iCalendar is an open standard for exchanging calendar information, widely used in accommodation management applications and services. Thanks to its simplicity and flexibility, iCalendar is an excellent solution for integrating calendars from various OTA (Online Travel Agencies) systems, allowing you to automatically update room availability.
iCalendar allows room calendars to be imported and exported between BedBooking and many different OTA portals (e.g. Expedia, HRS, Hostelworld, Alohacamp, Slowhop, Agoda, Booking.com, Tripadvisor, Wimdu, Airbnb).
Synchronize data with iCalendar
iCalendar allows you to synchronize data about:
- date (start date and end date of the reservation),
- label (e.g. customer's name),
- reservation number.
Other information, such as:
- personal data of other people assigned to the reservation,
- contact details,
are not synchronized using iCalendar. This is a limitation due to the iCalendar format.
Synchronization of room calendars between BedBooking and OTA portals is done automatically after the configuration is done correctly and the connection is activated.
1. if you add a reservation in the BedBooking calendar, then (using iCalendar), it will be automatically sent to the OTA portal.
2. if you add a reservation in the OTA portal, then (using iCalendar), it will be automatically sent to the BedBooking calendar. Keep in mind that the time at which OTA portals synchronize is entirely up to the OTA portals - BedBooking synchronizes information instantly (for exports) or every 10 minutes (for imports), but this does not mean that other channels do it as often!