How do I sync Airbnb and Booking.com calendars with my website (iCal)?

If you also rent out on Airbnb, Booking.com, Abritel or another platform, iCal synchronization lets you share availability in both directions. A date booked elsewhere is blocked on your site, and vice versa.

What is synced, and what is not

iCal is a standard calendar format. It carries blocked periods only:

Your rates therefore still need to be managed on each platform. Imported bookings appear in Kraft Booking as external blocks: bookings of iCal origin, with no amount and no guest details.

Export your calendar to the platforms

Each unit of an accommodation has its own iCal export address, the Outgoing feed link.

1. Open Kraft Booking › Accommodations, click Configure for the accommodation, then open the Syncs tab below the listing. Choose the unit ("Choose a unit"), the Outgoing direction (or Two-way if you also import the platform's calendar) and click Add.
2. Expand the feed you created and copy the Outgoing feed link (it contains a secret key: do not publish it). The link is also listed in Kraft Booking › Planning & rates, Syncs tab.
3. On the platform: - Airbnb: Calendar › Availability › Calendar sync › Import calendar, paste the URL and name it "My website". - Booking.com: Rates & Availability › Sync calendars › Import calendar. - Other platforms: look for "import an iCal calendar" in their settings.

Bookings made on your site now block the dates on the platform. There is no button to regenerate the address: if you suspect it has been leaked, archive the feed (Archive button, its link then stops working), add a new one and replace the address on each platform.

Import the platforms' calendars

1. On the platform, retrieve the export URL of your listing: - Airbnb: Calendar › Availability › Calendar sync › Export calendar. - Booking.com: Rates & Availability › Sync calendars › Export calendar.
2. In Kraft Booking, on the listing's Syncs tab, choose the unit and the Incoming (or Two-way) direction, paste the URL into "Remote iCal URL" and click Add. The same form exists in Kraft Booking › Planning & rates › Syncs (Add feed button).
3. Each feed is numbered ("Feed #…"): note which platform it corresponds to. An active rate plan is required for the import to work.
4. For an immediate first import, open Kraft Booking › Planning & rates › Syncs and click Sync on the feed's row.

You can add as many feeds as needed per unit.

Sync frequency

Kraft Booking re-reads each imported feed every 15 minutes using the WordPress scheduled task. The platforms, for their part, re-read your export at their own pace (usually between one and a few hours).

As a result, there is always a short window during which a date may appear available on both sides. This is inherent to the iCal format and common to every tool on the market.

If the last sync date stops moving forward, see the "iCal calendar does not update" section of the Troubleshooting article.

Avoiding double bookings

A few good practices:

• Enable a preparation buffer between two stays (accommodation listing, 05 Booking tab: "Days blocked before each arrival" and "Days blocked after each departure (cleaning)"): the departure date of an external booking also blocks the following day if needed.
• Check the first sync: visually compare the Kraft Booking calendar with the platform's calendar.
• Favour an immediate deposit on your site: a confirmed booking is blocked instantly, without waiting for the platforms to re-read the feed.
• Do not manually block a date on the platform that is already booked on your site: the sync takes care of it, and you will avoid duplicate blocks that are hard to clean up.
• If an imported event overlaps a booking that already exists (or blocked days), it is not imported and is counted as a conflict: check the "Created / Updated / Cancelled / Conflicts" column in Planning & rates › Syncs › History & alerts. An email also warns you when a feed fails or has not synced for 3 hours (Settings › "iCal sync alerts").

Tips

• Note each feed's number and platform so you can quickly identify where a block comes from.
• If you remove a listing from a platform, archive its feed (Archive). Blocks already imported remain in place: cancel them if needed from Bookings.
• Imported blocks generate neither invoices nor service fees: they do not go through Kraft Pay.

Key points

• Export: one secret "Outgoing feed" link per unit, to paste into each platform.
• Import: one feed per listing, re-read every 15 minutes; Sync button in Planning & rates › Syncs.
• Only dates are shared, never prices or guest data.
• Days blocked before and after each stay and an immediate deposit limit the risk of double bookings.