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M R

Importing Calendars

I am having trouble importing Airbnb calendars. (I successfully imported Booking.com ones into Airbnb.) 

 

I get an error message saying that what I am pasting are not valid iCal urls when they are as I have copied them directly from Airbnb calendars.

 

Advice welcome

Cheers


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Fred Sewell4 5 years ago

we use google calendar its independant and reliable

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M R 5 years ago

Thank you, Mme Adamopoulou for taking the time to help.

I am familiar with the instructions on importing / exporting calendars. The issue I requested help on is an unusual one. I have since heard from Booking.com. They say that there is nothing I can do about this......

Best

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M R 5 years ago

Thank you, Fred for your contribution. I use Google calendar too for my personal needs.

Are you saying I can use it to import other calendars - as a tool to avoid double bookings?

Cheers

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M Adamopoulou 5 years ago

Good morning Salacoco-Th sorry to hear about your struggles. Are you sure you are pasting the right url? I had similar problems and after of couple attempts I finally got it.
Hope you solve it...

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The Crowes Nes… 5 years ago

Hi Raymond, how did you get around your issue? I'm experiencing the same thing – very confusing, as I'm copying it directly from AirBNB.

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M R 5 years ago

Sorry to hear that Auckland. As I mentioned above, the Booking.com agent I reported this to told me that 'it's no one's fault and there's nothing anyone can do about it......." .

I have since followed up with Airbnb and they are looking into it. The Airbnb agent I spoke to thought it was unusual, tried various ways around it but got nowhere in the end. She referred the issue to their technical section (that was a couple of days ago) and I'm waiting to hear from them. I will update this post when I get an answer.

Best

Raymond

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The Crowes Nes… 5 years ago

I managed to find a way around it – I exported my AirBNB calendar to my Google Calendar, then imported that Google Calendar (syncing with AirBNB) into Booking.com.

It's worked, but I'm not sure how effective it'll be for syncing future bookings (seeing as it's now two steps, not one).

Please keep me updated!

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Nelle 5 years ago

I'm having the same problem. Can easily export Booking.com calendar to Airbnb, but when I want to import the Airbnb calendar link, I keep getting "this is not a valid iCal URL link". I'm on Mac and don't want to start a Google calendar to try bypass via yet another 3rd party.

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M R 5 years ago

I heard back from Airbnb recently. The technician said that their links work in Google calendar and that there is therefore nothing wrong with them, that the problem is with Booking.com. Back to square one. I will now put in another request for help with Booking.com

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M Adamopoulou 5 years ago

I have synchronized my calendars without any problem. You just have to copy paste the right URL link.
Hope you find it and have a nice day...

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M R 5 years ago

Thank you again for sharing your experiences. I am doing everything the 'help' notes say to do but again this afternoon, Booking.Com calendars will NOT accept Airbnb ones.

A nice day to you too

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Nelle 5 years ago

Hi Raymond, I closed both Booking and Airbnb sites a few times and tried uploading the Airbnb iCal link many times and it finally uploaded. Good luck!

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Info 5 years ago

I am having the same issue. will try closing both and deleting cache. to see if I can get link to load

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M Adamopoulou 5 years ago

Nell great news...

Never stop trying, never stop believing. Never give up!!!

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Natalia 5 years ago

Hi guys! I am having the same issue and it is driving me nuts: exported Booking.com link into AirBnB no problem but cannot import AirBnB link into Booking.com. And I am not keen on playing with Google calendar as Booking.com should work, it is just not good at all when they say "no one can do anything about it", this is nonsense. If their iCal link is accepted by other platforms then why they do not accept links from others?! Clearly the bug is on Booking.com side. And they must fix it. I already had issue nce with double booking a few months ago because Booking.com did not update the calendar in time, it was very frustratiing for me and the customer. Then they manage to fix it and now saying "no one can do anyhting"?!

Reymond, how are you dping with this issue, any progress? I would appreciate update and advice if you got any new tips on how to fix it.

Regards,
Natalia

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M R 5 years ago

I've had no followup form Booking.com and have just sent them a reminder......... Will update you when I hear back from them.

Best to all

Raymond

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M R 5 years ago

Pleased to tell you that the problem has been fixed - at least at my end. I got in touch with Booking.com and received a message this morning saying that they had worked on it. I finally managed to import my Airbnb calendars and they seemed to sync when I tested them.

Best

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M Adamopoulou 5 years ago

Raymond great news today....

Thanks for your feedback and have a good day...

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Laurence 4 years ago

Not sure what you did but I have tried several times to import my airBnB calendar and get the same import error. That means I cannot make my property available for fear of double booking. This is really annoying.

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M R 4 years ago

I was never able to do anything by myself, Laurence. I had to nag the mother ship to get this sorted out.
If you haven’t done so already, email them via your intranet. Call them. (BTW Be warned! I was told during one of my first telephone queries that this was an internet related problem and that there was nothing BookingDC or Airbnb could do. I persevered, had it confirmed that the problem was on BookingDC’ end and did get it resolved by BookingDC techs.)
Refer them to these forum entries on this problem and that will provide a point of reference. Surely, if they were able to fix the problem I was having, they will be able to fix yours. Hope this helps.
Best
Raymond

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M Adamopoulou 4 years ago

Raymond has a point. You have to insist on helping you...
Wish you luck...

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Laurence 4 years ago

I've given up for the moment. They have not been helpful at all. The strange thing is if I make all the dates in a month not available then the Booking calendar shows me my Airbnb bookings. But if I make the entire month available, then it shows every day as available, even the ones booked on Airbnb. So I've given up and block dates out manually.

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Willem 4 years ago

Not working here as well. Was working before very well, but they messed up and now I can't rely anymore on this.

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Antonio Bruno 3 years ago

Hi everyone,

is there somebody that knows how it should be a "valid" url for ical import on Booking? Is there some technical specifications somewhere? Because so far I couldn't find any.

Unfortunately,  even our management system allows us to export in ical format my calendar just as AirBnB or others OTA do, as soon as I put in the url on Booking I get immediately an invalid url warning.

This thread is not very fresh, I wander also if Booking calendar import feature is finally working properly or not quite yet....

Toni

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M Adamopoulou 3 years ago

Calendar sync is not in real time...

To avoid double bookings it’s better that you sync manually after each reservation!!!

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BrookAve 3 years ago

or better yet use a channel manager, to pull all calendars, and it then governs each OTA calendar.

 

it also acts as a sync master to prevent over/double bookings, hence why this is my standard response to any and all topics on BdC calendar not syncing or i have a double booking /overbooking.

 

have a look at free and paid for  CMs.

 

nobeds, cloudbeds, eviivo, siteminder etc..

now two CMs are the same , so look at the channel manager list under account menu in extranet for connectivity.

 

PS: as per the BdC Partner Help section up top, you will not be able to use the BdC import/export unless the room type count =1. If >1 feature is hidden/disabled.

 

Using a channel Manager bypasses this limitation.

 

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M R 3 years ago

Thanks for this suggestion, BrookAve. You are correct. These sync problems never go away.

Is it worth getting a CM for even a small business - 4 rooms? If so, would you be able to list some?

Cheers for reading  

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Antonio Bruno 3 years ago

Thank you M Adamopoulou for your answer, and thank you BrookAve: I already understood that the sync through iCal is not at all efficient and unfortunately I'm agree about the use channel manager.

But we are a small property and especially in this difficult time, any cost is a stone.

Looking for a way to manage the Calendar I tried to find out a free channel manager since the beginning, but I couldn't.

All seem not to be free and, at the end, all are requiring a quite high percentage to manage just few rooms on few OTA.

I wonder why Booking and co. decided to cut out the access to their API.... but this is another point (of sadness!).

Well, I would like to remark at this point the good question of MR and adding: is there any channel manager really free or at least really cheap that works with the major common OTA?

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BrookAve 3 years ago

there are several that are either free or offer up to X rooms for less than 15 euro a month subscription, and others that use different pricing models that are more.

 

nobeds, siteminder

cloud beds, eviivo and more

 

PS : in future open a new topic instead of replying to an old one.

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M R 3 years ago

Thank you for the reply, BrookAve.

Thanks too for the PS but I am not sure I understand this protocol; I am not a seasoned 'online person'...

Wouldn't it be preferable for all information on  a certain topic to be in the one 'list'? How does opening a new topic help? 

 

Cheers

 

 

 

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BrookAve 3 years ago

Its general internet forum ettiquette to not reply to a topic that is 12 months or older.

Plenty can have changed in 12 months too.

including newer or more recent comments that may be helpful, and there fore you miss them completely as you have only looked at the older topics.

 

Click Start A conversation ' to open a new topic, like 90% of everyone else does.

 

Go to the Partner Community

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M R 3 years ago

Thank you for this important lesson in internet forum etiquette, BrookAve. Learning never stops!

Best