How iCal calendar sync works for vacation rentals

An iCal or ICS feed is a calendar data source. A booking platform can export occupied dates as a feed, while another compatible service can import that feed and block the same dates on its own calendar.

This is a lightweight availability exchange rather than a full reservation integration. Rates, guest messages, payment details, restrictions, and many other booking fields are normally outside the iCal format used by rental platforms.

A platform's export URL is the feed other systems read. To create a two-way calendar-sync setup, hosts typically export a feed from each platform and import it into the other platform according to that service's calendar settings.

Keep export URLs private. Anyone with a working feed URL may be able to read calendar timing information exposed by that source.

• Export the calendar feed from the source platform.
• Import that URL into the destination platform.
• Repeat in the opposite direction when two-way availability exchange is required.
• Verify that expected blocked dates appear after each platform refreshes the feed.

Each booking service decides when it refreshes imported iCal feeds. A reservation added on one platform therefore may not appear immediately on another platform that imports the feed.

For hosts who accept bookings on several channels, iCal can reduce manual calendar work but should not be treated as a real-time channel-manager connection. Verify current availability before accepting a manual or direct reservation when timing is critical.

Add the exported feeds you want to inspect to the same property in BnBCal Studio. Refresh the selected month to see occupied dates from each enabled source in one calendar and identify dates where multiple feeds overlap.

The studio is read-only toward the booking platforms. Its role is to make the calendar feeds easier to inspect, style, export, and share without replacing the synchronization settings maintained by Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, or another service.