iCal or channel manager: the difference, and when calendar sync is enough

iCal is a calendar sync: two systems exchange, at intervals, on which dates a property is occupied. A channel manager is separate software that uses the portals' interfaces to transfer availability, rates and bookings continuously in both directions. Calendar sync is enough for single flats and small properties on a few portals. With several identical rooms, many portals or frequently changing rates, it is not.

What is iCal and what does it transfer?

iCal, or more precisely iCalendar, is an open file format for calendar data. It is defined in the standard RFC 5545 of September 2009 and describes events with a start, an end, a title and an identifier, independent of any particular calendar service. Your phone uses the same format for calendar subscriptions. The format has no field for rates or room allotments.

For the sync, each system provides an address ending in .ics. The other system fetches it regularly and blocks the dates shown there as occupied. Nothing more happens. The booking itself, meaning name, number of guests, price and payment, stays in the portal where it was made. In the other calendar you see only a blocked period.

What does a channel manager do differently?

A channel manager is connected to the portals as a technical partner. In its documentation for such partners, Booking.com states that they can use the interfaces to manage room availability, reservations, prices and many other things, alongside content, photos and messages, for example. For you this means: you maintain rates and allotments in one place, and every booking returns to your system with all its data.

Where is the risk with calendar sync?

The risk lies in the time between two fetches. Airbnb writes in its help centre that the calendar is refreshed automatically every three hours, that data for up to two years is imported, and that several linked calendars may refresh at different times. Other portals state their own intervals, which we did not check.

Worked example: at 10:05 a guest books your holiday flat on your website for the long weekend, three nights at € 140, so € 420. The portal fetches your calendar again at 12:00. At 11:30 a second guest books the same nights there. You now have two valid bookings for one flat and have to cancel one. That costs you alternative accommodation for the guest or a refund, plus a morning on the phone. With one flat and a few bookings a month this is rare. With ten rooms in high season it happens.

There are three less obvious weaknesses as well. If a fetch fails, you often notice only at the next double booking. A cancellation in the portal frees the dates on your side only after the next fetch. And because no rates are transferred, you maintain every rate change in every portal by hand.

For whom is calendar sync enough?

• A holiday flat, a holiday home or a chalet let as a whole.
• Small properties where each room has its own listing with its own calendar on the portal.
• One or two portals alongside your own website.
• Seasonal rates that you set once or twice a year.
• Longer stays and bookings made well ahead, so that a few hours of delay rarely matter.

Three habits reduce the risk further: check your bookings on every portal once a day, trigger the sync by hand after a last-minute booking, and accept very short-notice arrivals through one channel only.

For whom is it not enough?

• Hotels and guesthouses that sell several identical rooms as a category with a count. A calendar cannot say that three of eight double rooms are still free.
• Businesses on three or more portals. Every further connection is another fetch with its own delay.
• Properties with rates that change with occupancy or the day of the week.
• City hotels and properties on transit routes with many bookings for the same or the next day.
• Businesses that want portal bookings with guest data to appear at reception automatically rather than having to type them in.

If you recognise yourself here, look for a channel manager or hotel software with a built-in channel manager. Weigh the cost against what a double booking in high season and the manual work on rates cost you.

How do you set up the sync cleanly?

1. Decide which system leads. That is the calendar in which you enter bookings and blocks yourself.
2. Copy the leading system's export address into each portal and each portal's export address back. Both directions are needed.
3. Use a test block to check that it arrives on the other side after the next fetch, and note how long that took.
4. Treat the export address like a password. Anyone who knows it can see your occupancy.
5. Enter portal bookings with name and amount in your system if you issue invoices and account for the local tax there.
6. Once a week, look at warnings and at the date of the last successful fetch.

How this works in EachVisit

EachVisit has calendar sync via iCal and no channel manager. For each room category you import other portals' calendars as blocks and publish your own occupancy through a protected address. The sync runs at intervals and can be triggered by hand. If an imported block meets an existing booking, the booking is not overwritten. You receive an inventory alert and resolve the case yourself. Rates, minimum stays and the portals' booking data are not transferred, and there is no direct connection to Booking.com or Expedia. For holiday flats and small properties on a few portals that is enough. For hotels steering many portals with constantly aligned rates it is not. The Klein, Mittel and Groß plans cost € 69, from € 129 and from € 299 a month, with 0% commission. Stripe's fees apply.