Airbnb Calendar Sync with Vrbo, Booking.com, and Other Channels

With more than 8 million listings worldwide, Airbnb is one of the most popular booking platforms, allowing you to reach travelers seeking unique places to stay during their trips. Even so, relying on a single booking platform isn’t the best strategy if you want to grow a sustainable STR business.
A smarter approach is to list your Airbnb properties on other websites as well to diversify your channels and reach as many potential guests as possible. The key to maximizing the benefits of a multi-channel strategy is keeping all your calendars up-to-date to prevent double bookings and scheduling conflicts.
This is where Airbnb calendar syncs come in. In this guide, we’ll discuss how to sync your Airbnb calendar with Vrbo and Booking.com, as well as other channels, and automate the syncing process using a channel manager.
Why Does Airbnb Calendar Sync Matter?
When you list your vacation rental on multiple platforms, syncing calendars ensures that your availability remains up-to-date across all your channels. This helps you avoid double bookings, which often lead to cancellations and can hurt your ratings and reviews.
By syncing your Airbnb calendar with your other booking channels, you can ensure that your listings reflect real-time availability. When someone makes a booking on one channel, those dates will be immediately blocked off across all your other channels. With Airbnb calendar sync, you can reduce stress and improve the booking experience for guests, preventing disappointment and inconvenience.
Airbnb Calendar Sync: What Are the Options?
There are two main ways to sync calendars: manually using iCal links and automatically through a channel manager, which connects to channels via API.
Most booking platforms allow hosts to sync their listings through iCal links manually. This option is free, but it’s essential to note that you must manually create connections using similar processes for every new channel.
For example, manually connecting Airbnb and Vrbo calendars involves several steps on each platform—you'll need to export your calendar from each platform and then import it into the other platform.
Additionally, with iCal links, updates occur periodically (every few hours), rather than instantly. So, there’s a chance that a guest could book a stay on one platform, and another guest could book the same dates on another platform in the time it takes for your calendar to update.
To eliminate a risk of double bookings, you’ll need to frequently update your calendars on each platform to keep availability and bookings accurately synchronized across all listings. And if you manage many properties and receive a high volume of bookings, this could become a full-time job.
A more efficient way to sync your Airbnb calendar is through a channel manager that automates the process of syncing between different booking platforms, providing real-time updates. However, you’ll need vacation rental software with a channel manager feature, such as Hospitable.
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Advantages of Using a Channel Manager to Synchronize Calendars
Software tools, such as a property management system or a channel manager that connects to booking channels via API, can help you control the syncs for all your listings in one place.
API connections are official and certified by OTAs. They offer a crucial advantage over iCal because they ensure instant updates. So if any changes are made to one calendar, they are immediately reflected in all others, ensuring instant synchronization across multiple channels.
Most importantly, synchronization through a channel manager isn’t about only exporting reservation dates. It’s also about syncing nightly rates in all your connected channels and managing all your messages in one centralized inbox. You’ll be able to manage all your cleaners and assign tasks to them automatically based on check-in and checkout dates, regardless of the distribution channel used for the reservation.
However, it’s essential to select your channel manager carefully. You need software that offers advanced tools that make managing your listings easier and more efficient, and syncs more features with Airbnb and other major platforms, minimizing the risk of errors.
Airbnb Calendar Sync: Why Choose Hospitable as a Channel Manager
Hospitable has native API connections with major OTA platforms, such as Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com. Hospitable has earned Airbnb Preferred+ status, which signifies that our system, functionality, and software connections exceeded all Airbnb’s technical and performance benchmarks. As a connectivity provider, Hospitable is also a Booking.com Premier Partner, which means we offer the most advanced systems and the broadest range of products and services.
With Hospitable, you can automate the syncing of your listings’ calendars on Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Agoda, Google Vacation Rentals, and your direct booking website in real-time, making double bookings virtually impossible. We can help you keep your calendars in sync across your platforms at the property level through our Sync subset, which can handle reservations, pricing, availability, and minimum stays.
All you need from a channel manager is here
How to Sync Airbnb Calendar with Vrbo Using Hospitable
To sync Airbnb calendar with Vrbo, you’ll need to connect your Airbnb and Vrbo accounts to Hospitable.
Connecting your Airbnb account to Hospitable with official integration is easy.
- You need to log in to the Airbnb account you wish to connect, and in another browser tab, log in to Hospitable.
- Then you click on Connect with Airbnb, and on the success page, review which properties you'd like to import.
- After you finish, you will be redirected to your dashboard.
After you complete the connection to Airbnb, Hospitable will be able to manage your calendar, messages, tasks, and much more.
Now, connect your Vrbo account to Hospitable:
- First, set up and enable 2FA (two-factor authentication) on Vrbo.
- Then click on Connect with Vrbo in Hospital and enter your Vrbo account credentials.
- Enter your phone number and the verification code on the 2-factor authentication page.
- Once the account has been verified, your Vrbo listings will be automatically imported into Hospitable.
You’ll see them on the Connected Accounts page and will be able to manage them from your dashboard. Check out this help article for more guidance.
Finally, you need to merge matching listings on both channels into one property to sync their calendars.
How to Sync Booking.com Calendar with Airbnb Using Hospitable
Since the connection with Booking.com occurs at the listing level, you'll need to add new listings to Hospitable manually.
- Go to the Connected accounts page and click on Connect with Booking.com.
- Follow the connection flow on Booking.com's site and select the properties you wish to connect to.
- Go back to Hospitable and enter the Booking.com email and accommodation IDs.
- Review the properties on Hospitable, and set your markup rate and occupancy-based pricing settings.
Check this help article to find detailed instructions. Once your Booking.com listings are connected, you can merge them with any corresponding Airbnb/Vrbo listings to use Sync.
Hospitable will treat merged listings as a single property in your calendar, inbox, guest experience, operations, and billing. Hospitable’s Sync feature will be enabled by default to prevent double bookings across platforms.
Now you know how to sync Booking.com calendar with Airbnb and Vrbo, but what about local and niche booking websites that you may want to list your property on to target specific audiences? Hospitable also offers iCal imports functionality that allows you to import bookings from channels where Hospitable doesn’t have a native API connection. There are lots of niche websites, and it’s not feasible to create direct integrations with all of them.
With iCal imports, you can extend your reach to niche channels, such as Hopper, Hipcamp, Furnished Finder, and many more, and avoid scheduling headaches. Simply copy and paste an iCal link from your booking platform, and Hospitable will automatically pull bookings from it every hour.
Final Thought
If you manage listings on multiple channels, keeping your calendar up to date is crucial to ensure accuracy and avoid lost revenue. To sync your Airbnb calendar with your other calendars, the easiest way is to use a channel manager that automates this process.
With Hospitable as your channel manager, you’ll be able to increase your occupancy rate by listing on key booking channels without worrying about juggling multiple websites and risking double bookings.
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