FAQ about iCal synchronization

- Is it possible to export and import booking between my booking platform (Airbnb, Booking.com*, VRBO, HomeAway, etc.) and your Hotel Booking plugin?

- Yes, the MotoPress Hotel Booking plugin allows you to import and export the bookings in iCal (ICS) format. Thus you may sync calendars of each unit with third-party booking platforms that support the iCal type of synchronization. So we recommend checking whether your third-party booking platform allows you to import and export bookings using iCal links

- What booking information can be delivered by this type of synchronization?

- The main purpose of iCal synchronization is to avoid overbooking. That is why the most important information is Check-in and Check-out dates. You will also need to identify the booking somehow so some platforms add the name of the Guest or ID of the booking.

This type of synchronization does not deliver the proper price of the booking, all the details of the guest, capacity, or added services.

-  Is this a 2-way synchronization - download and upload bookings?

- The Hotel Booking plugin and each OTA can only import (download) bookings from each other. Thus each side of this process provides an iCal export URL for each property unit that should be pasted to other OTAs to let them import bookings. In other words, the synchronization with Airbnb will look like this:

- you copy ical links from Airbnb and paste to your site - it allows your site with our Hotel Booking plugin to import bookings from Airbnb

- you copy ical links from your site and paste the links to Airbnb - thus Airbnb can import bookings from your site. You may exchange the links with an unlimited number of channels like Airbnb.

As you can see each platform is responsible for importing bookings and just provide export links for other OTAs to let them import bookings too.

- Is the synchronization automatic or manual? - You may import the bookings manually or enable automatic synchronization within the settings of the Hotel Booking plugin.

- How often does the synchronization run?

- It rather depends on each booking platform. As for the Hotel Booking plugin so the shortest interval is 15 minutes. You may import bookings from all the added third-party iCal links each 15 minutes automatically. The other possible intervals are 30 minutes, Once Hourly, Twice Daily, Once Daily.

As for the external booking platforms so you should check their documentation to learn how often they import bookings.

- Is it possible to export blocks (closed dates) as well as bookings?

- Yes, there is such an option that allows you to export the closed dates - Export admin blocks.

- Is it possible to sync rates/prices between the website with the Hotel Booking plugin and third-party booking platform?

- No, this type of synchronization allows you to import and export bookings and blocks (closed dates) only.

- If the booking has been canceled on one side will the synchronization cancel the imported booking automatically?

- By default, there is no unified status that would tell the platform that the previously imported booking has been canceled or removed. So when you cancel/remove a booking - it simply disappears from the iCal file. And that is why it rather depends on the booking platform that imports bookings. Some booking platforms are coded to remove the previously imported bookings automatically if it is not available in the ical file during the next import session. However, some platforms ignore it and so we recommend you to check all the platforms to remove the imported bookings if it has been canceled on the original resource.

As for the Hotel Booking plugin, it removes the imported bookings that have been canceled/removed on the external booking platform.

- Does Hotel Booking support any other types of synchronization like Channel Manager?

- No, there are no other ways to sync bookings with the Hotel Booking plugin.

* - booking.com allows syncing the booking in iCal format only if it meets their Eligibility criteria