Integration guide

How to get Airbnb API access in 2026 (and how to ship while you wait)

There is no public Airbnb API, no self-serve developer key and no sandbox. Airbnb gives API access only to software partners it invites. This guide explains the three permissions every working integration needs, which access level to ask hosts for, and the four options you really have. It is written for the engineer or founder who has just been asked to “connect Airbnb”.

Is there an Airbnb API?

Yes, but not one you can sign up for. Airbnb runs a partner API: a REST interface for approved software companies, such as property management systems, channel managers and messaging tools, so their customers can run Airbnb listings from outside airbnb.com.

With full authorisation it can read and write:

• listings, content, photos, rooms and amenities
• the calendar: nightly prices, availability, minimum and maximum stay, check-in and check-out rules
• reservations, inquiries, booking requests and alterations
• guest messages, including attachments
• reviews and review replies
• payout transactions

What it is not: an open data API. There is no endpoint for search results, other hosts’ listings or market data. For what each of those areas can and cannot do once you are connected, read The Airbnb API: how access works and what it lets you do.

How do I get an Airbnb API key?

You don’t get a key. You need three permissions, from three different parties, before your first write works.

1. Airbnb approves your company

Airbnb’s partner programme reviews the company, the product category (property management, messaging, pricing) and how you handle security and data. Approval brings an OAuth client scoped to that category.

2. Each host authorises your app

Partner approval only lets you ask. Every host goes through Airbnb’s consent screen, chooses what your app may do, and grants tokens for their account. One host, one authorisation, revocable at any time.

3. Each listing is opened to the API

This is the step that surprises people. Authorising the account does not open the listings under it. Each listing carries its own sync setting:

So “we connected Airbnb but prices are not syncing on three of forty listings” is almost never an auth problem, and sending the host back through OAuth changes nothing. Show this per-listing state in your product from day one.

Which access level should your app ask for?

Hosts don’t grant “Airbnb”. They grant one of three levels, and the one you ask for decides whether the connection can happen at all.

Your four options in 2026

Option 1: wait for Airbnb

If you are building a full PMS with real supply behind it, it is worth being known to Airbnb’s partner team. Just don’t put your roadmap behind it: there is no application, no queue and no timeline.

Option 2: iCal

Every Airbnb listing exports an iCal link. It is free and needs no approval. It also carries only blocked dates: no guest names, no prices, no messages, no reviews, and Airbnb refreshes it on its own schedule. Fine for a personal calendar; not a product.

Option 3: scraping or browser automation

Don’t. It breaks Airbnb’s terms, the host’s account carries the risk, and it fails without warning when the site changes. A host who loses an account over your integration does not come back.

Option 4: integrate through an approved partner

Companies with Airbnb partner access offer it to other software teams through their own API. You call their API, hosts connect on Airbnb’s consent screen through the partner’s integration, and you build your product instead of waiting.

What to check before you pick a partner

• Which access levels you can request. Messaging and read-only matter as soon as your customers already have a PMS.
• Whether it runs next to the host’s PMS. Most channel managers can’t, because they need full access themselves.
• Webhooks. New messages, reservations and changes should reach you in seconds, signed, with retries, not on your next poll.
• Other channels. Your customers are on Booking.com and Vrbo too, and more channels after that.
• Self-serve access. Can you get a live key and connect a real listing today, without a sales call or a certification session?
• Per-listing writability. Does it tell you which listings Airbnb will accept writes for, before you send them?

We compare the main options side by side, with sources, in Repull compared: Channex, Rentals United and NextPax.

How it works with Repull

Repull is option 4: one API for Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo and more channels, plus 14 property management systems. You connect through Repull’s existing Airbnb partner integration, so there is nothing to apply for. Mint a Connect session, send the host to it, and get a connection back:

curl -X POST 'https://api.repull.dev/v1/connect/airbnb' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer sk_live_YOUR_KEY' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "redirectUrl": "https://yourapp.com/connected",
    "accessType": "messaging"
  }'

accessType is full_access, messaging or read_only. Leave it out and the host picks the level on the consent page. The host approves on Airbnb and lands back on your redirectUrl. From then on:

# Guest conversations across every connected account
curl 'https://api.repull.dev/v1/conversations?limit=20' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer sk_live_YOUR_KEY'

# Reply to a guest. The Idempotency-Key makes a retry safe.
curl -X POST 'https://api.repull.dev/v1/conversations/532457/messages' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer sk_live_YOUR_KEY' \
  -H 'Idempotency-Key: reply-532457-1' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{ "message": "Hi Sam, check-in is from 4pm. The door code arrives on the day." }'

Subscribe to reservation.message.received and new guest messages reach your server as signed webhooks, retried with backoff if your endpoint is down. Repull also tells you, per listing, whether Airbnb accepts writes, and refuses a write it knows Airbnb will reject before anything is sent:

curl 'https://api.repull.dev/v1/channels/airbnb/listings' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer sk_live_YOUR_KEY'

# Each listing carries Airbnb's own per-listing decision:
#   "syncCategory": "sync_all" | "sync_rates_and_availability" | "none"
#   "writable": false when syncCategory is "none"

Want Claude or ChatGPT to work with an Airbnb account directly? The Airbnb MCP server connects them through the same integration, and this tutorial builds a guest-messaging agent on top of it.

Try it on a real listing. The Free plan is a live key. Connect one of your own listings in messaging or read-only mode (nothing on the listing changes) and see your own data in a few minutes. Create a free account, or compare plans on pricing.

Frequently asked questions