Sync KeepMeBooked with AirBnB, Google Calendar and others

This is a biggy: KeepMeBooked now allows you to publish an iCalendar feed (also know as iCal or ICS) of your availability information. This means you can automatically update your AirBnB calendar, a Google Calendar, or any other calendar that accepts an iCal feed.

(Terminology note: iCal is the common name for the iCalendar standard for exchanging calendar information. It is also, confusingly, the calendar program you get on an Apple Mac. We are talking here about the iCalendar standard, which most calendars (including, as it happens, Apple iCal) can read. Got it?)

Here's how it works:

Go to Settings > iCalendar Integration:

On the next screen, select what information you want to include in your iCal feed. Once published, anyone to whom you give the link will be able to read the information in it. If you opt to include guest contact details, those details will be in the iCal feed. So if you are using the feed to update your housekeeper's Google calendar, you might not want to include guest contact information, for example.

Click 'Save and show iCal addresses', and you'll see a pop-up window with a list of web addresses, one for each of your rooms or units:

You can copy-paste that URL into any calendar that supports the iCal format. For Google calendar, for example, click on 'Add by URL' under 'Other Calendars':

Then paste your iCal address into the box that pops up:

You'll then see bookings from your KeepMeBooked calendar appear in your Google calendar. Note that Google only checks iCal feeds every few hours, so changes you make in KeepMeBooked won't appear in Google Calendar immediately.

To use your iCal feed to update AirBnB, click on "Calendar import tool" under Sync Calendars in AirBnB:

When asked to choose calendar source, pick 'Other':

Then paste your iCal feed address in the box on the next screen:

Your bookings from KeepMeBooked will now appear in your AirBnB calendar. Like Google Calendar, AirBnB only checks the iCal feed every few hours, so updates you make in KeepMeBooked won't be immediately reflected in AirBnB.

For now, this feature is one-way only: you can publish availability from KeepMeBooked into other calendar applications. We are looking at making it two-way in future, to allow you to use an iCal feed from another calendar to update KeepMeBooked.