WHY IS IT POSSIBLE TO SEE DATA ABOUT MY GUESTS WHEN I IMPORT YOUR CALENDER INTO MY GOOGLE CALENDER.

Julie1402
Level 2
Croft, United Kingdom

WHY IS IT POSSIBLE TO SEE DATA ABOUT MY GUESTS WHEN I IMPORT YOUR CALENDER INTO MY GOOGLE CALENDER.

I was alerted by a complete stranger recently that they were able to see names & contact details about my guests who had booked via Airbnb when they viewed the google calender connected to our own website. I have spoke to 3 members of the customer support now since this issue was brought to my attention, I have sent screen shots of the problem to Gilda who promised to get Technical to look into this on the 20.1.19 nothing happened. Then we spoke to another customer support a guy called LUKE on the 26.1.19 who could see the issue for him self when he looked at our website and he promised to get technical to call us, they have not. This evening 31.1.19 we called again & the really helpful support guy Alex confirmed this was noted on our records & it had been passed to technical to respond to. He has promised to tell his manager that I am a concerned &  a unhappy host, afraid of the legal implications connected with this information breaching the Data Protection Act in the UK & yet I am unable to contact technical myself or indeed unable to even be allowed to send them an email expressing my concerns to them directly. Is the fair on hosts & customers - surely I cannot be the only host who synchonrises bookings from Airbnb to their own Google calender? does any one have an suggestions as what we should do, other than cancel our agreement with Airbnb to avoid being prosecuted? Have Airbnb got something to hide? Why not just be honest & tell me they are working on a solution to resolve the issue?

3 Replies 3
Allison2
Level 10
Traverse City, MI

This isn't an Airbnb issue, it's a problem with how you set up the sharing details in Google calendar. I don't know why it's so hard for them to tell you this! My experience is that if the first line CS people don't have the answer they'll turf you to another "team" like Trust & Safety or Technical and they will NEVER call you back.

 

In Google calendar you need to change the permission settings to "Make this calendar public" with the "Share only my free/busy information" box checked. This will fix it so potential guests can just see when you're busy, but no details of others' reservations.

 

See detailed info here:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Syncing-Airbnb-Calendar-and-Google-Calendar-A-Community-Hel...

 

You may need to delete your current calendar and re-import it using the above steps. Consider using 2 Airbnb calendars - one that's publicly available (with no details) and one that's private, for your use, to see the details.

 

Best of luck!

Hello Julie, 

I too accidentally made my Airbnb calendar public by attempting to share it with my co-host. I'm trying to searh for it on Google to see if others can truly view it, but I can't seem to find it. However, I don't want to rely on my searching ability because I'm sure if my Airbnb reservation details are "public", someone, somehow, can find it. Just like in your case. 

My question now is, after 2 months since your post, were you or was someone able to help fix this problem? What steps did you take? 

Looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you. 

@Sam424 @Julie1402 , as @Allison2 noted, you have to log into your Google account and go to your calendar.  

 

If your Airbnb calendar is under "My Calendars," you will be able to make it private.

 

If your Airbnb calendar is under "Other Calendars," you won't be able to make it private if it is already public.  If you want to make it private, you can remove the calendar, then import it again from a URL and make sure the "public" setting is not checked.

 

Google doesn't think you own any calendar that's under "Other Calendars."  That's why you can't customize the settings too much.

 

I spent days on this once, because I wanted to share the calendar with my cleaner.  It's hopeless.  If you add a calendar to "My Calendars," you can set it for privacy and for sharing with specific people.  But the calendar won't update.

 

I finally signed up with TurnoverBnB, which is free is you use your own cleaners and pay them manually.  It's been much better.