Troubleshooting: Data syncing issues between Guesty and Airbnb

This article aims to help you resolve sync issues between Guesty and Airbnb, including calendar availability, pricing, listing content, reservations, payouts, and guest messages. 

Once your Airbnb account and listings are connected―either by importing, publishing, linking, or reconnecting it―changes sync automatically between Guesty and Airbnb according to your sync type. If you experience syncing delays or issues for more than 24 hours, follow the steps below to resolve the issue.

Data won't sync between platforms if your Airbnb account is disconnected or suspended, or if the listing is unlisted.

Learn more about what data is synced between Airbnb and Guesty and where to manage it.

Verify your account is set up correctly

• Check your account is connected

Data doesn't sync between platforms if your Airbnb account isn’t connected to Guesty. Follow the steps above to check if your Airbnb account is connected to Guesty.

• Check if your account is suspended by Airbnb

Airbnb may suspend or deactivate an account due to a violation of Airbnb’s community standards. 

Once an Airbnb account is suspended, either temporarily or permanently, the following Guesty features will be blocked:

• Listing features won’t sync between the platforms, including the listing’s rates, availability, content attributes, reservations, and guest messages, including message automations.
• Your listings will be removed from Airbnb search results and won’t be bookable.
• Airbnb will temporarily hold payouts for completed reservations.

Additionally, upcoming reservations (confirmed or pending approval) may be canceled, and you may not receive compensation.

Follow the steps below to resolve this issue.

1. Upon your next login to Airbnb, you’ll be prompted to perform Airbnb’s “Review Your Account” procedure. If not, contact Airbnb’s Support to resolve the issue.
2. Once Airbnb lifts your account’s restrictions, disconnect and reconnect your account in Guesty.
3. Reconnect your listings via Guesty.

• Check if your account was deactivated and reactivated 

Your account may be deactivated due to a failed payment. All reservations created while the account was inactive won’t sync to Guesty. Once your account is reactivated, contact us to re-sync your account and listings.

 

Verify your listing is set up correctly 

• Ensure your listing meets Airbnb's region requirements

Ensure your listing meets local rules and regulations according to it's location. For example, in some locations, you must register your property before leasing it in some areas, while in others, properties can't exceed an annual number of nights. 

• Ensure Guesty is set up as the listing's connectivity provider (PMS)

Ensure Guesty is listed as the listing’s connectivity provider in Airbnb:

1. In yourAirbnb account, click Listings.
2. Select the relevant listing.
3. Under “Edit preferences”, select Property management software. Ensure Guesty is listed as the listing's PMS.

• Ensure the listing is synced to Guesty

If you added or deleted listings in Airbnb after the account was connected to Guesty, you need to manually sync them to Guesty.

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Growth mode.
3. Click Distribution.
4. Click the Airbnb thumbnail.
5. Locate the relevant account.
6. Click and confirm the action in the pop-up.
7. Refresh the page.
8. Ensure changes have been applied to the account.
   It can take 3-5 minutes for a new listing to appear and for deleted listings to disappear.

• Ensure the listing is connected and listed

If the listing is not connected to Airbnb or is unlisted, its features won’t sync between Guesty and Airbnb.

Check that the listing is connected to Airbnb:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Growth mode.
3. Click Distribution.
4. Click the Airbnb thumbnail.
5. Locate the relevant account.
6. Check if the relevant listing’s status is “Connected”. If the status is “Not connected”, click the dropdown arrow and select Reconnect. Follow any additional prompts.

Check that the listing is listed on Guesty and Airbnb:

Also, check if you’ve received a notification from Airbnb regarding your listing.

1. In your Airbnb account, click Insights.
2. Click Listing issues.

• Check if the listing is suspended by Airbnb

If your listing status is "Connected" in Guesty, but you are redirected you to an Airbnb landing page or an error 400 page when trying to access the listing page in Airbnb, it's likely suspended by Airbnb forviolating community standards. The listing will remain active, listed, and connected in Guesty, and billing for it continues. 

Follow these steps:

1. Contact Airbnb Support for further assistance. 
2. After Airbnb reactivates the listing, sync and re-list your listing:
   1. In to your Airbnb account, check that the listing is “Listed”.
   2. Go to Listings.
   3. Click Fix Now.
   4. Unlist and re-list the listing on Airbnb.
   5. Follow the instructions above to unlist and re-list the listing in Guesty.

• Check if the listing is set to limited sync

Check the listing's sync settings in the Airbnb integration page. If the column next to “Status” is blank, the listing’s sync setting is “Full sync”.

• If "Limited sync" is displayed, manage all content attributes in Airbnb. Updates in Airbnb to the content attributes won't be reflected in Guesty for Limited sync. 
• If the listing has a "Full sync" connection type, manage all content attributes in Guesty, including description fields, amenities, cancellation policy, and photos.

You can change the syncing type from Full sync to Limited sync, and manage just the content attributes in Airbnb while managing all other settings in Guesty.

• Check if the listing is unlisted in Airbnb but listed in Guesty

• When importing a listing from Airbnb, its status in Guesty matches its status in Airbnb. For example, if it's unlisted in Airbnb, it will also be unlisted in Guesty. Learn how to list or unlist the listing.
• Once the listing is connected between Guesty and Airbnb, list or unlist the listing via Guesty and the change syncs to Airbnb. If you unlist the listing via Airbnb, the change won’t sync to Guesty. In this scenario, you will need to re-list the listing in Airbnb.
• Disconnecting an Airbnb listing from Guesty doesn't unlist or deactivate it in Airbnb. If you disconnect an Airbnb listing from Guesty, unlist or deactivate the listing directly in Airbnb, as it is no longer managed via Guesty.

 

Verify your pricing and availability settings

If your pricing or availability settings don’t match the expected values, follow these steps to review your settings.

• Ensure the listing is available for booking

• Check your Multi-Calendar for unidentified blocks, and remove them if needed.
• Check your availability settings in Guesty and ensure that the listing is:
  • On an active rental period.
  • Inside its availability period.
  • Doesn’t have advance notice, preparation time, or check-in window restrictions.
  • Not blocked by a Smart Calendar Rule or because of an early check-in or late check-out.
  • Doesn’t have unassigned reservations (relevant for multi-units only).
  • Not blocked due to a violation of the host cancellation policy, such as when the host cancels a reservation for a non-valid reason.

• Check if prices were adjusted by pricing & availability tools

• Check if you’re using a different base price for weekdays and weekends. Airbnb weekend prices override all pricing tools (and manual adjustments) for weekends.
• Check if you added a non-refundable discount to your cancellation policy. The discount will appear in the guest folio in Guesty and the invoice in Airbnb.
• Pricing tools can adjust the price per night, and availability tools can change the listing’s minimum number of nights per stay. These adjustments will not always be displayed in the Guesty calendar. Check if you’re using any of the following tools:
  • Manual adjustments of the price per night or minimum nights per stay via the calendar.
  • Rate strategy 
  • Guesty PriceOptimizer
  • 3rd party pricing tools
  • Markups or markdowns
  • Weekly and monthly discounts

• Check if the listing changed to a sub-unit

Changing a listing type to a sub-unit (of a multi-unit) will cause it to inherit the settings of the multi-unit's parent unit by default. Any price adjustments made to the listing are overridden by the current pricing of the main unit.

• Check if Airbnb pricing tools are being used

• Check if you’re using promotions in Airbnb, such as Custom promotions. while these types of promotions are applied, they don’t sync to Guesty.
• Check if you're using rule-sets in Airbnb. They can override your settings in Guesty.
• Check of you're using Smart Pricing in Airbnb, which affects prices that are synced from Guesty to Airbnb.

• Ensure your fee configuration meets Airbnb's requirements

• If you’re using a cleaning fee, check that it is set according to the following logic, otherwise the syncing will fail:
  • If the base price is less than $600, the cleaning fee must be between $5 to $600.
  • If the base price is more than $600, the cleaning fee must be less than $600+25% of the price per night.
• Check that your additional fees are not higher than your base price, as this will prevent your listing from being validated by Airbnb.

 

Verify content attribute settings

Perform the following checks if data discrepancies occur between Guesty and Airbnb in your listing’s content attributes (i.e., description fields, property type, amenities, etc.).

• Check if the content attribute is "locked"

Making changes to specific content fields in Airbnb disables your ability to update the same fields in Guesty, regardless of the sync type. If you change these fields in Airbnb, they'll be managed only in Airbnb. These fields are:

• Listing title & description fields  (name, summary, the space, access, interaction with guests)
• Listing nickname
• Property type and listing type
• Amenities
• Address (apartment, street, city, state, zip code, country code)
• Location coordinates, and whether to display the exact location to the guest
• Listing views (not supported in Guesty)
• Listing directions (not supported in Guesty)
• Check-in & check-out instructions
• House rules (the free text only, not the Yes/No values)
• Wifi network and password in Airbnb (Guesty's "Guest should know" section, including Wifi name and password, doesn't sync with Airbnb).

To manage these fields back in Guesty, follow the instructions below.

1. Log in to your Airbnb account.
2. Click Listings.
3. Select the relevant listing.
4. Under “Edit preferences”, select Property management software.
5. Under “Not currently managed by Guesty”, click Manage from Guesty instead.
6. Click Yes, allow

All the fields listed under “Not currently managed by Guesty” will be managed in Guesty.

• Ensure the written content meets Airbnb's content policy

All written content (including the listing title, description fields, house rules, etc.) must follow Airbnb's content policy. Additionally, adding the following content will cause the syncing to fail:

• Email addresses
• Website links
• Phone numbers
• Emojis
• Abbreviations (Mr, Ms)
• Repetitive special characters
• All-capitalized words (such as "CC").
• Two words (or more) connected with a dot will be considered a website address and will cause an error to appear. I.e., [word].[word]. To solve it, ensure adding a space after the dot: [word]. [word]

• Check if your listing uses an unsupported property type 

Check that your property type is supported. If you imported your listing with an unsupported property type, changes to your content such as amenities, bedrooms, or bathrooms will fail to sync.

• Ensure specific content requirements are met

Check the Help Center articles prerequisites or limitations on the specific content attributes you want to update. Refer to our data management table to locate the relevant attribute and related articles.

 

Verify your reservation settings

If discrepancies between Guesty and Airbnb are related to a specific reservation, perform the following checks.

• Check if reservations are still syncing

• When importing a listing, it can take 24 hours for the listing's status to change to "Connected", and an additional 72 hours for all the listing's data, reservations, and guest messages to be imported to Guesty.
• Guesty only imports reservations from the last 360 days.

• Ensure the guest verifies their identity or payment details

A reservation may be missing from Guesty if Airbnb requires the guest to verify their identification. In this case, the reservation’s status in Airbnb will be “Awaiting guest ID”, and it won’t be synced to Guesty until its status is changed. 

Additionally, reservations withdrawn by guests won’t sync to Guesty.

After a guest books a reservation, Airbnb performs an additional verification of its payment details. If the verification fails, the status of the reservation changes to “Reserved” in Guesty but becomes inactive in Airbnb. In this case, contact us to remove the block from your Guesty calendar.

• Ensure financial information is imported from Airbnb

• When importing a listing from Airbnb to Guesty, its current and future reservations are imported to Guesty with their full data. Reservations with past check-out dates are imported without the guest's details, restricted by Airbnb for privacy reasons. Past reservations are imported as well but with partial or outdated financial information. Contact us to retrieve their correct financial information.  
• Additional fees set in Airbnb won’t sync to Guesty when importing a listing to Guesty. Configure the fees in Guesty as soon as the listing is imported.

• Check if Airbnb's special offer is applied to a reservation

Check if you applied a special offer to the dates of the reservation on Airbnb. A special offer overrides all other reservation fees and don’t sync to Guesty.

• Ensure financial details are complete

In the following two scenarios, reservations are received with partial financial information:

• Requests to book (before being approved): If you set a "request to book" policy for your listing, reservations are received in a "Reserved" status, and you can either approve or decline them. The booking request only includes the reservation total amount, without a breakdown of additional fees. However, when confirming the request, the full reservation breakdown syncs from Airbnb and is displayed in Guesty, including additional fees. 
• Inquiries and pre-approved inquiries: You can pre-approve a guest sends inquiry. For inquiries and pre-approved inquiries, only the reservation total amount  is displayed. The only fee that displays in the folio breakdown is the cleaning fee. Additional fees, such as linen or management fees, qre embedded in the accommodation fare, and aren't displayed in the guest folio. 

• Check if there are multiple same-guest inquiries 

When a guest submits an inquiry for a specific property but does not proceed with a booking so there is no confirmed reservation, the inquiry's data is retained in Guesty. If the same guest submits another inquiry for the same property, even months later, a discrepancy might arise in the pricing of the second inquiry, as it may reference details from the first inquiry.

• Check if the inquiry or request to book is confirmed

When a guest submits an inquiry or request to book, the reservation is only finalized when the guest completes Airbnb’s identity verification. Airbnb allows up to 12 hours for this process. During this time, the request appears in Airbnb as “Awaiting guest ID” and can still be accepted or declined.

Guesty does not receive these requests or any associated messages until verification is complete. Once verified, the request and any associated messages sync to Guesty.

 

Verify your reservation payout settings

You may notice a brief discrepancy in the payout for a confirmed reservation that started as an inquiry. However, once the reservation is confirmed, Airbnb sends the complete financial information, and the reservation's financials will sync with Guesty.

Follow the steps below if you encounter other payout discrepancies between Airbnb and Guesty (i.e. when the reservation payment status is "Paid" in Airbnb, but "Unpaid" in Guesty).

1. Perform the following checks:
   • Check if the listing is no longer connected to Guesty or if the listing is unlisted, deactivated, or suspended in Airbnb.
   • Check your Airbnb account, and see if it's missing payout details. You may be required to take specific actions on your Airbnb listing or host account (e.g. filling out tax information, missing payout methods, handling warnings, etc.).
   • Check if you added or changed invoice items in Guesty (either manually or via a third-party application). Alterations to the guest folio (invoice) in Guesty won’t sync to Airbnb, and the reservation will be marked as "Unpaid".

   • Check if you set up a Co-host payout in Airbnb. In this case, the reservation payment status is expected to be “Partially paid” in Guesty. You can contact us and request a record payment for the payout amount sent to the Co-Host.

2. Contact Airbnb support to resolve the issue. 

 

Verify your communication settings

Use our troubleshooting below if you encounter messages syncing issues between Airbnb and Guesty.

Learn why Airbnb messages appear archived or marked as read, and why they create duplicated conversations.

• Check for messaging discrepancies

Message is outdated

When connecting a listing between Guesty and Airbnb, Guesty only import messages from the last 360 days.

Message is being processed

There may be several minutes of delay during periods with high-load activity and it could take up to 15 minutes to update thread messages.

When importing a listing, it can take 24 hours for the listing's status to change to "Connected", and an additional 72 hours for all the listing's data, reservations, and guest messages to be imported to Guesty.

Message doesn't comply with Airbnb’s content policy

Airbnb validates and verifies your messages. All written content should follow Airbnb's content policy. Ensure your messages don't include any of the content below, otherwise the message won't be sent. 

• Website links
• Email addresses
• Social media accounts
• Phone numbers
• Emojis and symbols
• Abbreviations (Mr, Ms)
• Repetitive special characters
• All-capitalized words (such as "CC").
• Two words (or more) connected with a dot will be considered a website address and will cause an error to appear. I.e., [word].[word]. To solve it, add a space after the dot: [word]. [word]. 

Sharing email addresses, phone numbers, or website links is only permitted for confirmed reservations.

Violation of Airbnb's off-platform policy

Airbnb doesn't allow to ask for guests’ contact information before they book a stay, or misuse their contact information. Violation of Airbnb's off-platform policy may cause your account to be suspended.

Message not supported "via email" 

• To protect guest privacy and avoid disputes, Airbnb doesn't provide a guest's private email address with their reservation. When you message guests from your Guesty Inbox, make sure to send it "via Airbnb". If you send the message "via email", it won't be sent since there's no destination address.
• If you're using automated messages for Airbnb reservations, make sure to send them through the booking channel, and not as an email. Emails can't be sent without a destination address.

Your account was deactivated and reactivated

If your account was deactivated due to a failed payment, and then reactivated, all the reservations created while the account was inactive won’t sync automatically to Guesty. This can cause missing reservations, missing messages, and possible overbookings. In these cases, contact us to request a recovery.

Guest inquiries are missing

An inquiry from Airbnb syncs to Guesty only if there is a message attached to it. If the inquiry is withdrawn by the guest, the message won't sync to Guesty.

• Specific content is not displayed

Guest details are missing

Airbnb protects their guest's personal information. Reservations with a check-out date from before the import date won’t include the guest’s name for their security.

File attachments are missing

While you can send messages to guests in an HTML format via the Guesty Inbox, Airbnb doesn't support HTML messages in their inbox.

File attachments such as images, PDFs, or Word/Excel documents can't be sent in guest messages, and will be displayed as regular text.

Learn how to use Airbnb's email alias feature and how to share photos, travel guides, etc. via Airbnb.