Syncing your iCal with the Guesty calendar

Any property shared between different external services, such as PMCs and advertising services, is referred to as "non-exclusive inventory." You can sync your external listing’s non-exclusive inventory calendar (iCal) with your listing’s calendar in Guesty. Syncing your calendars will help you avoid double bookings and present the correct availability to your guests. iCal syncs with the Guesty calendar every 1 hour.

Learn more about calendar discrepancies for imported and exported iCal synced events.

Before connecting an iCal to Guesty, read the following channel limitations:

Channel limitations

Airbnb

A Guesty listing connected to Airbnb cannot be connected to an iCal as well. 

  • When a listing is imported from Airbnb to Guesty, Airbnb automatically disables the iCal connection to avoid conflicting updates. All iCal calendar blocks and notes will be removed from the listing's calendar, and the iCal link will be removed from Airbnb.
  • If you're publishing a listing to Airbnb, avoid connecting your iCal to Airbnb, as it will cause data discrepancies in your events.  

For the same reason, avoid connecting your iCal to Airbnb after the listing is connected to Airbnb.

Vrbo

Pro users Lite users

For the best reservation management experience, use Vrbo's direct integration instead of iCal. The direct integration provides centralized management across all channels and maintains data accuracy. If you prefer to use iCal, export your Guesty calendar, import the exported iCal link into Vrbo, and sync the Vrbo calendar to the corresponding Guesty listing's calendar. 

Import and sync your ical

Importing your iCal events is a one-time action, which means Guesty will pull the iCal only once. If you want your calendars to sync continuously, activate the syncing of the calendars. Failure to do so will prevent the syncing of external iCal events in Guesty.


The pulled events appear as blocks in the Multi-Calendar, displayed in gray with a "Calendar sync (iCal)" caption. Only current and future reservations will be imported.

Imported blocks cannot be modified via Guesty. Additionally, there is no option to add notes to these blocks, or update the guest's details. However, any iCal block is considered a flexible block, thus you can create a reservation that will override it.

Follow the steps below to import your iCal to Guesty.

Pro users Lite users



Step by step:

  1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
  2. In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Operations mode.
  3. Click Properties.
  4. Click the relevant listing.
    • If the listing is a multi-unit, you can manage this feature via the multi-unit's main unit, and the settings will apply to all its sub-units. Alternatively, you can configure the settings for a specific sub-unit. Click the main unit or the specific sub-unit.
  5. In the left-side menu to the left, click Calendar.
  6. Select Calendar sync (iCal) from the dropdown menu.
  7. Next to "Import external calendars", click Edit.
  8. Click Add an iCalendar link.
  9. Fill in the “Name” field, and insert the iCal URL to the field under "External iCalendar link”. You can update the name and the link anytime. When changing the name of the calendar, the new name will be adjusted starting from the next import.
  10. To activate a continuous syncing of the calendar, switch on the Sync calendar toggle. iCal will sync with the Guesty calendar every 1 hour.
  11. By default, imported events will be pulled with their original dates. Guesty calculates blocks per night. To avoid misalignment of the pulled events, adjust the start and/or end dates of the blocks as described next. Updates made to the calendars are reflected within 1 hour.
    1. Switch on the Adjust imported events toggle.
    2. Under “Adjust imported start date” and “Adjust imported end date”, select the relevant option from the dropdown menus.

  12. Click Save.

Note:

  • If importing an iCal event creates a double booking, you can remove the connection between the calendars, resolve the double booking (change one of the reservation dates, cancel it, etc.), and start over.
  • You may add up to 10 import links per listing/sub-unit.
  • To adjust the start/end dates of imported blocks retroactively, remove the connection between the calendars and start over with your specific adjustments.
  • Imported events won’t trigger Smart Calendar Rules.

Syncing status

During the importing process, you can see one of the following statuses to the right of the relevant imported calendar’s name: Active, Warning, and Paused. iCal syncs with the Guesty calendar every 1 hour.

Learn more below.

Active

The syncing between the iCal to Guesty's calendar is successfully activated.

Warning

Your iCal calendar wasn't able to be imported. In this case, Guesty will re-attempt to sync for 30 attempts. The process can take up to 24 hours.

If the downloaded attempt is successful, the status will be changed to Active. If the downloaded attempt fails, the status will be changed to Paused.

If your status is on "Warning” or "Paused" for over 24 hours, we recommend that you disconnect and reconnect the iCal link.

Paused

This status means that your iCal wasn't imported for the past 24 hours and the syncing process has been paused.
If the status is "Paused” for over 24 hours, we recommend that you disconnect and reconnect the iCal link.

Tip:

  • You can sync an iCal from a channel (such as your calendar in Expedia) without having to connect to the channel via the Distribution page.
  • If the listing becomes exclusive (to Guesty/another PMS) stop syncing the calendars.
  • 3rd party protection tools (such as Cloudflare) may prevent the iCal from being imported to Guesty. In this case, disable the protection tool until you’ve finished the import.
  • Events received via iCal are excluded from Advanced Analytics data (relevant to Pro users only).
  • The iCal sync should take 1 hour to sync, but sometimes the exact duration can vary, so we recommend allowing up to several hours for changes to be reflected.

Export your Guesty calendar to an iCal 

You can export your listing’s calendar in Guesty to an iCal. Exporting your calendar is a one-time action. If you wish to continuously sync the calendars, refer to the “Importing and syncing your iCal” section above.

The following current and future blocks will be exported from Guesty through iCal:

To export the Guesty calendar’s listing to your iCal, follow the instructions below.

Pro users Lite users

Step by step:

  1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
  2. In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Operations mode.
  3. Click Properties.
  4. Click the relevant listing.
    If the listing is a multi-unit, you can manage this feature via the multi-unit's main unit, and the settings will apply to all its sub-units. Alternatively, you can configure the settings for a specific sub-unit. Click the main unit or the specific sub-unit.
  5. In the listing's left-side menu, click Calendar.
  6. Select Calendar sync (iCal) from the dropdown menu.
  7. Next to "Export external calendars", click Edit.
  8. Under “Guesty iCalendar link”, click the sync icon to create a URL.
  9. By default, exported events will be pushed to the iCal with their original dates. Guesty calculates blocks per night. To avoid misalignment of the pushed events, adjust the start and/or end dates of the blocks as described next. Updates made to the calendars are reflected within 1 hour.
    1. Switch on the Adjust exported events toggle.
    2. Under “Adjust exported start date” and “Adjust exported end date”, select the relevant option from the dropdown.

  10. Click Save.

Note:

  • You may create one export link per listing. In the case of a multi-unit, create one link for each sub-unit (Pro users only).
  • Only current and future blocks/reservations will be exported to the iCal.

If you encounter issues syncing your iCal, see our troubleshooting guide.

Was this article helpful?
0 out of 0 found this helpful