Issues Syncing My Website's Listings with Airbnb Calendar

[Ben6746]

Hi Airbnb Community, I’ve integrated my website with Airbnb to display my property listings and sync booking availability using the iCal feature. While the integration initially worked, I’ve noticed that. Some bookings made directly on Airbnb don’t reflect on my website’s calendar. Changes to listing availability on my website (like blocking dates) take a long time to sync with Airbnb. Occasionally, duplicate bookings appear for the same date due to sync delays. I’m using a third-party plugin for the integration. Has anyone faced similar issues? Is there a recommended way to ensure real-time synchronization between my website and Airbnb? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[Joan2709]

@Ben6746 

I'm not a website creator, but I understand the sync needs to be programmed to sync more often. Have no idea how that is done, but someone else posted here with the same issue. 

[Shelley159 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Ben6746 

I sync my Airbnb calendar with one local accommodation booking site. It's slow in both directions - Airbnb only checks for updates on the other site every so many minutes (I don't know how many!) and similarly, the other site only periodically checks Airbnb for updates.

When I receive a last-minute booking, I always go to the site where I didn't receive the booking and manually sync that calendar, just to be sure it doesn't get booked there as well. I don't know how else to solve the problem. I only do this for last-minute bookings, because far-off dates are unlikely to get booked on both sites before the next auto-sync.

Absolutely not the solution you were looking for, I'm sure!

[Ben6746]

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@Ben6746 wrote:

Hi Airbnb Community, I’ve integrated my website with Airbnb to display my property listings and sync booking availability using the iCal feature. While the integration initially worked, I’ve noticed that. Some bookings made directly on Airbnb don’t reflect on my website’s calendar. Changes to listing availability on my website (like blocking dates) take a long time to sync with Airbnb. Occasionally, duplicate bookings appear for the same date due to sync delays. I’m using a third-party plugin for the integration. Has anyone faced similar issues? ** Is there a recommended way to ensure real-time synchronization between my website and Airbnb? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

**[Link removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

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Thank you so much for sharing your experience! Your advice to manually sync calendars for last-minute bookings was exactly what I needed. I hadn't considered doing that before, but it makes complete sense to prioritize manual syncing for high-risk situations like last-minute bookings. Since implementing this approach, I’ve managed to prevent duplicate bookings, which has been a major relief. While it’s not a perfect solution, it’s a practical workaround that works well for now.

I also appreciate the insight about the periodic nature of auto-syncing on both Airbnb and third-party platforms. It’s reassuring to know that these delays are a common limitation of the system. For now, combining the auto-sync feature with occasional manual updates has significantly improved the reliability of my calendar. Thanks again for your thoughtful response—it really helped me address the issue!