Airbnb - iCal 1-way connection

 

Airbnb Calendar Sync Setup Instructions

The integration provides the ability to sync iBex room availability with Airbnb via their calendar import facility which accepts a url that provides availability data using the iCal format. Their calendar import facility provided the ability to sync their calendars with others like Google Calendar.

The limitation of Airbnb calendar is that the only information that is accepted is the availability status ie available or blocked (unavailable). This means that detailed data like availability counts, rates/prices and booking information are not transmitted through the connection.

Contact Details

Main website - www.airbnb.co.nz

Setup Instructions

Step	Action
1	The property has to have an existing account and properties representing each iBex room set up in Airbnb.
2	Login to your iBex account – click here
3	Click on New Sales Channel in the iBex menu (under the header Channel Management).Click on the green Plus symbol for the Airbnb sales channel.
4	Choose the Selling Group for the rates you wish to send to the Airbnb and click Register Sales Channel.
5	Click Register Sales Channel button. You will progress to the Channel Mapping tab.
6	Click Save button.
7	Click Save & Update Channel button to activate the connection.
8	The channel mapping is shown below. No rooms will be visible for mapping since room/rate mapping is not required.
9	Click on the View Room/Rates At Channel link on the mapping page to generate the calendar urls for each room as in the image below.
10	Login to airbnb.com
11	Select Your Listings from the top menu. Select the Listing you want to connect to iBex.The Airbnb availability calendar is shown below.
12	To prepare the Airbnb calendar for receiving iBex availability updates, set the calendar status to available up to a year into the future. This can be done by clicking on the current day on the calendar to bring up the availability settings, choose Available status, set the date range and save the changes. Please note that this may also update the Price per night for the selected date range. The property can be set to status Unlisted to prevent public view during this change. (A period longer than a year can be manually set available (eg 2 years) but Airbnb limits calendar changes through the integration to 360 days into the future.)
13	Click Availability Settings under your listing. Under Sync calendars, select Import calendar
14	Paste your calendar’s URL in the Calendar address (URL) field (retrieved in Step 9)Name your calendar (For easy reference we recommend using iBex & the room/rate name)Click Import CalendarMake sure the connection in iBex is enabled before entering the url in Airbnb.
15	Once synced you’ll notice your newly added calendar listed under the Sync Calendars section.
16	Refresh the Airbnb calendar page and check that the availability status matches iBex.
17	If the url was not accepted, an error message will show on the Import Calendar pop up window. In this case, check the channel log in iBex for error messages. An email notification is also sent if the room id is incorrect in the url. Usually, regenerating and pasting the calendar url into Airbnb will resolve the issue if the previously entered url has incorrect or has redundant data.

Important Notes

1. AirBnB supports a one-way connection using the iCalendar format. As as result the new interface will only keep AirBnB calendar updated up to 360 days into the future. Unfortunately this API will not update rates and MinStays requirements, so you still have to set manually these inside your AirBnB account.


2. Airbnb calendar block

• Manual blocking on Airbnb calendar will override any unblocking done by iBex. So if a period is manually blocked by the user, it will remain blocked even though iBex says it’s available.
• When a property is initially created on Airbnb, availability is initially blocked and it has to be manually unblocked before availability updates from iBex can take effect.

3. Each iBex room type is to represented by a property on Airbnb.


4. On the page https://www.airbnb.co.nz/help/article/99/how-do-i-sync-my-airbnb-calendar-with-another-calendar, please note the comment “If you edit an external calendar that syncs with your calendar on Airbnb, it will take a few hours for those changes to be visible to guests viewing your listing.” That means Airbnb pulls availability from iBex every few hours so availability changes in iBex won’t be instantly updated on Airbnb. However, the Airbnb calendar update can be manually triggered by clicking on the sync button.


   

5. If the connection in iBex is deleted and a new one created, Airbnb has to be updated with new urls since the data in the urls have changed with the new connection. 


6. Reservation made through AirBnB will not be feed through to iBex. As a result any bookings you receive through AirBnB will not update your availability in iBex unless the booking is entered manually.


7. There is no technical support for the calendar import at Airbnb since the connection it is quite straightforward. Errors are usually caused by incorrect data in the urls.