Resort Cottages Ontario — Search Cottages

Purpose

Return resort-cottage rental information from resortcottagesontario.ca for a given date range. Today the domain advertises a single property — Mildred's Lakefront Resort Cottage at Bellmere Winds Golf Resort on Rice Lake in the Kawarthas, Ontario — so "search" reduces to "return the cottage's static metadata plus an availability verdict for the requested dates." The skill is written so it generalises if more listings are added later. Read-only — never click Confirm Reservation and never submit mphb_is_direct_booking=1.

When to Use

• A traveller asks "are there any resort cottages available in Ontario the weekend of <date>?" and you need to verify Mildred's specifically.
• An agent needs static cottage metadata (sleeps, bedrooms, amenities, address, base rate) without paying for a full browser session.
• A planning agent comparing waterfront rentals near Toronto in the Kawarthas / Rice Lake area.
• A brand-disambiguation step — confirm the user means Resort Cottages Ontario (this site, plural) and not resortcottages.ca (a separate real-estate business).

Workflow

Hybrid path: an authoritative LLM-friendly text dump (/llms.txt) covers all static metadata in one cheap fetch, and the on-site MotoPress Hotel Booking (MPHB) form on /book/ is the only public way to check date-specific availability. The internal WordPress REST endpoints at /wp-json/mphb/v1/* are admin-locked ({"code":"mphb_rest_cannot_view", "data":{"status":401}} for accommodation_types, bookings/availability, etc.), and the public AJAX endpoint at /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php requires a per-page-load nonce — so there is no usable cookieless API for availability. Use the steps below in order; skip step 3 entirely if the caller only needs static metadata.

1. Static property metadata — single GET, no JS, no session. Fetch https://resortcottagesontario.ca/llms.txt (≈2.3 KB plain text). Parse the markdown-style sections to extract: property name, address, bedrooms / sleeps / sqft, base nightly rate, resort amenities, check-in / check-out times, phone, email, brand-disambiguation notes, and the canonical URLs for About / FAQ / Book pages. Always treat the llms.txt base rate as the lower bound — it can lag the actual rate on /book/ (see Gotchas).

2. Decide which booking era applies. The site splits the calendar between two backends, gated by year:

   • 2026 (current season): "Mildred's 2026 availability is managed through Great Blue Cottage Rentals (GBCR). Direct online booking coming in 2027." For 2026 dates, hand off to GBCR — see step 3a.
   • 2027 and later: Direct on-site booking via the MPHB plugin form. Use step 3b.
   • The form on /book/ is labelled "Check Mildred's Lakefront Resort Cottage 2027 Availability" and its hidden attribute data-first_available_check_in_date="2026-10-12" is the earliest selectable check-in (the tail of 2026 has spilled into the MPHB form because the property opened the calendar early — confirmed by typing 15/10/2026 into the check-in field: it accepts).

3a. 2026 dates — GBCR deeplink path (browser optional). On the /book/ page the "Check 2026 Availability →" anchor (text on the page; href is the one shown below) is a fully-formed deeplink to the GBCR property summary page. The reference href as of 2026-05-19 is:

https://greatbluecottagerentals.com/summary/?setselection=1
  &search_region=The+Kawarthas
  &search_resort=BELLMERE
  &resort_id=102
  &post_id=15393
  &grade=PNTDR075
  &search_check_date_in=Aug+12%2C+2026   ← change to target check-in (format: "MMM+D%2C+YYYY")
  &no_of_nights=5                          ← change to nights between dates
  &guests=1&search_no_of_adults=1&search_no_of_children=0&search_no_of_pets=0
  &price=1850.00                           ← sample only; GBCR recalculates on landing
  &unit_pet_friendly=on&unit_sunroom=on&unit_waterfront=on&unit_near_pool=on&unit_near_beach=on

The resort_id=102, grade=PNTDR075, and post_id=15393 IDs are the stable identifiers for Mildred's on the GBCR backend — do not change them. The skill stops here for 2026 queries: emit the constructed URL and tell the caller that the actual availability/pricing lookup happens on greatbluecottagerentals.com, which is a separate domain and out of scope for this skill (a sibling skill greatbluecottagerentals.com/<task> should drive that side).

3b. 2027+ dates — MPHB form on /book/ (browser required). Open a bare Browserbase session (browse cloud sessions create --keep-alive — no --verified, no --proxies; site has no anti-bot beyond Cloudflare bot-management headers). Navigate to https://resortcottagesontario.ca/book/, then:

1. browse snapshot and locate textbox: Check-in Date * and textbox: Check-out Date *.

2. browse click <check-in-ref>; browse type "DD/MM/YYYY" (note: site is configured dateFormat: "dd/mm/yyyy", not US mm/dd); browse press Escape to dismiss the kbwood datepicker.

3. Same for check-out.

4. browse click <Check Availability button-ref> (label text: CHECK AVAILABILITY). The form refreshes in place — no page navigation.

5. browse wait timeout 2000, then browse snapshot and read the new status paragraph. Three branches (verified 2026-05-19):

   • Available: "Mildred's Lakefront 3 Bedroom Resort Cottage is available for selected dates." followed by a button: Confirm Reservation. STOP — do not click Confirm Reservation.
   • Unavailable / dates not bookable: "Nothing found. Please try again with different search parameters." (verified by submitting 06/10/2027 → 08/10/2027, dates not surfaced as link: cells in the datepicker).
   • Invalid dates (e.g. check-out ≤ check-in, or below min-stay): inline error per MPHB.translations — "Check-in date is not valid.", "Check-out date is not valid.", "Less than min days stay", "More than max days stay", "Later than max date for current check-in date". Capture verbatim.

6. The form does NOT print a date-specific subtotal, only the property-card price (Prices start at: $375 per night (+taxes and fees)). Nightly subtotal must be computed client-side as nights * 375 or left null and flagged pricing_source: "property_card_starting_rate".

7. Release: browse cloud sessions update <sid> --status REQUEST_RELEASE.

8. Compose the response matching the Expected Output schema. Include the GBCR handoff URL when the query year is 2026, the MPHB on-site verdict when the year is 2027+, and the union of metadata from /llms.txt + the /book/ property card.

Site-Specific Gotchas

• Single-property site. Despite the plural brand "Resort Cottages Ontario", as of 2026-05-19 the domain markets exactly one property (Mildred's Lakefront Resort Cottage). Future iterations may add more — re-verify by counting article.mphb-room-type cards on /book/.
• Two booking backends, gated by year. 2026 dates → GBCR (external, greatbluecottagerentals.com); 2027+ → MPHB on-site form. The earliest MPHB check-in is data-first_available_check_in_date="2026-10-12" — late-2026 dates after the GBCR season-close also work on the MPHB form. Always check the year first and route appropriately.
• Date format is dd/mm/yyyy, not US mm/dd/yyyy. Set per MPHB._data.settings.dateFormat: "dd/mm/yyyy" (the <abbr title="Formatted as dd/mm/yyyy">*</abbr> next to each label is the on-page hint). Internal transfer format is yyyy-mm-dd (dateTransferFormat), used in the hidden mphb_check_in_date / mphb_check_out_date inputs.
• kbwood datepicker only shows link: cells for check-in–eligible days. Days rendered as plain cell: (no nested link: ref) are blocked by booking rules (already booked, not a valid check-in day, below min-stay, etc.). You can still type any date into the textbox — but if the date is rule-blocked, the form returns "Nothing found" after submission. To pre-validate, count linked cells in the rendered calendar before typing.
• Form refreshes in place — same URL, no navigation event. browse get url will still return /book/ after clicking CHECK AVAILABILITY. Branch on the snapshot's status paragraph, not on URL changes. The non-deterministic ref IDs (e.g. [1-575], [1-578] after submission) mean you must re-snapshot, not cache.
• /llms.txt price is stale. The text says "Starting from CAD $254/night" but the rendered /book/ property card shows "$375 per night (+taxes and fees)" as of 2026-05-19. Always prefer the on-page card price over /llms.txt; treat llms.txt rate as a lower-bound historical hint only.
• WP REST is admin-only. https://resortcottagesontario.ca/wp-json/mphb/v1/accommodation_types and …/bookings/availability both return {"code":"mphb_rest_cannot_view","data":{"status":401}} for unauthenticated callers. Don't waste time probing — the only public surface is the browser form. (The /wp-json/mphb/v1 index itself is readable and lists routes, but every collection requires view/edit scope.)
• admin-ajax.php actions need a per-page nonce. MPHB._data.nonces.mphb_get_room_type_availability_data is regenerated per page render and won't survive a cookieless POST from outside a warm session. If you do want to skip the form click, you can scrape the nonce from the rendered HTML and POST action=mphb_get_room_type_availability_data&nonce=<x>&room_type_id=195 with the page's cookie jar — but the form-click path is simpler and equally cheap.
• Confirm Reservation is the booking trigger. Clicking the Confirm Reservation button initiates a real booking flow (form action: https://resortcottagesontario.ca/booking-confirmation/, hidden mphb_is_direct_booking=1). The skill must stop one click earlier.
• GBCR sample URL contains a sample price=1850.00 and search_check_date_in=Aug+12%2C+2026. Those are placeholder values from the static href on /book/; GBCR recalculates price server-side on landing. Override search_check_date_in and no_of_nights with the caller's values; you can leave price alone or drop it.
• Brand disambiguation. Per /llms.txt: "Resort Cottages Ontario" (plural) is the brand/domain name; "resort cottage ontario" (singular) is the search category this property belongs to. This property is not affiliated with resortcottages.ca (a separate real-estate business). If a query is ambiguous, prefer this site only when the user clearly wants a rental (not real-estate listings).
• No anti-bot beyond Cloudflare bot-management cookies. Bare Browserbase session works first try; --verified and --proxies are unnecessary and add cost. The site sets __cf_bm and _cfuvid cookies but does not challenge automated clients on /book/.
• Timezone is America/Toronto (EDT/EST). All "today" comparisons in the form (MPHB._data.today) use server-local time, not UTC. A 2026-05-19 09:00Z run still saw "today": "2026-05-18" because Toronto was still the 18th.
• Form id booking-form-195 and mphb_room_type_id=195 are stable per-property IDs. Don't reuse them across other MPHB installs; they are local WordPress post IDs.

Expected Output

The skill emits one of three branches depending on the requested date range. JSON shapes (verified 2026-05-19):

// Branch A — 2027+ dates, MPHB on-site form returned an availability verdict
{
  "success": true,
  "site": "resortcottagesontario.ca",
  "query": { "check_in": "2027-10-15", "check_out": "2027-10-18", "nights": 3, "guests": 2 },
  "listings": [
    {
      "name": "Mildred's Lakefront Resort Cottage",
      "resort": "Bellmere Winds Golf Resort",
      "region": "Kawarthas",
      "lake": "Rice Lake",
      "address": "1235 Villiers Line - Site 75, The Point Drive, Keene, ON K0L 2G0",
      "bedrooms": 3,
      "sleeps": 6,
      "size_sqft": 600,
      "view": "Waterfront",
      "amenities": ["air-conditioning", "free wi-fi", "pet-friendly", "Smart TV"],
      "category": "resort cottage",
      "starting_nightly_rate_cad": 375,
      "currency": "CAD",
      "pricing_source": "property_card_starting_rate",
      "subtotal_cad_estimate": 1125,
      "first_available_check_in_date": "2026-10-12",
      "availability": {
        "status": "available",
        "message": "Mildred's Lakefront 3 Bedroom Resort Cottage is available for selected dates.",
        "next_step": "Confirm Reservation (NOT clicked by this read-only skill)"
      },
      "booking_url": "https://resortcottagesontario.ca/book/",
      "phone": "+1 (647) 287-9978",
      "email": "mildredslakefront@resortcottagesontario.ca"
    }
  ]
}

// Branch B — 2027+ dates, but dates blocked by booking rules
{
  "success": true,
  "site": "resortcottagesontario.ca",
  "query": { "check_in": "2027-10-06", "check_out": "2027-10-08", "nights": 2, "guests": 2 },
  "listings": [
    {
      "name": "Mildred's Lakefront Resort Cottage",
      "availability": {
        "status": "unavailable",
        "message": "Nothing found. Please try again with different search parameters.",
        "reason_hint": "Dates fall outside check-in eligibility or below min-stay; non-linked datepicker cells indicate blocked days."
      },
      "booking_url": "https://resortcottagesontario.ca/book/"
    }
  ]
}

// Branch C — 2026 dates, on-site form does not apply; hand off to GBCR
{
  "success": true,
  "site": "resortcottagesontario.ca",
  "query": { "check_in": "2026-08-12", "check_out": "2026-08-17", "nights": 5, "guests": 2 },
  "listings": [
    {
      "name": "Mildred's Lakefront Resort Cottage",
      "resort": "Bellmere Winds Golf Resort",
      "starting_nightly_rate_cad": 375,
      "currency": "CAD",
      "availability": {
        "status": "delegated",
        "delegate_backend": "greatbluecottagerentals.com",
        "delegate_url": "https://greatbluecottagerentals.com/summary/?setselection=1&search_region=The+Kawarthas&search_resort=BELLMERE&resort_id=102&post_id=15393&grade=PNTDR075&search_check_date_in=Aug+12%2C+2026&no_of_nights=5&guests=2&search_no_of_adults=2&search_no_of_children=0&search_no_of_pets=0&unit_pet_friendly=on&unit_sunroom=on&unit_waterfront=on&unit_near_pool=on&unit_near_beach=on",
        "message": "Mildred's 2026 availability is managed through Great Blue Cottage Rentals (GBCR). Use the delegate_url to complete the date-specific lookup on greatbluecottagerentals.com — that domain is a separate skill scope."
      },
      "booking_url": "https://resortcottagesontario.ca/book/"
    }
  ]
}

// Branch D — failure (network, page changed, etc.)
{
  "success": false,
  "error_reasoning": "Verbatim message or short description of what blocked the skill.",
  "site": "resortcottagesontario.ca"
}