Calendar sync problem

[Elsa-Björg0]

Hi everyone,

I am having a problem with Airbnb and HomeAway sync.

It's always worked out but now it shows me this on HomeAway:

"Airbnb has not been able to sync for more than 72 hours. The URL may have changed or the service may be down."

Can anyone help? I do not want people to double book 😞

I've compared the calendars and they do not show the same results so I am nervous about this.

With thanks in advance,

Elsa

[Kirstie]

Hi @Elsa-Björg0,

Thanks for making us aware of this issue and thank you @Ryan-and-Lorelei0 for sharing the information you have managed to find out about it! We will pass on this feedback.

@Elsa-Björg0, @Karen354, @Jan129 I do suggest that you contact Airbnb directly about this - this Community Help Guide explains the best ways to get in touch with them.

 Hopefully this will be resolved soon 

Kirstie

[Ryan-and-Lorelei0]

Hi, @Kirstie:

Thanks for monitoring this thread. Note that this is the response I received yesterday from Airbnb support:

"

By way of update, I received the following response from Airbnb yesterday: 

"It does seem that our calendar is not syncing with the Homeaway calendar. We’ve been investigating the cause of the issue, and we’re working to resolve it as quickly as possible.

Thank you so much for your patience and taking the time to alert us to the situation. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. In the meantime, I would suggest just trying to keep your Homeaway calendar updated with Airbnb reservations. I can not give you a time frame when this issue will be resolved but I was informed that we have been working on the issue. Hopefully, we can fix this issue shortly.

Thank you again for your patience while we try to resolve the issue."

So it seems that the issue is, in fact, on the Airbnb side, and that they're working to resolve it. 

Please share back to Airbnb tech support that this is a very high priority affecting several people. I count on being able to seamlessly manage my rental property across multiple platforms. If Airbnb can't play well in that environment, it's a huge disservice to your hosts.

Thanks, and keep us updated.

[Joanne--Jo-0]

I too was having this issue,

Now today I see from Sept onwards in Homaway blocked out by AirBnB (I do not have any bookings on AirBnB). so I have removed the AirBnB calendar and am now trying to re-attach to Homeaway and when copying in the AirBnB link get an error message "Please check the URL you entered. If the problem persists, please contact the calendar provider for assistance"

Any resolutions suggested?

[Chavonne0]

I'm having the same problem!

[Ryan-and-Lorelei0]

@Kirstie:

Just received this update from Home Away support:

"Thank you for contacting HomeAway Customer Support.

I found out some additional information about the calendar issue today so I wanted to follow up with you to let you know. Your other case is still with tech support but I found out that Airbnb recently updated their calendar format and it no longer works with ours, we do have a ticket open with them but we do not know when, or if, they are going to fix what they did to make it no longer work with our calendar. It is also open with our development team so we are doing what we can to make it work as well. Other than that, I don't have any idea how long this might take, or even if we can get it fixed at all. Since you have a ticket with Tech support, when there are updates, they will email you to let you know what is happening."

Can you keep this thread posted on Airbnb's progress resolving this issue?

[Kirstie]

@Ryan-and-Lorelei0

Thanks for this update, it's useful to hear the details from Home Away's side of the issue. I will pass this on and let you know as soon as I know any more.

Thanks,

Kirstie

[Natalia111]

Kirstie, 

 we for sure need that issue to be resolved ASAP, it might create a bigger problem for us ,guests and so on...and lead to complaints ,refunds and additional furtrations....

When AIRBNB decided to make changes to their calendar platform, they should have taken a closer look on tech part while working with other channels/homeaway and etc...

We appreciate if anyone can tell us time frame, also i have noticed that airbnb website was down a few days ago...

[Gene12]

I HAVE A GOOD WORK AROUND!

While importing into Google Calendar and then Explorting it creates a new URL,  VRBO/Homeaway doesnt mark dates as booked. However, when doing same thing through Yahoo Calendar works.

Here are the steps:

1. Paste the AirBNB calendar into your browser - that will trigger an ICS file download

2. Open Yahoo calendar (sign in / sign up if you have to)

3. Click + Next to "My Calendars" and add the new calendar "AirBNB" (or any other name)

4. Click arrow next to AirBNB and select IMPORT and point to the ICS file you previously downloaded. Your bookings will be imported

5. Click arrow next to AirBNB and select Share. Make sure to select "Enable My Public Calendar" and "Generate Links".

6. Copy the ICS link and import into VRBO. 

it works!!!!

the above process will require Step #1 and Step #4 to be completed after each new entry..

Hope to hear back some success stories!

Gene

[Edwina5]

All seems to be fine this morning.  My calendar has synced finally.

[Natalia111]

HELLO, IM HAVING SAME ISSUE WITH 12 UNITS!

[Natalia111]

Hi to all! i have same issue and we have 12 units to run, just talked to AIRBNB ,they said noone complained and blamimg homeaway! 😞 we are about to loose our minds here, keep trying to upload new airbnb link to homeaway and no luck! :(( AIRBNB Should really have beter customer service ,we pay them for the service!

[Terri-and-Hal0]

I did a little looking into the RFC for iCalendar standard: RFC 5545 3.6.1. Event Component . I would appear that the bundle that is returned from airbnb's url produces output that is not compliant with the spec. Here is what I got from validating my calendar:

1. warning: Invalid MIME type detected, should be 'text/calendar' (found MIME type 'text/html') near line # 1Reference: RFC 5545 8.1. iCalendar Media Type Registration
2. Error: Lines not delimited by CRLF sequence near line # 1Reference: RFC 5545 3.1. Content Lines
3. Error: Missing DTSTAMP property near line # 5Reference: RFC 5545 3.6.1. Event Component

YMMV

-Hal

[Ryan-and-Lorelei0]

@Terri-and-Hal0: Thanks for this excellent insight.

@Kirstie: Is this something that you can feed to the Airbnb tech folks?

I still haven't seen a resolution from either Home Away or Airbnb.

[Terri-and-Hal0]

Ryan & Lorelei,

I have tried to figure out how to submit a technical report or to contact Airbnb/tech; but haven't figured out how to do that.

I don't think they are keen to have any contact with their customers.

Oh well.

Hal

[Jan129]

As of today, my Airbnb calendar has now been synced with my Homeaway calendar! Finally! But  now Airbnb has blocked out two dates on my Homeaway calendar that are actually open for bookings! Fix one problem, create another! Ugh~~~