Sync Airbnb and VRBO or handle manually?

[Wes541]

I'm having good luck with Airbnb and am happy with the platform. I can't help but wondering though if I could maximize on empty nights by also listing on VRBO. Just in hopes of filling out my calendar to increase revenue. 
I know there's plenty online about syncing calendars, but also that you run the risk of double booking in the time it takes for calendars to update. Not a super high chance, but a chance and I'd like to avoid that at all costs. 

Has anyone found ways around this that don't involve paying ridiculous percentages to third parties to manage it? Or perhaps could I manually update calendars on both platforms immediately upon receiving a booking? I have time to manually block off dates but I'm wondering if I should just do that or do a combination of syncing AND manually blocking....So many questions I know! 
Any advice/input/anything would be greatly appreciated!
Once I iron out the calendar end of things, I know I'll have to dive into pricing to make sure guests on both platforms pay the same amounts essentially....but that's a separate issue I guess.

[Joan2709]

Hi @Wes541 

Most Hosts manually block while waiting for the calendars to sync. You can also "refresh" the Airbnb link to speed up the process. Once the calendars have synced, you will see a red "conflict" appear on the Vrbo calendar. You can leave it, or just remove the manual block on Vrbo and the Airbnb calendar sync will show normally on Vrbo. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Wes541 My thoughts:

1) Pricing might be easier if you sign up to simple pricing with Airbnb such that the price you list is the price a guest pays and there is no guest service fee. Your fee would be 15%+VAT

2) Spreading risk is great but you might drop down the search algorithm if you get fewer Airbnb bookings as a result of getting some VRBO bookings.

[Kia272]

@Wes541  Put one on Instant Book and the other request only. Very easy.