Airbnb iCal Sync: Export, Import and Fix Double Bookings

Airbnb iCal sync works in two directions. You export your Airbnb calendar as a private .ics link and paste it into the other platform. Then you export that platform's link and import it back into Airbnb. Do both halves, or you only have a one-way block and a double booking is still possible. Below you'll find the exact steps for Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com and Google Calendar, plus the delays and limits nobody mentions until a guest is standing at the door.

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TL;DR

Sync is two-way: export Airbnb's iCal link into the other site, then export the other site's link into Airbnb. Airbnb's help page describes this setup.
iCal is not real time. Airbnb pulls connected calendars about every 3 hours, and other platforms have their own intervals, so use Refresh after any change.
iCal moves dates only. It does not carry guest names, messages or rates, so it prevents double bookings but does not cut guest questions.
Google Calendar is a view-only mirror. It will not block dates on Airbnb.
Pair calendar sync with a digital guidebook so guests get answers without messaging you.

What iCal sync does, and what it doesn't
How to get your Airbnb iCal link
Sync Airbnb and Vrbo calendars
Sync Booking.com calendars with Airbnb
Add Airbnb or Booking.com to Google Calendar
How long does sync take, and how do you refresh it?
Why a sync stops working
When iCal is not enough
Our view: calendar sync is the easy half
Put your calendar and guest info in one place
A 15-minute setup checklist
FAQ
Sources

What iCal sync does, and what it doesn't

iCal is a plain calendar format. Each platform publishes a URL ending in .ics that lists your booked and blocked dates. Another platform reads that URL on a schedule and blocks the same nights on its own calendar. When a night is booked on one calendar, it is blocked on the other, which is the point of syncing your hosting calendars.

Three limits follow from how this works:

It is availability only. Per Vrbo's help center, imported calendars bring in reservation or blocked-date information. Rates, messages and guest contact details stay where they are.
It is on a delay. Nothing happens the instant a booking lands. There is a window in which two guests can book the same night. More on that below.
It is a bridge, not a system. Direct API connections between platforms and channel managers support fuller synchronization, including rates and inventory. iCal is the simple option for smaller or older sites, or for a single extra listing.

If you list on only two platforms and have one or a few properties, iCal is usually enough. If you run many listings at high occupancy, the delay starts to matter, and we cover what to do about it further down.

How to get your Airbnb iCal link

This is the step behind "export Airbnb calendar" and the Airbnb iCal URL. Airbnb moves its menus around now and then, so if a label differs slightly, look for the calendar sync or connect calendars option.

Open your Hosting dashboard and select the listing.
Click Calendar, then Availability.
Scroll to Connect calendars and click Export calendar.
Copy the link. It is unique to that listing.

Those are the steps in Airbnb's own guide. Treat the URL like a password. Anyone who has it can see when your place is booked, so do not post it in public forums or screenshots.

Check two details before you paste it anywhere. The link should end in .ics. And if a platform hands you one that begins with webcal://, change that prefix to https://, because many systems will reject the webcal version. Vrbo's import instructions say the same thing about webcal links.

Sync Airbnb and Vrbo calendars

Vrbo is where many hosts start, because the same property is often listed on both sites. You need to complete two halves.

Half one: Airbnb to Vrbo

Copy your Airbnb export link as described above.
In your Vrbo Owner Dashboard, open the listing, then Calendar, then Settings and the Availability tab.
Under Calendar sync, choose Connect calendars, then Manage imported calendars, then Import a calendar.
Paste the Airbnb link into Calendar URL, name the calendar, and select Import.

These menu paths come from Vrbo's import guide. It also lists limits worth knowing: you can import up to five calendars per property, imported calendars must block availability for unavailable dates, and events show for up to the next 365 days.

Half two: Vrbo to Airbnb

In Vrbo, export the reservation calendar for that property from the Owner Dashboard or the Owner mobile app, and copy the link.
In Airbnb, return to the listing's Calendar, Availability, Connect calendars.
Choose to import a calendar, paste the Vrbo link, name it "Vrbo" and save.

Name calendars clearly. If you have three listings and three sources each, "Calendar 1" and "Calendar 2" will cost you an afternoon of confusion later.

If you have several Airbnb listings that share one physical unit, for example separate listings for a whole house and one of its rooms, Airbnb has its own flow for linking calendars across multiple Airbnb listings. Use that rather than exporting and importing between your own listings.

Sync Booking.com calendars with Airbnb

Booking.com uses the same iCal format, so the pattern is identical. On Booking.com's side, per the Extranet help page on syncing calendars across channels, you sign in to the Extranet, click Rates & Availability, then Sync calendars, find the room or unit and choose Add calendar connection. There you paste your Airbnb link.

Then reverse it. Booking.com gives you an export link for the same unit. Paste that into Airbnb's Connect calendars section.

A practical point for Booking.com: it sells by room or unit type, and Airbnb sells by listing. If one Booking.com unit type covers several identical apartments, an iCal link for the whole type will not map cleanly to a single Airbnb listing. Sync only like-for-like units, or you will block nights that are actually open.

Add Airbnb or Booking.com to Google Calendar

Many hosts want to see every stay in the calendar they already use on their phone. This works, with a caveat.

Airbnb confirms you can sync your Airbnb calendar with Google Calendar: you add the Airbnb iCal link as a URL in Google Calendar's Add calendar setting, and reservations appear as events under Other calendars. Google's own support page on subscribing to a calendar covers the Google side of the process.

The same approach works for Booking.com and Vrbo: copy their export link, and add it by URL in Google Calendar.

The caveat is that this is a subscription, not a two-way connection. Google shows what Airbnb tells it. Airbnb's guidance notes that updates can take up to 24 hours to appear in Google Calendar, depending on Google's refresh. If you block a date in Google Calendar, nothing happens on Airbnb. Use Google Calendar to look, and make changes in Airbnb, Vrbo or Booking.com.

How long does sync take, and how do you refresh it?

This is where double bookings come from. Here are the intervals, from the platforms' own help pages:

Platform	How it pulls your other calendar	What to do
Airbnb	Automatically about every 3 hours	Use Refresh in Connect calendars
Vrbo	Vrbo's help page says imported calendars sync every 30 minutes, and new imports may take up to 20 minutes to appear	Check the import page after changes
Booking.com	Set by Booking.com's Extranet	Confirm in Sync calendars after you add a link
Google Calendar	Controlled by Google, can take up to 24 hours	View only, do not rely on it for availability

The Airbnb 3-hour figure and the Refresh button are covered on Airbnb's calendar sync help page. The Vrbo intervals come from its import guide. Platforms revise these numbers, so confirm on the help page if your setup is time-critical.

Here is a worked example. A guest books your Vrbo listing for Saturday at 9:05 a.m. Airbnb last pulled the Vrbo calendar at 9:00. Until the next pull, at around noon, Airbnb still shows Saturday as open. If someone books it at 10:30, you have two reservations for one night.

Habits that shrink the risk:

Hit Refresh in Airbnb right after any change on another platform, especially in peak season.
Block dates for your own use on the platform that sells the most, then confirm the block appears everywhere else.
Keep a minimum notice window or a same-day cutoff, so a stale calendar cannot be booked an hour before arrival. Airbnb lets you set how far in advance guests can book.
Once a month, open every connected calendar and compare a few upcoming weeks by eye.

Why a sync stops working

Most failures trace back to a handful of causes:

The URL is wrong. It should end in .ics, and webcal:// should be https://.
You synced one direction only. The other platform never learned about Airbnb bookings, or vice versa.
The link was regenerated or deleted. If you reset an export link, the old one stops updating. Re-import the new one.
A manual block was made in the wrong place. A block entered in Google Calendar will never reach Airbnb. A block entered in Airbnb will reach the others only after their next pull.
The imported calendar does not mark dates as unavailable. Vrbo requires that imported calendars block availability for unavailable dates.
Two sources overlap. If Airbnb imports Vrbo, and Vrbo imports a Google Calendar that already contains Airbnb events, you get confusing echo blocks. Keep one clear source per platform.

When something looks off, delete the imported calendar, re-export a fresh link and paste it again. It takes two minutes and fixes most cases.

When iCal is not enough

Calendar sync solves one problem: the same night sold twice. It does nothing for the work that fills your inbox. The calendar does not tell the guest the Wi-Fi password, how the lockbox works or where to park. Because iCal does not transfer guest details, it should never replace a property management tool or a digital guidebook when your aim is to cut incoming questions.

If you host on many platforms with high volume, look at an API-connected channel manager for the busiest channels and keep iCal for smaller sites. Platforms such as Vrbo and Airbnb favor API connections where they exist because those can carry rates, inventory and messaging, per Vrbo's help center.

Our view: calendar sync is the easy half

We build guest guidebooks for short-term rental hosts, so we see what happens after the calendar is sorted. Most hosts who fix their sync expect the stress to drop, and it does, but the messages keep arriving. They just change topic: from "is that date free?" to "what's the Wi-Fi?", "where do I park?" and "how do I turn on the heating?".

That is why we treat calendar sync as plumbing, and the guest experience as the product. Our platform includes iCal calendar sync, so your availability and your guest information live in one place. Guests open the guidebook by link or QR code, with no app to install, in over 30 languages. An AI assistant, Staya, answers the repeat questions using the details you entered. Across our hosts we have seen host messages fall by 73%.

Our advice is simple. Set up two-way iCal sync today, test it with a blocked date, and then write down everything guests have ever asked you. Put the answers in a guidebook before the next arrival. Messages you never receive are the cheapest to answer.

— stayscan

Put your calendar and guest info in one place

If you want sync plus a guidebook that answers for you, see our calendar sync page for how it handles availability across Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com. You can also start on the free plan. Paid plans start from $6 per month, and there is a 30-day free trial. A basic guidebook takes under 60 seconds to generate, and you can edit it afterward.

If you are only getting started, our free templates for house rules, check-in and welcome messages give you the wording, so the guidebook is not a blank page. Vrbo hosts can look at our VRBO host guide, and Booking.com hosts at the Booking.com host guide.

A 15-minute setup checklist

Export the Airbnb link for each listing and note which unit it belongs to.
Import it into every other platform where that unit is listed.
Export each other platform's link and import it into Airbnb, naming each clearly.
Add the links to Google Calendar if you want one combined view, remembering it is view-only.
Block a test date on one platform, press Refresh on the others, and confirm the block lands.
Delete the test block.
Write a one-page guest guide covering Wi-Fi, check-in, parking, house rules and checkout, and send it by link or QR code. Our guest guide use case shows what a complete one contains.
Review all connected calendars monthly.

FAQ

Can I sync my Airbnb calendar with Google Calendar?

Yes. Copy your Airbnb export link and add it by URL under Add calendar in Google Calendar. Your reservations then appear as events. It is one-way, and updates can take up to 24 hours, so do not use it to block dates.

How do I get my Airbnb iCal link?

Open your Hosting dashboard, select the listing, go to Calendar and Availability, scroll to Connect calendars and click Export calendar. Copy the .ics link it gives you. Each listing has its own link.

How do I refresh my Airbnb calendar?

In the Connect calendars section of your listing's calendar settings, click Refresh. Airbnb otherwise pulls connected calendars on its own about every 3 hours. Refresh right after any booking or block on another platform.

Does iCal sync guest names, prices or messages?

No. iCal carries only booked and blocked dates. Rates, guest details and messages stay on each platform, so you still need a guidebook or messaging tool to handle guest communication.