Preventing double bookings at your holiday home

What is a double booking and why does it happen?

A double booking at your holiday home happens when two guests are booked for the same period at the same time. You have to call one of them off, and that situation is not pleasant for anyone. Platforms like Airbnb can restrict your account after a double booking, guests write bad reviews about it, and reputational damage is hard to repair.

The cause is almost always the same: your holiday home is on several channels at once, but the calendars are not linked. A guest books through Airbnb for the Easter weekend. A little later a second guest books the same weekend through Booking.com. You only discover it when you see the confirmation emails from both platforms side by side.

Several channels, several calendars: the basic problem

Holiday-home hosts are on two to three platforms at once on average. Airbnb, Booking.com, an own website, sometimes also Vrbo or a regional platform. Each of those platforms has its own calendar. If you confirm a booking on one platform, no other platform knows about it unless you also block it there manually.

That manual updating is exactly where things go wrong. You confirm a request, you intend to update the other platforms shortly, but something comes up. Meanwhile someone else books through another channel.

The solution: iCal synchronisation through a central calendar

iCal is a standard format for sharing calendar data. Nearly every booking platform and every calendar application supports it. The idea is simple: your calendar publishes its occupancy data as a URL. Other platforms can load in that URL and automatically take over the occupied periods.

A central availability calendar, such as the one from Rentiplanner, is the coordination point. All bookings from all platforms come together in that central calendar. That calendar in turn exports one combined iCal URL that you pass on to each platform. That way every platform always has a full picture of the availability.

Step by step: how to link your calendars

Setting up iCal synchronisation takes about fifteen minutes of work per platform. Here is the plan:

1. Create a central calendar in Rentiplanner. Enter your property and note the iCal export URL that Rentiplanner creates. You will need that URL on every platform shortly.
2. Get the iCal export URL from Airbnb. In your Airbnb account go to the Calendar tab, click on Availability and look for the Sync calendars option. Copy the export URL from Airbnb.
3. Import the Airbnb URL into Rentiplanner. In the iCal settings of Rentiplanner you add the Airbnb URL as an external feed. Rentiplanner fetches it periodically and shows the Airbnb bookings in your central overview.
4. Do the same for Booking.com. In your Booking.com extranet you go to Rates and availability. Under Availability you find the option to import an external calendar. Enter the Airbnb URL here, and also export the Booking.com URL to enter into Rentiplanner.
5. Pass the central Rentiplanner URL on to all platforms. Each platform has a field to import an external iCal URL. Paste the export URL from Rentiplanner there. That way Airbnb and Booking.com both import the full occupancy from one source.

Direct bookings: the forgotten risk factor

Bookings by phone, email or WhatsApp go outside the platforms and so are not synchronised automatically. That makes them the most vulnerable category for double bookings.

The rule is simple: every arrangement you confirm verbally or in writing, you enter immediately in your central calendar. Not shortly, not later. Right away, while you are still having the conversation or answering the email. Only once the period is blocked in Rentiplanner is it also blocked on Airbnb and Booking.com.

Cleaning and turnaround days

A common mistake is forgetting the day between two stays. If one guest leaves on Sunday and the next arrives on Monday, you need cleaning time. If that Monday still shows as free in your calendar, another platform can make a booking on it without any problem.

Always block cleaning days as occupied. Do the same for periods when you use the property yourself, for planned maintenance, and for freshen-up work before the season.

Checking iCal synchronisation

iCal is not a real-time link. Platforms fetch the feed with a delay of sometimes a few hours. During a popular period there is in theory a chance that two bookings come in just before the synchronisation takes place. That risk is small but not zero.

Check every month whether your iCal links still work. Platforms sometimes change their URL structure or require a reconfirmation after a login timeout. You only notice that when there is a double booking. A quick way to test: see whether a recent booking from Airbnb is also visible in Rentiplanner and in Booking.com as a blocked period.

You can also find more information about how iCal links work technically on the website of Airbnb itself.

What if you do end up with a double booking?

Despite every precaution, it can happen. Act quickly and honestly when it does. The longer you wait, the smaller the chance of finding a good solution.

1. Contact the guest you have to move straight away. Preferably choose the most recent booking or the shortest stay, unless one of the guests is already on the way. Call rather than email: a personal conversation feels less like a rejection.
2. Offer a concrete alternative. A comparable period, a nearby property from a fellow host, or a refund with extra compensation. A guest who feels fairly treated rarely leaves a bad review.
3. Report it to the platform. Both Airbnb and Booking.com have a procedure for a host cancellation because of a double booking. Use it instead of letting the guest cancel, so that the penalty or the poor score does not land on the guest.
4. Then find the cause. Had an iCal link expired? Was a direct booking missing from your calendar? Fix that leak before it happens again.

Platform penalties can add up. Booking.com may, for instance, charge a commission or compensation. You can read exactly how much in our article on the commission Booking.com charges. And if you want to understand the technology behind synchronisation more thoroughly, our guide to iCal synchronisation with Airbnb and Booking.com explains every step.

What you can do right away

Setting up a central availability calendar takes you an hour at most. Create an account with Rentiplanner, enter your property, and set up the iCal links on the platforms you use. After that you only have to keep track of bookings in one place. Getting started with Rentiplanner is free for one property.

Frequently asked questions about preventing double bookings

How does a double booking happen?

Most often because you are on several channels whose calendars do not talk to each other. If someone books on Airbnb while Booking.com still shows that period as free, a second guest can book the same dates. A direct booking that you forget to block also causes the problem.

How does iCal synchronisation prevent double bookings?

By connecting all your channels to one central calendar. A booking on one platform then automatically blocks the period on the others. You do not have to transfer anything by hand, and it is exactly that manual work that causes most mistakes.

Is iCal synchronisation instant?

Not fully in real time. Platforms refresh each other's calendar periodically, usually every few hours. Between two updates a small window remains in which two closely timed bookings can coincide. A central calendar that syncs often keeps that window as small as possible.

What about my direct bookings?

Direct bookings through your own website or by phone are the forgotten risk factor. Block such a booking immediately in your central calendar, and the block then also goes to Airbnb and Booking.com via iCal. If you forget, the period stays free elsewhere.

What do I do if I still have a double booking?

React quickly and honestly. Contact the guest you cannot host as early as possible, offer a solution or help finding another property, and cancel through the right platform to protect your rating as much as possible. Sort it out before the arrival date approaches.