Airbnb iCal sync: find your calendar link and avoid double bookings

What is Airbnb iCal sync?

iCal is a simple, standard calendar format. Every booking site can publish your calendar as a link that ends in .ics, and every booking site can read such a link from somewhere else.

Airbnb iCal sync means two things: you give your Airbnb calendar link to your other channels (export), and you give their links to Airbnb (import). When a night is booked in one place, it gets blocked in the others. That is how you avoid double bookings without any paid software.

How to find your Airbnb iCal link (export)

These are the steps from Airbnb’s help page on calendar syncing, on desktop:

1. Go to Calendar and choose your listing.
2. Select Availability.
3. Under Connect calendars, click Connect to another website.
4. Copy the Airbnb calendar link. This is your Airbnb iCal URL.

Paste that link into the other website’s calendar import field. Each listing has its own link, so repeat this for every listing you have.

How to import another calendar into Airbnb

1. Get the calendar link from the other website. It must end in .ics. Other links will not work.
2. In the same Connect calendars section on Airbnb, paste the link into the calendar address field.
3. Give the calendar a name, for example “Vrbo” or “Website”.
4. Click Add calendar.

Airbnb then updates automatically. According to Airbnb, your calendar pulls in information from connected calendars every 3 hours.

Sync Airbnb with Vrbo and Booking.com

The pattern is the same for every pair of channels:

1. Copy the Airbnb link and import it into the other platform.
2. Copy the other platform’s link and import it into Airbnb.

On Vrbo and Booking.com, look for calendar sync or import and export in the calendar settings of your listing. The menu names change from time to time, but both platforms support iCal links.

With three channels you need every channel to import the other two. That is six connections in total. Write them down so you can check them later.

What iCal does and does not sync

In short, iCal answers one question: is this night free or not? Your rates still have to be set on each channel separately.

The delay, and how to avoid double bookings

iCal is not instant. Each platform checks the other calendars on its own schedule, and for Airbnb that is about every 3 hours. If two guests book the same night on two sites inside that window, you have a double booking.

You can make that very unlikely:

• Sync both directions. A one-way sync is the most common cause of double bookings.
• Be careful with last-minute stays. Same-day and next-day bookings are where the delay hurts. Use advance notice settings so a night cannot be booked a few hours before arrival on two sites at once.
• Check after connecting. Block a test night on one channel and confirm it shows up on the others.
• Use a PMS or channel manager when you grow. With many channels or many properties, a property management system updates calendars through direct connections that are much faster than iCal.

Sync Airbnb with your own website

Your own direct booking website needs the same calendar. A guest who sees free dates on your site and then hears they are taken will not come back.

On Direct Booking Page it works like this:

1. Copy your Airbnb iCal link using the steps above.
2. In your dashboard, open Availability for your website and choose Use iCal.
3. Paste the link and save. You can add more than one calendar.

Dates that are booked or blocked on Airbnb now show as unavailable on your site. Because iCal carries no prices, your nightly rates come from somewhere else: either a PMS connection (Hosthub and Lodgify are supported) or the rates you set yourself.

If you have not built the site yet, follow how to make a direct booking website. And if you are still choosing a tool, check that it supports iCal before you commit. Our vacation rental website builder comparison covers what to look for.

Troubleshooting

• The link is rejected. Make sure it ends in .ics and that you copied all of it.
• Dates are not updating. Wait for the next refresh. It can take a few hours.
• Dates are blocked and you do not know why. Look at each imported calendar. An old link from a channel you no longer use may still be blocking nights. Remove it.
• You created a new listing. A new listing has a new link. Update it everywhere.