To avoid double bookings when you list on more than one site, every site has to know about every other site's bookings. You do that by connecting their calendars with iCal links, and by closing the gap those links leave: they are not instant. This guide covers both.
Why double bookings happen
Airbnb, Booking.com and Agoda each keep their own calendar for your place. None of them knows what the others sold. If a guest books your condo on Agoda for December 24 to 27, Airbnb still shows those nights as open until something tells it otherwise.
Most double bookings in the Philippines happen in the busiest weeks, which is exactly when they hurt most: Christmas, Holy Week, summer, and your town's fiesta. Nights sell fast on several sites at once, and there is nowhere left to move the second guest.
Option 1: connect each site to each other site
Every major booking site can export a calendar link (a web address ending in .ics) and import links from other sites. Connect them in pairs and a booking on one blocks the dates on the other.
With two sites, that is two links: Airbnb reads Booking.com's link, and Booking.com reads Airbnb's. With three sites, it is six links, and every new listing multiplies it again. It works, but it is easy to miss one, and nothing warns you when a link stops working.
We have step-by-step guides for each site:
- How to sync your Airbnb calendar with Booking.com
- How to import and export your Agoda calendar
- How to connect your Booking.com calendar
Option 2: connect every site to one calendar
A channel manager sits in the middle. Each site sends its bookings to the channel manager, and the channel manager sends one combined calendar back to each site. Three sites need three connections instead of six, and you see everything in one place.
This is what UpaKwarto does. It also checks every calendar for overlapping bookings and alerts you the moment two land on the same night, instead of letting you find out on check-in day. If you are not sure you need one, read What is a channel manager, and does a small host need one?
What calendar sync cannot do
Calendar links are not instant. Each site reads the other calendars on its own schedule. Airbnb says imported calendars update every 3 hours, and Agoda says its calendar connections refresh several times a day. In that window, a second guest can still book the same nights.
The window is small on a quiet week and dangerous on a busy one. Why calendar sync can still double-book you explains the gap and what you can do to shrink it.
Some listings cannot use calendar links at all
Booking.com and Agoda only offer calendar sync for room types with one unit. If you sell "Standard Room" with five identical rooms under one room type, or a dorm with several beds, those listings cannot be connected by calendar link. See Running a hostel dorm on several booking sites for what to do instead.
A short checklist
- Connect every site you list on, not just the two biggest.
- After connecting, make a test block on one site and check it appears on the others once they refresh.
- Look at the last-updated time on each connection every week or so. A broken link fails silently.
- During peak weeks, check new bookings as they arrive and close the dates yourself if you can.
- Keep one place, whether a channel manager or a notebook, where you can see every booking at once.