Remote Calendars
The Remote Calendar feature allows you to sync your website to external listings by pulling in iCal feeds. Scroll to the bottom of a Property menu to get started:
This guide walks through how to pull in your unavailable dates from a channel like Airbnb. See here for how to push and send back your unavailability to other listings.
Adding a Remote Calendar
Once on the Remote Calendar screen, click "Add a new remote calendar" and enter the following:
- Calendar Name - This is an internal label to help identify who the calendar is synced with.
- For eg. "Rose Cottage on Airbnb" or "Unique Hideaways - Shepherds Hut" etc.
- URL - Paste in the long iCal link from the listing you'd like to connect. You may have to sign into their portal or contact their support to require this.
- Status - This will be set to Inactive by default, and you'll need to change it to turn it on:
- Inactive - The Remote Calendar will be set to off with a Status of Inactive
- Manual - This requires you to manually sync the Calendars
- Automatic - This will automatically run every so many minutes depending on your configuration
The Remote Calendar will update as soon as the external iCal pushes out changes, however the Automatic sync can be set to run every 15, 30, 60, 120, 180, or 360 minutes to refresh and check
Syncing for the first time
Next, make sure the Remote Calendar is either set to "Manual" or "Automatic", then click "Sync Now" for it to begin. This process may take 5 - 10 minutes the first time it runs.
Once finished, it should return with a series of "Events". What is disclosed is dependent on who is sharing the iCal, and this will always at least be the dates themselves, but may sometimes reveal:
- Booking Reference
- Lead Booker
- Check In/Check Out
- No. of Guests
- No. of Nights
- Room Configurations
- Contact Details
Notes
Click the Summary of an Event for it to expand and reveal any additional information
Status
Each Event is given a Status to help identify it:
- New - A new Event that has been found following a Manual or Automatic Sync
- Processed - An Event that wasn't on your calendar but is now logged as an Unavailable Date
- Conflicted - Where the dates clash with an existing Booking or Unavailable Date
- Ignored - Any Events that you have marked as "Ignore"
- Out of Bounds - These are for dates in the past (which don't require any attention).
- Pending - An Event that has been pulled for the iCal but not received all of the detail
- Cancelled - A set of dates that were blocked out on the external calendar but no longer are
By default the Remote Calendar will show all Events, however you can sort by a Status to only show New, Processed, Conflicted, Ignored, Out of Bounds, Pending or Cancelled.
Unavailable Dates
The Remote Calendar will create Unavailable Dates for any Events that do not already exist to block out the dates on your calendar.
You can also see these by going to Prices & Availability > Unavailable Dates, however unlike an Unavailable Period, these cannot be edited.
Calendar Conflicts
A Calendar Conflict is when an Event that has been pulled in via iCal and overlaps the dates of one of your Bookings. When this happens a red "Calendar Conflicts" tab will appear at the top of your main Bookings screen with a number of how many are effected:
Bookings with a Calendar Conflict will also be flagged by a red calendar icon on the far right hand side of the main Bookings screen.
Managing Calendar Conflict
If an event is flagged with a Conflict, you'll need to check both calendars to see whether there is a genuine clash - this is most likely because of duplicate date entries, if for example, you have manually added an Unavailable Date to block out the dates, and then the Remote Calendar has also created its own - you can click "Ignore" if this is the case.
Similarly, it's possible that you may need to remove Unavailable Dates that were previously blocking out a period of time, but are now not needed as the Remote Calendar will add its own.