What is Double Booking?

Double bookings are when two or more overlapping bookings are made for a property for the same day. In such a situation, the host needs to cancel bookings, which can affect the property ratings. It usually happens when you have listed your property on multiple platforms, such as Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com, which is a common practice if you are to maximize your occupancy and revenue.

Why Should You Connect Your Airbnb and Vrbo Calendars?

It is important to connect your calendars from both the booking platforms i.e., Airbnb and Booking.com, to sync your bookings. It will help you avoid double bookings. This is a key aspect of channel management.

Both Airbnb and Booking.com utilize the same iCal calendar format. They can be easily synced with each other and with other calendars, for example, your Google calendar.

How to Connect Your Airbnb and Booking.com Calendars?

Connecting your Airbnb and Vrbo calendars manually is a straightforward process, but it requires a few steps on each platform. Here’s how to do it:

Part 1: Import your Airbnb calendar into Booking.com

1. In your Airbnb.com account, go to Host, select Listing, and navigate to the desired listing.
2. On the right panel, locate the pricing and availability settings.
3. Click on “Pricing and Availability” and then select “Calendar sync”.
   
   
   
   
4. Name the calendar you want to import.
5. Choose “Export calendar”.
   
   
   
   
6. In the Export calendar window, copy the link. 
7. Log in to the extranet.
   
8. Depending on your extranet, either click on Rates & Availability and then on Calendar, or click on Calendar & Pricing.
9. Click Sync calendars.
10. Click Add calendar connection, then add the link to the third-party calendar you want to import reservations from. Give the calendar connection a name e.g. Airbnb,  and then click Next step.
11. Once you’ve done this, you can go back to the extranet and click Done.

You’ll see the status as Activating while the connection is being set up. Once your calendars are synchronised, the status will change to OK. You’ll be able to see an overview of your calendar connections whenever you return to the Sync calendars page.

We automatically import any connected calendars, but you can manually sync your imported calendars by clicking Import now. To remove the imported calendar and stop syncing, click Remove.

Part 2: Import your Booking.com calendar into Airbnb

1. Log in to the extranet.
   
2. Depending on your extranet, either click on Rates & Availability and then on Calendar, or click on Calendar & Pricing.
3. Click Sync calendars.
   
4. Copy your Booking.com calendar link by clicking on Copy link. Under Export options, select whether you want to export only your Booked dates only or both Booked and closed dates.
5. On airbnb.com, go to Calendar and select your listing.
   
6. Go to the panel on the right side or click on Pricing and availability
   
7. Scroll down to Calendar sync and select Import Calendar.
   
8. Paste the URL of your Vrbo calendar into the Calendar Address (URL) field.
   
   
   
   
9. Name your calendar (e.g. ‘Booking.com’)
   
10. Click Import calendar.
    

And that’s it! Now, your Airbnb and Booking.com calendars are synced. They should update every couple of hours.

How to Avoid Double Bookings

You should know that with iCal, your calendars don’t update immediately. 

So, how often does your Airbnb calendar sync?

Airbnb and Booking.com calendars usually take a couple of hours to update. So, there’s a chance that a guest could book on one platform, and another guest could book the same dates on another platform in the time it takes for your calendar to update.

Depending on how often you’re getting bookings, the chances that two guests book the same dates within a few hours of each other could be relatively low.

If you want a real-time connection, you must use a property management system or channel manager.

We hope that you find this guide useful and can successfully sync availability for your calendars!