Syncing your iCal with the Guesty calendar

iCal allows you to sync booking availability between Guesty and an external calendar such as Google Calendar, preventing double bookings and allowing you to manage all reservations in Guesty. You can sync your Guesty calendar with the calendar of another channel by direct integration, or by an iCal connection. iCal syncs with the Guesty calendar once every hour.

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:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click Listings.
3. Click the relevant listing.
   1. In the left-side menu, click Calendar.
   2. Select Calendar sync (iCal) from the dropdown menu.
   3. Next to "Export external calendars", click Edit.
   4. Under “Guesty iCalendar link”, click  to create a URL. 
   5. Click to copy the URL.
   6. By default, exported events are pushed to the iCal with their original dates. Guesty calculates blocks per night. To avoid misalignment of the pushed events, adjust the blocks' start and/or end dates, described next. Updates made to the calendars are reflected within one hour.
   1. 1. Switch the Adjust exported events toggle on.
      2. Under “Adjust exported start date” and “Adjust exported end date”, select the relevant option from the dropdown menu.
      3. Click Save.

Import and sync an external calendar with Guesty

Importing an iCal is a one-time action. If you want your calendars to sync 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 cannot be modified, there is no option to add them notes or update the guest's 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.

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.

If importing an iCal event creates a double booking, remove the connection between the calendars, resolve the double booking (change one of the reservation dates, cancel it, etc.), and start over. The pulled events appear as blocks in the Multi-Calendar, displayed in gray with a "Calendar sync (iCal)" caption. 

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 Edit.
7. Click Add an iCalendar link.
8. 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.
9. Toggle Sync calendar on to activate a continuous syncing of the calendar.

   Guesty calculates blocks per night, which can be different from other channels. In the case of misalignment, adjust the blocks' start and/or end dates, described next. To adjust the start/end dates retroactively, remove the connection between the calendars and start over with your specific adjustments. Updates made to the calendars are reflected within 1 hour.

   1. Switch the Adjust imported events toggle on.
   2. Under “Adjust imported start date” and “Adjust imported end date”, select the relevant option from the dropdown menus.
10. Click Save.

Syncing status

Following the import/sync process, you can see one of the following statuses to the right of the relevant imported calendar’s name. Learn more below.

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.