Stay Finder: the best hotel or Airbnb for your dates, with the reviews read

Enter where, when, who is going, the budget for the stay and what it must have. It compares every place to stay it can find for your dates on Google Hotels (with every booking site's price) and Airbnb, rules out the ones that do not sleep your party, have no price or are too far, and scores the rest on quality, location, value and cancellation.

For the leaders it reads the recent reviews for what matters to your party (noise, safety, beds, parking, the children) and returns its picks, each with why it suits you, dated quotes copied from the reviews and what to watch for, plus the popular ones to skip and why. As a page, a PDF and data.

What you get

Field	What it holds
Picks	Best for your party, best value, closest to the sights or the place you name, pool, backup power, family-review pick.
Why, in their words	A plain headline and dated review quotes, each checked word for word.
What to watch for	Caveats guests raise: stairs, noise, parking, load-shedding.
The skips	Popular stays it would not book, with the reason.
The market	How many were listed, priced, fit your party and sit near your days.

What people use it for

• Families: Stays that really sleep everyone, read for safety, beds and noise.
• Couples: The best-reviewed places near where you want to be.
• Travel agents: A shortlist with evidence for a client, as a PDF.

How to use it

1. Enter the destination, dates, who is going and the stay budget.
2. Add must-haves, bedrooms and a place to be near if you like.
3. Run it: the picks, the skips and the market, as a page, PDF and data.

Input

Field	Example	Notes
Where?	Cape Town, South Africa	City or region with its country.
Arrive / Leave	2026-12-12 / 2026-12-17	1 to 14 nights.
Who	2 adults; children [7, 10]	Prices and beds for the whole party.
Budget for the stay	20000 ZAR	All nights together.
Near	V&A Waterfront (optional)	Otherwise the top sights.
Must have	pool, parking	Stays that do not list them are left out.

Output

Each result is one row in the run's dataset (download it as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML, or read it through the API). An example row (values shortened):

{
  "kind": "stay",
  "name": "Example family apartment",
  "roles": [
    "Best for this party"
  ],
  "total": 15514.0,
  "currency": "ZAR",
  "rating": 4.94,
  "reviewCount": 142,
  "bedrooms": 2,
  "sleeps": 4,
  "source": "Airbnb",
  "url": "https://example.com/stay"
}

Example row from a real Cape Town family search on 19 October 2026 (752 stays compared, 143 reviews read, 5 picks); the name and address were replaced. SUMMARY records the market counts, each source and the model use.

Pricing

• $2.49 per completed search, charged once the page, PDF and data are delivered and the picks pass validation.
• Model use for reading reviews is billed by Apify at cost on top (about $0.02 a search in tests).

What typical jobs cost at the list price:

Job	Cost
One search	$2.49 plus about $0.02 of model use
Failed validation	$0 search event

On Apify's Scale and Business plans the per-event prices are lower (Store discounts). Set Maximum cost per run and the Actor stops cleanly when it is reached: you never pay more than that.

Tips

• Children's ages matter: beds and prices are checked for the exact party.
• Name a place to be near when you know where your days will be.

Use it through the API

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("zaiq/stay-finder").call(run_input={"destination": "Lisbon, Portugal", "checkIn": "2027-03-15", "checkOut": "2027-03-20", "adults": 2, "budget": 900, "currency": "EUR", "nearPlace": "Alfama"})
for row in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(row)

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('zaiq/stay-finder').call({"destination": "Lisbon, Portugal", "checkIn": "2027-03-15", "checkOut": "2027-03-20", "adults": 2, "budget": 900, "currency": "EUR", "nearPlace": "Alfama"});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

HTTP (one call, results back)

curl -X POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/zaiq~stay-finder/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"destination": "Lisbon, Portugal", "checkIn": "2027-03-15", "checkOut": "2027-03-20", "adults": 2, "budget": 900, "currency": "EUR", "nearPlace": "Alfama"}'

Integrations and schedules

• Schedules: run it every hour, day or week from the Apify Console (Schedules) and keep a history of results.
• Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets, Slack, Airtable: connect it through Apify's integrations, or send each finished run to a webhook.
• Datasets: results stay in the run's dataset; export them or read them by API whenever you need them.

Use it with AI agents (MCP)

Add Apify's MCP server (https://mcp.apify.com) to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code or any MCP client. The agent can find this Actor and run it for you: ask it for "Find a two-bedroom stay in Cape Town for a family of four, 12 to 17 December, under R20,000, with the reviews read". AI agents can also pay for runs directly through Apify's agentic payments.

Limits

• No login, CAPTCHA solving or forged challenge tokens; a source can withhold public data, and the run says so.
• Prices are public snapshots for your dates and party, not held reservations; check again before booking.
• Market counts describe the listings the searches returned, not every stay in a destination.
• Airbnb shows only a few reviews per home to a public reader; leading homes are re-read in a fresh session.

FAQ

Is it a chatbot answer?

No. Every stay and price comes from live listings for your dates; the model only reads the reviews, and every quote is checked word for word.

Does it book?

No. Each pick links to its listing.

Related Actors from Zaiq

• holiday-planner: the whole holiday in one run: stays, days, car hire, experiences and a budget

Support

Questions, a site that changed, or a field you need? Open an issue on this Actor's Issues tab: we answer there, usually within a day.

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Also found as: hotel finder, Airbnb comparison, best place to stay, hotel and Airbnb search, accommodation finder, family accommodation.