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Exporting iCal Calendars
I am new to Booking.com and want to syncronise calendars with my website, Airbnb, & Trip advisor. Importing these calendars to Booking.com now works fine, but exporting does not work for any of these. All other site export and imports work perfectly.
To test this, I created a record my Booking.com calendar to say that we are "Closed for Bookings" and this has not flowed through to any of my calendars.
I am not comfortable going "live" until I know that this feature works flawlessly.
Can someone advise if this feature works correctly and consistently, or suggest what I may have done wrong or try differently
Many thanks
Hi Sheena,
its extremely flawed and unreliable without the use of a 3rd party service called a channel manager
examples :
nobeds
syncbnb
beds24
cloudbeds
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Many thanks BrookAve...
Its a real pity that this feature is flawed, as it can give Hosts great confidence in their booking processes, and help avoid any double bookings.
It gives me doubts about about going "live" with my property :-(
Any other advice or comments on experiences from any other users would be appreciated
Kind Regards
I've actually resolved this, now. I did not appreciate that there is an option within the Export Function to send "Closed & Booked" entries and I was set up to transfer on "Booked". Seems to be working for now, but will keep tabs on it.
Thanks for your feedback
If you import from another site like AIRBNB it will block it on Booking.co but will not export it in the ICAL file no matter if you have the option "Closed & Booked" checked or not. The Ical function is therefore not very usefull.
The fact that they do not show the ICAL link after it has been set up is not usererfriendly either. That way you cant easily check if your link is still up to date on other sites. Instead you have to remove the link and setup the process fro the scratch - you then get a new link and have to set it up in all other ical sites (airbnb etc) ...very tidious!
Just remember its not real time sync, nor triggered by new bookings from the BdC side.
The way a CM works is its calendar governs and connects to the API gateway of each OTA ,and pulls current info , on a near instant basis.
When a booking is made on one OTA, it adds it to its calendar after checking for availability, and then pushes it to all other OTA calendars connected.
Many thanks for your help and advice :-)
Hi Sheena and welcome to the Partner Community.
BrookeAve is the best of the best!!!
His contribution in the Community is priceless...
I have synced my calendar but I only have one Studio so it’s easy to sync manually...Every time I get a reservation I manually sync my calendar...
As BrookeAve has suggested using a channel manager is the safest way.
Wish you a great start?
Sheena, the Booking.com calendar sync is broken. Do not rely on it. Always manually block.
Hi Isle,
I guess this issue is very difficult for partners to understand it!!!
Take care?
Hi Guys...............Once again..........I never have a problem with it and in 4.5 years Never a fault..............maybe Lucky !!!
Neither do I...but I always but always update my calendar the moment I receive reservations....
Lucky ? lucky!!!
Hi Michael,
I just wanted to ask you...with how many platforms are you connected???
Have a beautiful weekend ?
ONLY BDC........................it works wonders but I also receive a lot of private bookings....maybe as much as 30% private.....and yes I update immediately for bookings and cancelations as well.
I get asked to join Stayz and Airbnb ALL the time But find BDC the best so.................no probs.........I don't always agree with what BDC do but they are a HUGE accommodation site and it has worked very successfully for me.
Remember I ONLY use BDC as a Website ...............I do the cleaning./invoicing/replies to guests/meet and greets/use my OWN credit card machine and don't use their discounts except for Genius.....less 10% MAX. !!!
If I ever have a problem (very very rare) then BDC have Always fixed the problem but if I was not a member of the BDC Forum...............they would not know who I am and what I do !!. I have a 10 score review for 4 years in a Row and BDC has never asked me "How do I achieve that Fantastic score"............They are a Monster Group with millions of bookings through Major Hotels World-wide and I believe we are just " small stuff to them" BUT hey ...150% Thank you for what this company through their website and advertising have done for me and my apartment at The Pinnacle.............well done and Thank you BDC.
BDC Support Team is excellent...sometimes they even call me back to check that my problem has been solved...
Certainly BDC is a leader...their advertisement strategy in website and social media is very creative...
BDC has done the impossible possible for me too...
Take care⭐️
You guys might think BDC is wonderful if you have only one or two properties .... get to more properties and you won't want to rely on just one booking channel and then you'll get the problems ....
Things like the iCal sync problem are easy to fix, but BDC will not even acknowledge the problem ....
Could be.............we manage 54 apartments BUT Most long term.so maybe ???
We have 17 suites in 2 houses for rent and we're renting our properties on Bdc, Airbnb, Noclegi, Revngo, Expedia, VRBO. Our guests were coming from all over the world. Unfortunately, things changed, most reservations are from our country and guests call us directly. Google is a big help. I liked Airbnb for a few reasons;
-the main one is that they charge guests directly for service, not us.
-I'm able to list my properties in my country currency - but not on VRBO, TripAdvisor.
-guests coming from their site are real tourists.
-I'm getting money the next day after guests check-in - but not from Bdc, VRBO, TripAdvisor Expedia.
I like the Bdc reservation system, it's easy to set up, manage, set up email templates, block rooms, especially on a mobile phone. The only confusion is their discounts. Be careful with it. If combined (Genius, free upgrade, and other discounts) you may end with very little money.
Synchronization of iCal works well between Bdc, Airbnb, I'm not sure about Expedia, since to register properties there you need to use their help the same with iCal.
I'm using the Bdc calendar to sync all bookings with other OTA's.
I pay for the reservation system but I'm using it only as a calendar no sync.
Does anybody know how to make your own simple iCal?
I don't understand why Bdc cannot auto sync calendars, the sync function is already available for manual sync when you click on it, so there is no special coding required.
All they need to do is "call" this function in the program code when a booking has been completed.
As simple as ABC.
C'mon guys make it happen and stop removing my comments, this criticism is meant to be constructive.