If you’re planning your vacation across many booking channels, you risk overbooking if you don’t use a booking calendar synchronization feature. Thankfully, both Airbnb and VRBO feature calendar booking functionality (iCal), eliminating the requirement for third-party calendar sync technology. Both Airbnb and Vrbo use the same iCal calendar format and can easily link with other calendars, such as your Google calendar and Booking.com. This article explains step-by-step how you can do this. Let us know about “How To Sync VRBO And Airbnb Calendars?”
How To Sync VRBO And Airbnb Calendars?
Step 1
- Make sure that you are logged in to both booking channels (Airbnb & VRBO)
- On the Airbnb host dashboard, go to “Listings,” choose the listing that you want to sync (if multiple listings are desired, select all that you want to sync)
- Click on “availability” and scroll down until you see “sync calendars.”
Step 2
- Navigate to the Vrbo dashboard and select the listing or property you want to manage.
- Navigate to “calendars” and select the “reservations” dropdown.
- At the top of the reservations calendar, you can choose to import/ export calendars and click “export” calendar, giving you the calendar URL; copy this link.
Step 3
- Navigate back to the Airbnb “synch calendars” dashboard, click “import calendar,” paste the URL you copied from Vrbo.
- Name the calendar (Vrbo) and color it, make sure the calendar is set to ‘block’ your calendar availability (This is usually set as default, but double-check it), and import the calendar by clicking “import.”
- Now that you have imported the Vrbo calendar to Airbnb, the next step is to export the Airbnb calendar to Vrbo.
Step 4
- Click “export calendar” on the Airbnb website. Copy the given URL.
- Navigate back to the Vrbo website, re-click the “import/ export” tab, click “import calendar,” and paste and name the URL as “Airbnb.”
- Tap import calendar to finish importing the Airbnb calendar to the Vrbo calendar; you will get a prompt telling you you have synched your calendars.
Congratulations! You now have both booking engines’ calendars linked, lowering the odds of your property being overbooked; if you receive a booking on one, the functionality will automatically close the booking on the other. It’s crucial to remember that calendars on some sites can crash or go down, so it’s a good idea to check them from time to time to make sure they’re still synced and there aren’t any overbooking issues. Another thing to remember is that a synchronized calendar cannot be paused. You’ll need to remove the calendar first, then import it again if you want to stop and start.
Synchronizing Airbnb/Vrbo calendars with Booking.com is a similarly simple step-by-step process.
- In the site’s upper right corner, click on “Properties.”
- Select “Calendar and pricing,” and scroll down to “sync calendars.”
- Click “add calendar connection,” the site will prompt you to copy & paste the URL from the other booking site (Airbnb/VRBO)
- Navigate back to the secondary booking site, copy the URL, paste it into the slot and name it. (“VRBO/Airbnb)
- Click “next step,” the link will appear below the one you just pasted, copy this link, and paste it into the Airbnb/VRBO import slot as explained above.
Done! This method can sync all three calendars from these booking sites.
It’s critical to understand that your calendars will not update immediately since calendars on Airbnb and Vrbo typically take a few hours to update. Some channels (such as Trip Advisor) impose a daily limit on how many times their ICS file can be accessed. This becomes a problem if you have multiple channels calling a single channel’s calendar at different times of the day (e.g., Vrbo, Airbnb & Booking.com). As the number of channels and listings grows, the likelihood of reaching the daily quota and the calendar ceasing to update for the rest of the day also grows. This is a risk if you have three or more channels listed.
Frequently Asked Questions:
- What are additional measures to avoid double-booking on Airbnb & Vrbo?
If you’re still worried about double bookings after you’ve synced your calendars, you have a few other methods. The most effective are manually refreshing your calendars and using a vacation rental channel manager. Using a channel manager is the most straightforward and effective technique to avoid double bookings. Many vacation-rental management software packages include channel management, which allows you to keep your Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and other booking calendars in sync.
- Can I share my Airbnb/Vrbo calendar?
Yes, you can share your Airbnb calendar with someone who is assisting you with managing your rental, whether it’s a friend, family member, or neighbor helping you with check-ins or property maintenance. You can do this in Airbnb and Vrbo by selecting the co-host option under the “listings” page or exporting the calendar to another calendar channel and sharing it with others.
