iCal allows you to sync booking availability between Guesty and external calendars such as Google calendar, or other booking channels. This prevents double bookings and allows you to manage all reservations in Guesty. You can sync your Guesty calendar with another channel's calendar through direct integration or an iCal connection. iCal syncs with the Guesty calendar once every hour.
Note:
- To prevent duplicate events, use either an iCal connection or channel integration, but not both at the same time.
- To sync Google Calendar events with Guesty, make sure the settings for your calendar use a public address, and that your access permissions for events are marked as 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
If a Guesty listing is connected to Airbnb, don’t connect it to iCal as it can cause data discrepancies. If you import a listing from Airbnb, the iCal link is automatically disconnected and any notes are removed.
Vrbo
Users with a full sync connection type:
For the best reservation management experience, use Vrbo's direct integration instead of iCal. The direct integration provides centralized management across all channels and maintains data accuracy.
If you prefer to use iCal, export your Guesty calendar. Then navigate to your Vrbo account where you can import your Guesty iCal link and sync the Vrbo calendar to the corresponding Guesty listing's calendar.
Users with a limited sync connection type:
To mitigate sync delays and prevent double bookings, we recommend to 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 does not affect bookings or availability.
Export your Guesty calendar as an iCal
You can export your listing’s calendar in Guesty as an iCal. Exporting your calendar is a one-time action. You can create one export link per listing.Current and future reservations are exported, along with the following types of 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:
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click Listings.
- Click the relevant listing.
- In the left-side menu, click Calendar.
- Select Calendar sync (iCal) from the dropdown menu.
- Next to "Export your Guesty calendar", click Export Guesty calendar, or Edit if you've previously generated a URL.
- Under “Guesty iCalendar link”, click
to create a URL. - Click
to copy the URL. - By default, exported events are pushed to the iCal with their original dates. Guesty calculates blocks per night, which can differ from other channels. In the case of misalignment, adjust the blocks' start and end dates, as described below. Calendar updates typically sync within 1 hour.
- Toggle the Adjust exported events on.
- Under “Adjust exported start date” and “Adjust exported end date”, select the relevant option from the dropdown menu.
- In the top-right corner, click Save.
Import and sync an external calendar with Guesty
Importing an iCal is a one-time action. To sync your calendars continuously, activate the calendars syncing following the import. You may add up to 10 import links per listing.
When importing iCal events, current and future reservations are imported as blocks. These blocks can't be modified, with no option to add notes or update guest details.
An iCal block is considered a flexible block, thus you can create a reservation that will override it. An iCal block won’t trigger a Smart Calendar Rule.
The imported events appear as blocks in the Multi-Calendar, displayed in gray with a "Calendar sync (iCal)" caption.
If importing an iCal event creates a double booking, remove the connection between the calendars, resolve the double booking (by changing one of the reservation dates or canceling it) and start over.
Note:
Third-party protection tools, such as Cloudflare, may prevent the iCal from being imported to Guesty. In this case, disable the protection tool until you’ve finished the import.
Follow the steps below to import your iCal to Guesty.
Step by step:
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click Listings.
- Click the relevant listing.
- In the left-side menu, click Calendar.
- Select Calendar sync (iCal) from the dropdown menu.
- Next to "Import external calendars", click Import calendar, or Edit if you've already imported one.
- Click Add an iCalendar link.
- Under "External iCalendar link”, fill in the “Name” field, and insert the iCal URL to the field. You can update the name and the link anytime, and the new name will be adjusted starting from the next import.
- Toggle Sync calendar on to activate a continuous syncing of the calendar.
Guesty calculates blocks per night, which can differ from other channels. In the case of misalignment, adjust the blocks' start and end dates, as described below. To make retroactive adjustments, remove the connection between the calendars and start over with your specific changes. Calendar updates typically sync within 1 hour.
- Toggle the Adjust imported events on.
- Under “Adjust imported start date” and “Adjust imported end date”, select the relevant option from the dropdown menus.
- In the top-right corner, click Save.
Syncing status
After importing or syncing a calendar, one of the following statuses appear to the right of the calendar's name:
Active
The syncing between the iCal to Guesty's calendar is successfully activated.
Warning
Your iCal calendar wasn't imported. In this case, Guesty will re-attempt to sync for 30 attempts. The process can take up to 24 hours.
If the downloaded attempt is successful, the status will change to Active. If the downloaded attempt fails, the status will change to Paused.
Paused
This status means that your iCal wasn't imported for the past 24 hours and the syncing process has been paused.
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 syncing your iCal, use our troubleshooting guide.
