Syncing your iCal with the Guesty calendar

Sync your availability between Guesty and external calendars—such as Google Calendar or other booking channels—to keep your schedule centralized. By syncing your calendars, you can view reservations from channels that don't integrate directly with Guesty and other property management systems directly in Guesty, helping you manage your time efficiently and preventing double bookings.

You can sync calendars through a direct integration or an iCal connection.

Understanding block calculation

By default, exported events push to the iCal with their original dates. However, block calculation in Guesty might differ from other channels and property management systems. Guesty includes portions of both the check-in and check-out dates as part of the reservation block, while other calendars may not. 

If dates require adjustment after syncing, manually adjust the start and end dates as described below. 

Calendar updates typically sync within one hour. To make retroactive adjustments, remove the connection between the calendars and start over with your specific changes. 

Prerequisites and limitations

• To prevent duplicate events, use either an iCal connection or channel integration, but not both simultaneously.
• To sync Google Calendar events with Guesty, confirm that your calendar uses a public address and that event access permissions are set to public. Refer to Google's documentation for more information.

Before syncing the Guesty calendar with an external calendar, read the following channel limitations.

Channel limitations

Airbnb

Don't use iCal if the listing is connected to Airbnb, as this causes data discrepancies. If you import a listing from Airbnb, the iCal link automatically disconnects, and any notes are removed.

Vrbo

Users with a full sync connection type:

• For the best experience, use Vrbo's direct integration instead of iCal. The direct integration provides centralized management and maintains data accuracy.
• If you prefer to use iCal, export your Guesty calendar first. Then, import the link to your Vrbo account to sync the calendars.

Users with a limited sync connection type:

• To mitigate sync delays and prevent double bookings, export your Guesty calendar and import it to your Vrbo account. Then, sign in to your Vrbo account and navigate to the calendar settings for the relevant listing. Look for an option labeled "Import calendar" or "Calendar sync", and paste the URL you copied from Guesty.
• A calendar conflict displayed with a red tag in your connected Vrbo account is expected behavior and doesn't affect bookings or availability.

Export your Guesty calendar as an iCal

Export your listing's calendar to share your availability with external channels. This creates a link you can paste into external calendars.

The export includes current and future reservations, along with the following blocks:

• Manual blocks
• Confirmed & reserved reservations
• Smart Calendar Rules
• Rental periods (unavailable by default)
• Booking window
• Advance notice
• Annual block limit (yearly night limits)
• Preparation time block

To export the Guesty calendar’s listing to your iCal, follow the instructions below.

Step by step:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click Listings.
3. Click the relevant listing.
4. In the left-side menu, click Calendar.
5. Select Calendar sync (iCal) from the dropdown menu.
6. Next to "Export your Guesty calendar", click Export Guesty calendar. If you previously generated a URL, click Edit.
7. Under “Guesty iCalendar link”, click to create a URL. 
8. Click to copy the URL.
9. If the dates require adjustment, toggle on Adjust exported events. Under “Adjust exported start date” and “Adjust exported end date”, select the relevant options from the dropdown menus.
10. In the top-right corner, click Save.

Import and sync an external calendar with Guesty

Import an iCal link to view reservations from other channels directly in your Guesty Multi-Calendar.

Imported current and future reservations appear as gray blocks labeled "Calendar sync (iCal)" in the Multi-Calendar.

How imported reservations function

• They act as flexible blocks, allowing you to create a Guesty reservation over them.
• They don't trigger Smart Calendar Rules.
• These blocks are placeholders to prevent double bookings, but they are not editable.
• You can't modify them, add notes, or update guest details

Importing an iCal is a one-time action. To continuously sync your calendars, activate the calendar syncing after the import. You can add up to ten import links per listing.

If an import creates a double booking, remove the connection, resolve the conflict, and start over.

Follow the steps below to import your iCal to Guesty.

Step by step:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click Listings.
3. Click the relevant listing.
4. In the left-side menu, click Calendar.
5. Select Calendar sync (iCal) from the dropdown menu.
6. Next to "Import external calendars", click Import calendar. If you've already imported one, click Edit.
7. Click Add an iCalendar link.
8. Under "External iCalendar link", enter a name in the "Name" field and paste the iCal URL in the "External iCalendar link" field. You can update the name and the link anytime.
9. Toggle Sync calendar on to activate continuous syncing.
10. If the dates require adjustment, toggle on Adjust imported events. Under "Adjust imported start date" and "Adjust imported end date", select the relevant option from the dropdown menus.
11. In the top-right corner, click Save.

Syncing status

After syncing, check the status next to the calendar name:

• Active: The sync is working correctly.
• Warning: The import failed. Guesty will retry for 24 hours. If successful, it changes to "Active." If it fails repeatedly, it changes to "Paused."
• Paused: The import failed for over 24 hours. We recommend that you disconnect and reconnect the iCal link.

If the status is “Warning” or "Paused” for over 24 hours, we recommend that you disconnect and reconnect the iCal link.

If you encounter issues, check our troubleshooting guide.