Calendar links for Hipcamp, Airbnb and others

Calendar links keep Hipcamp (and Cool Camping), Airbnb, Booking.com, Campsites.co.uk, Glampsites, Canopy & Stars and any site with an iCal (.ics) link in step with your calendar, so a night sold on one closes on the other.

Set it up

1. Switch on Other booking sites in Settings, under Features.
2. Go to Other booking sites, tap Add a booking site, choose the site and tap its Add button, such as Add Airbnb. For one we don’t list, choose Another booking site, give it a name and tap Add this site.
3. Tap Link a pitch and choose Your pitch. If one listing sells several identical pitches, choose Any for that pitch type: it closes on the other site when they’re all taken. Airbnb listings and Booking.com rooms link to one pitch each.
4. Tap Next. The steps to Swap calendars open. Tap Copy link and give PootlrHost’s calendar to the other site, following the steps shown.
5. Copy the other site’s calendar link for the same listing, paste it under Calendar link from, and tap Save.

PootlrHost reads the calendar straight away and tells you how many bookings came in. Do this for each pitch you sell there.

How often they sync

• PootlrHost reads each other site’s calendar every 15 minutes, or straight away when you tap Sync now.
• The other sites read PootlrHost’s calendar on their own timetable, often every few hours. Sync now can’t hurry them.

As neither side is instant, two sites can now and then sell the same night. If that happens, PootlrHost keeps both bookings, flags the clash under Needs you on Today and emails you, so you can move a guest in good time.

What a calendar can and can’t carry

A calendar link shares dates and little else.

• Coming in: the dates, and any name the site puts in its calendar. Without one, the booking shows as, say, “Airbnb guest”. Dates the site has only closed come in as “Closed on Airbnb”, and hold the pitch too.
• Not coming in: prices, payments, extras, and the guest’s email or phone. Add anything you need to the booking yourself. PootlrHost can’t email or text these guests.
• Going out: your taken nights and closed dates, marked Booked or Unavailable, with no guest names or prices.

Changes and cancellations

New dates on the other site move the booking here. A booking that disappears from its calendar is cancelled here, for stays still to come. Cancelling one of these bookings in PootlrHost doesn’t cancel it on the other site: cancel it there too.

Good to know

• “That link doesn’t lead to a calendar” means you copied the listing’s web page, not its calendar link.
• If a site says the calendar doesn’t exist, the link has changed. Copy it again and paste it in with Change.
• Unlink or Remove stops that site’s upcoming bookings holding your pitches.
• Switch off pauses a site: PootlrHost stops reading its calendars until you switch it back on.
• Pitchup can link this way too. See Connecting Pitchup.
• The setup steps for Hipcamp, Airbnb and Booking.com, with fixes for common problems, are also on their own pages.