ICal import

Ical Import

This page is about the menu  (SETTINGS) CHANNEL MANAGER >  ICAL IMPORT and explains how to import bookings or block dates using an external iCal or google calendar

1 Capabilities

Beds24.com can import bookings from up to 3 iCal calendars per room. Many holiday rental sites support Ical more Information

• You can select if the end date of an event is the last night of the booking or the checkout day.
• Each full day or multi day event in your iCal calendar will be imported as a booking.

Changes to dates can be imported:

• If a booking that was previously imported is missing from a future import, the booking status will be changed to Cancelled.
• Importing changes or cancellations can be disabled for individual bookings or the entire calendar.

Import into Beds24:

• The event summary is imported as the guest name.
• The event description is imported as the guest comment.
• The full event information from the iCal is stored in the api message field of the booking.

The iCal export channel can be set up to ignore bookings imported using an iCal import channel, this allows two way connections to be made to google or similar calendars without creating duplicate bookings.

The calendar will normally be checked multiple times per hour. For details please click here

2 Limitations

The iCal calendar must be available on the internet for Beds24 to poll and must be set for public access. Some calendars like google allow public access (sharing) to be set on an event basis and only public events can be imported.

Bookings must be defined as full day events on the days you want to block.

Only the information specified in the Capabilities section above can be imported from the iCal.

3 What you will need

The URL of the iCal calendar to import from.

4 Setup

Step 1: Enter the calendar URL you want to import

Step 2: Define if certain bookings should be ignored so they do not import (optional)

Events in the iCal will be ignored if they contain this phrase in either their Summary or Description.

To specify multiple phrases, enter one phrase per line.

Step 3: Select whether the calendar specifies the end of the booking by last night or check-out date

• "ignore duplicates" will ignore bookings if there is another booking from any channel with the same dates which is not cancelled.
• "Ignore if all dates unavailable" will not import a booking if the room is not available for any reason (no inventory, blackout).

If you accidentally imported from a wrong iCal or imported with the wrong settings click on the "delete booking tool link" to delete all imported bookings.

5 Disconnect

• Remove the URL
• Set "Import2"= Disable

6 Custom Fields

The following custom fields from an iCal feed can be used in the iCal. If present in the iCal feed the data is imported into the relevant booking field.

X-EMAIL: [email protected]

X-PHONE: 12345678

X-NUMADULT: 2

X-NUMCHILD: 0

X-PRICE: 100

7 Notes

Duplicates

If you import bookings from a calendar that is also using ical export, (2 way connection) you will probably create duplicate bookings as they are passed back and forth between the systems.

The ignore duplicates options will not import a booking from the iCal if a non cancelled booking already exists in the same room for the same dates regardless of the source of the booking. For example a booking might be made on your booking page and exported via iCal to a third party system. If using a ignore duplicates option, iCal import will not re-import that booking. Note that only the dates are used to determine a duplicate, this means a booking will not import from ical if a booking for the exact same dates already exists in the room, even if it is in reality a different booking.

See the instructions for ical export -> "Data Options" to prevent re-exporting bookings which have been imported by the iCal import channel.

Modifications

Booking modifications and cancellations can be imported or ignored.

A booking will be considered cancelled if it is no longer in the iCal

Additionally an email notification to the host can be sent when iCal cancellations occur.

Modifications to the check-in, check-out and guest name fields are supported.