to read your website like a human would, looking for words such as “availability,” “calendar,” or “book now.”

Today, this is often too much work for an agent. It requires more time and more computing power. Many agents will simply give up and move on to another property or website.

The good news for Nomad Stays hosts

Here is the reassuring part.

Nomad Stays has already done much of this work for you.

• Live availability is built into our system for your Stay
• We rolled out our first MCP server in May 2025
• Even if your own website is not yet ready for today’s AI agents, Nomad Stays is

This means AI agents can clearly understand and accurately present your availability when they search through our platform.

With this comes responsibility

The shift to AI‑driven bookings also changes expectations.

• The days of someone calling to “just check availability” are fading fast
• No AI agent wants to wait hours or days for a reply
• The only workable answer is live availability shared with platforms like Nomad Stays

Accuracy really matters. An agent that finds incorrect availability is unlikely to come back a second time.

The easiest ways to keep availability live

You do not need to be technical to get this right. Here are the most practical options we see working well for hosts.

iCal – the simplest option for small operators

iCal remains the easiest method for many hosts.

• You manage availability in one main calendar that supports iCal. Many hosts use their Booking.com or Airbnb calendar as their main source
• You share that main calendar with your website and portals like Nomad Stays
• Nomad Stays checks your iCal regularly (hourly in our case)
• We update our calendar based on your latest information
• If you receive a booking outside your main calendar, simply add it there, just like a walk‑in guest

You stay in control in one place, and everyone else stays in sync.

Channel managers and APIs

For the past decade, many operators have used channel managers connected to booking sites via custom connections called APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).

This still works, but the landscape is changing.

• Custom APIs are gradually being replaced by shared standards
• MCP servers provide a common language for computers to talk to each other
• Fewer companies are building new custom API connections for external partners today, even though they are still widely used inside their own systems

The good news is that most channel managers already support iCal, which works well with modern platforms like Nomad Stays.

If your channel manager does not yet support MCP servers, it may limit how easily new AI agents can access your availability.

Make sure your website uses schema.org

If you have your own website, ask your developer about schema.org, especially the lodging business category.

• Adding basic schema tags is usually straightforward
• The harder part is feeding them accurate, live availability
• Without an availability system, there is nothing reliable to share

Even small improvements here can make a noticeable difference with AI agents.

Build your own MCP server

This is a more advanced option, but it is becoming increasingly popular.

MCP servers are surprisingly small and affordable, which is one of the reasons they took off in 2025.

A typical MCP server might answer questions like:

• How many rooms are available on specific dates?
• What room types does your Stay offer?
• Does each room have a kitchen?
• What is the price for two weeks starting June 1?

Your MCP server simply draws this information from your existing systems and makes it easy for AI agents to ask and receive clear, accurate answers.

Platforms like Nomad Stays often store this information so we can respond faster to travellers. Nobody enjoys delays caused by a chain of systems where one slow or unavailable link holds everything up.

Rent an MCP server instead

You do not have to build one yourself.

Some businesses choose to rent an MCP server that is built and hosted for them. While this is still relatively new and not yet widely offered, it is becoming more common.

If this is of interest, please contact us at Nomad Stays. We already store much of your information and expose it through our own MCP server tools, which puts us in a strong position to help.

What about AI bookings?

This is a question we hear often, and it is a fair one.

Right now, in January 2026, the travel industry is seeing a lot of AI agent searching, but relatively little AI agent booking. This is especially true for higher‑value stays, such as a full month of accommodation.

At the moment, most travellers are still experimenting with AI agents. They are using them primarily as a powerful research tool. Agents help narrow down options, compare prices, check amenities, and save a huge amount of time. Once travellers feel confident in their choice, they usually complete the booking in the traditional way, by visiting a website and booking directly.

That hesitation is understandable. There is not yet enough trust for most people to hand full control of their credit cards to an AI agent. Over time, this will change, but we are not fully there yet.

What is happening today is just as important. AI agents are already influencing which properties make it onto a traveller’s shortlist. If your availability is clear and accurate, your Stay is far more likely to be included in those comparisons. If it is not, you may never be seen, even if the final booking happens elsewhere.

In short, AI agents are already shaping demand, even before they handle the payment.

Final thought

Live availability is no longer just a convenience. It is how modern discovery works.

AI agents are already doing much of the searching, comparing, and filtering. Properties that share clear, accurate availability are visible. Those that do not are often invisible.

Keeping your availability live with Nomad Stays helps ensure your Stay remains easy to find, easy to trust, and easy to book, both today and as the industry continues to evolve.

As always, we are here to help.

Mark