Airbnb calendar only syncs with other calendars up to one year in the future.

[Christopher327]

This is a copy of a message I have just sent vai the Feedback link:

I  have my home listed with both Airbnb & Vrbo and have both calendars linked.  I had a booking with Vrbo for July 2022 which clashed with an Airbnb one taken a few days earlier.  On investigating I found that booking had not synced to Vrbo.

I contacted Airbnb and your agent initially said all was ok at their end.

I contacted Vrbo via Chat and this is what was said:

Agent: Upon checking here, the reason why it does not show on your Vrbo calendar is because Airbnb calendar only imports bookings and blocked dates to the Vrbo calendar for the next 365 days from today. If the dates blocked in the Airbnb calendar are for dates over a year from today, they will not show in the Vrbo calendar.

Agent: You can manually blocks the dates if the reservation is one year from now.

Me: Is that down to Vrbo or Airbnb. Airbnb say they have no issues at their end so I presume it is to do with VRBO

Agent: Airbnb only allows us to import their calendar for a year. We don't have control to what their system allow us. It might be that there is no issue on both end, it's just that, its how Airbnb system normally works.

Me: It defeats the object of the sync then. I know I can manually block date but I may be out and about or asleep when a booking comes in from Airbnb and then another conflicting one comes in from Vrbo before I get to do the block! I then get penalized by Vrbo on the metrics due to having to cancel.

Agent: I understand and I apologized for that. Other booking platforms allow us to sync their calendars for years.

Me: Vrbo agreed to waive the last cancellation but said they would not do that again, which seems unfair when it is out of my control. I'll contact Airbnb again to take this up with them!

I contacted your support again to verify what Vrbo had told me and they replied:

'The answer to your question is Yes, this is the standard process and Airbnb´s Calendar Syncing only works up to 1 year in the future.'

I have since had another Airbnb booking for Nov 2022 that I have had to manually block on Vrbo due to it not syncing. Had another Vrbo booking come in before I had done that (due to being in bed asleep etc.) the same situation could have happened.

Many more bookings are now over a year in advance. It is ridiculous that Airbnb's calendar does not sync with other sites more than year ahead. It defeats the purpose of the syncing and can lead to a clash in bookings and unhappy guests.

I asked your support representative to escalate this issue but just got this reply:

'I just want to let you know that we do not have direct contact details or escalations for these kinds of concerns. In the meantime you can send a feedback in our help center through this link: https://www.airbnb.com/help/feedback'

So, I have sent you this message via that link in the hope that it gets read by the people responsible for the policy decisions.

You say at the top of this page:

'We’re always working to improve the Airbnb experience, so we’d love to hear what’s working and how we can do better.'

I therefore ask the people who can make changes happen to consider allowing Airbnb's calendar to sync to all other sites for all bookings regardless of how far ahead they are.

[Emiel1 · Accepted solution]

@Christopher327 

It is known the syncing is max. for 1 year. It is also mentioned in the Help section. So it is seems not a issue, but a policy. You can set the "availibility window" on your listings to 1 year to prevent getting bookings with a check-in date after 365 days from current date.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/99/how-do-i-sync-my-airbnb-calendar-with-another-calendar

[Christopher327]

I was referred to the help page by the agent, so I know it is a policy decision. My question is why do they have it and why can they not consider changing it!

Following my post I found another one regarding the same issue in 2017!!!

Airbnb allow Vrbo's booking to sync to theirs years ahead, so I see no valid reason why Airbnb does not reciprocate.

More and more bookings are now coming far in advance, so I do not feel restricting bookings to a year ahead should be the only answer.

It would be nice to hear from one of the policy makers to understand why the policy is in place.

[Jennifer2934]

Hi, @Christopher327 

I literally just had this same issue pop up. I had no clue that this was an official policy. Thank you for sharing the details from the Help Desk. You saved me a pointless call - and I'm so grateful to you right now!

I'm sorry you're running into this problem, but I hear you! And I appreciate the information you posted here.

Best regards, 

Jen 

[Christopher327]

Thanks for posting that. It is reassuring to know that I am not the only concerned about this issue.

This is the last reply I had from the Airbnb community support agent:

In regards your calendar synchronization, it only allows us to sync for 1 year in the future and this policy is based on our developer's system design.
And since you have submitted a feedback, hopefully it will be included to the improvement of our developers updates every year.

As mentioned to the agent earlier, I found a post about the same issue in 2017, so do not expect anything to happen any time soon!

I'm not convinced those who make the policy decisions of make the system changes ever get to see the feed-back or community posts. Maybe I'll be proved wrong and someone will get back to me!?!

I'm still trying to get my head round why they made that policy decision in the first place and, if they are aware of the issues it can cause, why they cannot make the necessary system changes.

[Pam358]

Also in the same boat with both a Labor Day 2022 and Christmas 2022 booking.  I understand we have to manually block all of our calendars, but, with increased travel demand AND the fact that AirBNB collects 50% of my revenue upon booking, why would they not consider updating their policy to protect hosts and potential cancellations?  Seems like a straightforward update in platform functionality and UX. 

[Christopher327]

My apologies, I meant to reply sooner! I have had no further feedback from Airbnb about this issue. I'm sorry you have had the same experience. It is good having the community support system but the agents just refer to current policy and it seems important issues raised such as this do not get to the people in Airbnb who made the decisions.

[Yanelis2]

Policy? 🤔

If Airbnb allows hosts to pen calendar windows for reservations for more than 1 year, then should export all of them. I just had a conflict booking with Vrbo for that reason.

Hopping they fix this.

It's embarrassing to have to cancel reservations

[Mary550]

This is not a good customer experience.  I have had 2 embarrassing issues with this 1 year sync.   I have had to shut my Airbnb booking window to 1 year while other platforms are 2 year or more.  To have to limit booking window to 1 year considerably reduces opportunities for Airbnb.   Bookings are very often more than a year. 

There is no technical reason for it.  Airbnb, please change your calendar export to match booking window at least!!

[Christopher327]

Hosts have all now received the message below.

I understand that cancelling bookings for preventable reasons needs to be avoided but Airbnb themselves are not helping the situation by their policy still not allowing their calendar to sink with other sites for more than a year ahead.

Many more bookings are now over a year in advance, so it is ridiculous that is the case. It defeats the purpose of the syncing and can lead to a clash in bookings and unhappy guests exactly what Airbnb want to avoid.

I raised this issue over a year ago and found previous posts dating back to 2017.

It is evident that nothing to date has changed and now Airbnb want to penalize hosts for something that Airbnb themselves cause. I therefore ask again that Airbnb make a change to their policy.

Email sent to hosts July 18, 2022:
As our partners on Airbnb, Hosts do an incredible job of honouring reservations and going above and beyond to support guests every day.

But when Hosts cancel on guests for preventable reasons – such as accidentally double-booking or wanting to host friends and family instead – guests lose the confidence to book on Airbnb, and this ends up hurting all Hosts. Airbnb also absorbs the cost of these cancellations when we need to help guests find a new place to stay.

For these reasons, starting on 22 August 2022, we’re updating our Host Cancellation Policy, which has been in place for years.

If a Host cancels a reservation for a preventable reason, a fee will be deducted from future payouts. The fee depends on the reservation amount and how close to check-in the reservation is cancelled.

The minimum cancellation fee is $50 USD and the maximum is $1,000 USD under the updated policy. The total reservation cost used to calculate the fee includes the nightly rate, cleaning fee and any pet fee, but excludes taxes and guest fees.

• If the reservation is cancelled more than 30 days before check-in, the fee is 10% of the reservation amount.
• If the reservation is cancelled more than 48 hours and less than 30 days before check-in, the fee is 25% of the reservation amount.
• If the reservation is cancelled 48 hours or less before check-in, or after check-in, the fee is 50% of the reservation amount for the nights not stayed.

If you have to cancel for unavoidable reasons, we’ll work with you and help your guests find another place to stay, without fees. These situations include:

• A valid reason beyond your control, such as emergency repairs (like a gas leak or a burst pipe) or serious personal illness that prevents you from hosting.
• Proof that a guest intends to have a party or break your house rules.
• An extenuating circumstance, such as declared emergencies and epidemics, certain natural disasters or government travel restrictions.

Get the full details on the Resource Centre.

Read the article

[Bella782]

It is now Christmas 2024, and no changes have occurred.  I have just had a double booking for 26 December 2025 simply because I have two-year booking windows with both VRBO and Air BNB, and both will only allow syncing of 365 days of the calendar.  Both are actually blaming each other!!  You would think that this issue would be addressed by now.  I hate reducing my booking window to 12 months because I get many bookings way ahead but it's the only reliable way to ensure I dont get double bookings