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Airbnb guide

Our Channel Management feature is extremely powerful and can greatly simplify your channel advertising. Learn how it works by reading our Channel Management overview article.  A core part of our Channel Management is the Calendar Import/Export process which keeps your OwnerRez calendar in sync with channel calendars.

This article provides a walk-through guide for configuring calendar import/export for Airbnb.  You need a calendar import and export for Airbnb, so make sure to configure both.

Airbnb Luxe listings do not have iCal support in either direction.

Importing calendar from Airbnb

Log in to your Airbnb account and follow the instructions from Airbnb's Help Center article, Connect your Airbnb calendar to other websites.

In OwnerRez, open the same Property > Calendars > Calendar Import.  Under the Import tab, click Import Calendar and paste in the same URL that you copied from Airbnb above.  By default, the Listing Site and Name fields should fill in as Airbnb.

Choose "Bookings Only" for Import Events.  Channels can create "ghost" bookings as guests start, but don't finish, the booking process (abandoned shopping carts).  The "Bookings Only" option prevents those from mistakenly blocking your calendar.

If this is the first time you are importing this calendar, check the "Include Past Events" checkbox so you'll have history of old bookings.

Click Save at the bottom to finish.

If you have any questions about the other settings on the calendar import page, read our general overview on configuring calendar imports or consult the Common Issues & Questions support article.

Exporting calendar to Airbnb

Log in to your Airbnb account and follow the instructions from Airbnb's Help Center article, Connect your Airbnb calendar to other websites.

In OwnerRez, navigate to Settings > Channels > Calendar Import/Export and click the Export tab.  A list of your OwnerRez properties will show with an export link next to each one. Find the property you are currently working on and copy the export link for that property by clicking on the right Copy button.

Navigate to Settings > Channels > Calendar Import/Export and click the Export tab.  A list of your OwnerRez properties will show with an export link next to each one. Find the property you are currently working on and copy the export link for that property by clicking on the right Copy button.

Back in Airbnb, paste the export link from OwnerRez into the Airbnb Connect Calendars process to save and finish.

If you have any questions about calendar exporting, read our general overview on configuring calendar exports or consult the Common Issues & Questions support article.

Common Questions

I set up the calendar import from Airbnb, and bookings are showing up in OwnerRez, but they contain next to no information.

Yes, that's right - Airbnb doesn't provide any information in their calendar feeds.  About all you get is the dates themselves, which are enough to block off your calendar and prevent double bookings, but that's it.

To get all the information for a booking, you need to manually run Channel Bridge, which will copy it from Airbnb's website using your credentials.  Or, we recommend that you hook up the Airbnb API connection, after which you won't need calendar syncs for Airbnb.

Why am I getting messages about an Airbnb calendar booking changing dates?

Airbnb's iCal calendar feed code has a known limitation - it only pushes dates out up to 365 days in the future.  If you have a booking that starts just before then, but ends afterwards, the calendar feed will show that booking ending exactly 365 days in the future, even though it really ends later than that.

Of course, tomorrow, 365 days in the future will be one actual day later - so from the perspective of the calendar feed, the booking has changed its end date to be one day later.  This will happen every day until the actual end of the booking is reached.

Why aren't my future bookings that are more than one year from now being imported into OwnerRez?

This is a known issue with Airbnb iCal -- Airbnb only includes bookings up until 365 days from now.  Any further out bookings will not be included in the iCal until the time of arrival is within 365 days. 

Why is my Airbnb pending booking blocking my availability calendar?

That is expected behavior. When connected via iCal, Airbnb will block your availability calendar while the booking is still pending and waiting for the host to accept the booking. This is not the case if you are Airbnb API connected, but only for people who are connected via iCal.