ICal Export
This page is about the menu (SETTINGS) CHANNEL MANAGER > ICAL EXPORT and explains how to synchronise Beds24 with your Google or any iCal calendar
Contents
1 Capabilities
Beds24.com can export bookings and unavailable dates as an iCal feed.
Google calendar and many other systems can read the iCal feed.
Many holiday rental sites support Ical more Information
For details please click here
2 Limitations
Only active bookings are exported, cancelled bookings will not appear.
Settings in prices which limit availability are not considered.
Your Calendar program is responsible for routinely updating the calendar, we have no control over how often systems like Google calendar actually perform an update.
3 What you will need
The Beds24 Calendar URL as displayed in the channel manager menu for each room.
4 Beds24.com
4.1 Calendar content
The calendar information consists of a "Summary" and a "Description.
- The Summary of each event can be customized using the iCal Summary field, this field can contain text and Template Variables.
- The Description of each event can be customized using the iCal Property Description and iCal Room Description fields, these fields can contain text and Template Variables.
Both are optional,
We provide 4 different URLs from which you can choose:
iCal: Because the iCal feed is public, by default only non personal data will be included in this URL
If the secret token in the URL is used, the iCal SUMMARY and DESCRIPTION fields of each iCal event can contain more information about the booking.
Include Property and Room Description: This link will show personal information plus the values of the template variables you have entered in the "iCal Property Description" and "iCal Room Description" fields.
Include Property Description: This link will show personal information plus the values of the template variables you have entered in the "iCal Property Description" field.
Include Room Description: This link will show personal information plus the values of the template variables you have entered in the "iCal Room Description" field.
If you add &nourl=1 to the URL the link to the booking will be removed.
4.2 Activate
Select whether to export bookings only, blocked dates or both bookings and blocked dates.
All upcoming bookings are included and blocked dates for one year in advance.
4.3 Seed
The Seed is optional and can be used to change the token values. You only need to use this function if your token is compromised.
Enter a short phrase or word to seed new tokens. After you press SAVE you will see that the Urls for "Include Property and Room Description", "Include Property Description" and "Include Room Description" have changed. Make sure you have these exact URLs entered in your calendars.
If anyone accesses the calendar with the wrong token only the default non-personal iCal feed will be shown.
5 In your Calendar
The iCal export will work with any calendar capable of importing iCal format data. Google and Mac chosen here as examples because they are often used.
Google.com
- Log into your Google calendar.
- In the left column select "Other calendars".
- Select "Add by URL".
- Enter the Beds24 Calendar URL (see above).
- Click Add Calendar and the bookings for that room should import.
- Repeat for any other rooms.
Mac
- In Calendar, choose File > New Calendar Subscription.
- Enter the calendar’s web address, and then click Subscribe.
- Enter a name for the calendar in the Name field and choose a color from the adjacent pop-up menu.
- Repeat for any other rooms.
6 Data Options
1. These options can be used to setup two way syncing to a google or other calendar without re-exporting imports and creating duplicate bookings. See also the options for iCal import to ignore duplicates.
| Paramenter | Use |
|---|---|
| &icalimport1=hide | add this to not include bookings imported from channel Ical Import 1. |
| &icalimport2=hide | add this to not include bookings imported from channel Ical Import 2. |
| &icalimport3=hide | add this to not include bookings imported from channel Ical Import 3. |
2. Additional parameters can be added to the calendar URL to further specify the export data.
| Paramenter | Use |
|---|---|
| &end=lastnight | Exports the end date of the booking as the date of the last night, i.e. one day before the checkout date |
| &dates=checkin | Only shows check-in days, not the rest of the booking |
| &dates=checkout | Only shows check-out days, not the rest of the booking |
| &showtime=true | Adds time to the calendar dates. Default checkin is added at 2PM and checkout at 10AM
This option should only be used if your software requires dates including time information. |
| &starttime=hh:mm | Specifies the event start time, for example 16:00 when using &showtime=true |
| &endtime=hh:mm | Specifies the event end time, for example 11:00 when using &showtime=true |
| &timezone=Europe/London | Specify the timezone if your calendar needs it, the timezone must be a valid ical timezone value. Valid timezone values can be found in the TZ* column at this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones |
| &hiderequest=true | Prevents request status bookings appearing in the ical |
| &hideblack=true | Prevents black status bookings appearing in the ical |
| &showinquiry=true | Shows Inquiry bookings in the ical, they will not appear without this option. |
| &includerooms=true | Include the details of bookings included from other rooms as per the room dependency "Include Bookings From" settings. |
| &unavaildates=365 | The default days in the future returned is 365 days, this can be overridden with this parameter to any value between 0 and 750 days in advance. |
| &nourl=true | Hides the view booking link. |
| &back=7 | Include bookings from this many days ago (allowed values are 0 to 30). |
7 Troubleshooting
Check-out date shows available Some calendars will fix dates particularly the check-out date midnight. This will cause the check-out date to show available. You can fix this by adding &showtime=true as explained above.
8 Disconnect
- To disconnect set "Export" = Disable
- Remove the link from your calendar
9 Notes
If you want to use a custom URL you can use a URL shorten-er service which lets you customize the link.
