· Written by the AxiRent team
What does a calendar link carry?
Only which nights are taken: bookings and nights closed by hand. Airbnb's help says it plainly: nights booked or blocked on Airbnb are blocked on the other site's calendar.
A link carries no prices, guest names or messages, so a price changed on Airbnb has to be changed on Booking.com as well.
How do you connect a calendar on Airbnb?
Both directions sit in the same place on Airbnb.
- Open the listing's calendar and go to Availability.
- Under Connect calendars, choose Connect to another website.
- Copy the Airbnb calendar link: it goes into the other site.
- Paste the other site's link into the calendar address field, give it a name and choose Add calendar. Airbnb takes only a link that ends in .ics.
How do you connect a calendar on Booking.com?
Booking.com keeps its calendar links in the Extranet. Booking.com's own help page could not be read, so this path comes from several sources that agree, and Booking.com renames its menus from time to time.
- In the Extranet, open Rates & Availability, then the calendar.
- Choose Sync calendars, then Add calendar connection.
- Paste the Airbnb or other site's link and give it a name.
- Choose Next step: Booking.com shows its own link, which goes into Airbnb and the other sites.
How do you connect a calendar on Vrbo?
Vrbo takes up to five imported calendars per property.
- In the Owner Dashboard, open the listing's Calendar, then Settings and the Availability tab.
- Under Calendar sync, choose Connect calendars.
- To import: Manage imported calendars, then Import a calendar; paste the link into Calendar URL, name it and choose Import. A link that starts with webcal should start with https instead.
- To export: Export calendar, then Copy URL. Leave tentative bookings out of a link meant for another booking site: Vrbo offers them only for a private calendar.
How do you see every booking in Google Calendar?
In Google Calendar, next to Other calendars choose Add other calendars, then From URL, paste a site's export link and choose Add calendar. You see the taken nights in one place, but Google Calendar sends nothing back to the booking sites.
Why can a double booking still happen?
Each site reads the other sites' links on its own schedule, not at the moment a guest books. So two guests can book the same night on two sites before either site has read the other.
Every extra channel adds links: with three sites, each one imports the other two. If two bookings still land on the same nights, sort it out at once: the closer the arrival, the harder it is for a guest to find another place.
How does AxiRent do it?
AxiRent sits in the middle: each property takes in the Airbnb, Booking.com or any other calendar link, and gives each channel a link of its own back. That link carries the other channels' bookings, the bookings made in AxiRent and the running long-term leases, never that channel's own bookings. A booking that lands on nights already taken is shown in red and you are told at once. Names and prices never leave in a link.
More on how AxiRent syncs Airbnb, Booking.com and Beds24 calendars, and on short-term rental management.
Sources
- Airbnb Help: Sync your calendars
- Vrbo Help: How do I import my iCal or Google calendar
- Vrbo Help: Export your reservation calendar
- Google Calendar Help: add a calendar from a URL
The menu names come from Airbnb's, Vrbo's and Google's own help pages. Booking.com's help page could not be read, so its path is described from several sources that agree. The sites rename their menus from time to time.