software to sync Airbnb and VRBO calendars

[Scott1520]

My wife and I  have been up and running our cottage with Airbnb now for 6 months and things are going very well. Bookings are going great, we have achieved our Superhost status and are looking to get more exposure.

I am investigating adding our cottage to VRBO, and syncing the bookings / calendar. I know there are several different software options out there, and would like to hear of some other hosts experiences with them. 

Hosty seems to be comprehensive, and with only 1 property to rent it seems economical at $10 a month for basic or $15 for pro.  Compared to Guesty which is charging a % of booking costs which will run us around $75 per month. 

Curious to hear peoples experiences with these platforms, or any others.

Thank you!

[Lorna170]

@Scott1520   There is no need to buy additional software.  I have my calendars synchronized directly from the AirBnB website.  You can choose to push from AirBnB to VRBO or pull from VRBO to AirBnB -- either direction works fine.  I have been doing it this way for many years with many OTAs.   (I was on VRBO 20 years ago....when it was just an advertising page.)

On the Air side it is under Pricing and Availability, Calendar Sync -- get the ical address from VRBO if you want to import from them, or use the ical address from Air to export to VRBO.  Very simple.

[Hong--Layla-0]

@Scott1520 when you are syncing the calendars Vrbo to airbnb, should you sync it backwards?  

also do you need to sync each listing separate or can you batch them, (I did that and it showed up on Vrbo has every day blocked.)

I do appreciate your assistance.  johndig

[Scott1520]

finally got around to this. So, if I understand this correctly, if I push from AirBnb to VRBO, how are VRBO reservations going to come back to show on my AirBnB? do they not need to be synced in both directions?

[Melissa2380]

I am new to AirBNB with only one property, could you give more info on how to get the "icaladdress"

Would you need to link the VRBO calendar to the AirBNB calendar site and then in the reverse link the AirBNB calendar to the VRBO site? TIA

[Tinsley0]

Is there a way to not only sync the availability, but pricing, and minimum stay nights?

[Debra300]

@Scott1520,

Please note that connecting your Airbnb calendars via software may automatically trigger a change in the service fee payout.  According to Airbnb, these types of accounts may be converted to the 15% host only pay structure vs the more common split pay setup with hosts paying 3% and guests pay up to 14.2% to Airbnb.

[Bob297]

Until now, I work with the Ical connection as Lorna described.
It starts to become a lot of work to change prices on all platforms since I work with seasonal prices,
syncing booking via Ical is a one-time setup and no problem. At least most of the time. Sometimes the ical connection gets lost. It's something you have to check regularly.

I am studying the smoobu platform now to connect all platforms

[Scott1520]

Good point on the seasonal pricing Bob. We have seasonal and weekend pricing, so it's a consideration when trying to keep everything the same. 

[Julie4742]

Do NOT use Enviivo! Since using this software I have had NO bookings and little help! I’m looking for how to segregate from them!