Stopping double bookings

If you list the same property in more than one place, two people can book the same week. Calendar sync is how you stop that.

It works in both directions, and you need both halves for it to actually protect you.

The two halves

Import - you give Isle Stay the calendar link from each platform, and we watch those dates for clashes.

Export - you give each platform your Isle Stay feed, so anything blocked here blocks there.

Set up only the import and you will see the clash after it has happened. Set up only the export and the other platforms never learn about each other. Do both and every calendar knows what every other one is doing.

Setting up import

Open Settings → Connections, or the Calendar sync panel on the property itself.

You need an iCal URL from each site your property is listed on. Any site that publishes one will work - there is nothing to authorise and no account to connect, so we do not need to have heard of it.

Look under the calendar or availability settings for wording like export calendar, iCal link or connect another website. What you copy will end in .ics or have ical in the path.

Paste one URL per line. Label them so you can tell which is which later.

Setting up export

The same panel gives you your Isle Stay feed URL. Copy it, and paste it into each platform as an imported calendar.

Do this for every platform you list on, including the ones you think are quiet. The quiet one is the one that takes the booking you did not expect.

The limitation worth understanding

iCal is polling, not messaging. Every platform refreshes imported calendars on its own schedule - usually every few hours, sometimes longer. Nobody is notified the instant a booking happens.

Which means a same-day booking can still slip through. If someone books on a listing site at 10am and someone books here at 10.05am, neither calendar has heard about the other yet.

There is a Sync now button that forces a fetch on our side immediately. It does not force the other platforms to fetch from us - nothing can. Use it when you have just blocked something and want to be sure we have it.

If double bookings are a genuine commercial risk rather than a nuisance - a large portfolio, tight margins, high occupancy - iCal is not the right tool. A channel manager does two-way sync of rates and bookings in near real time. Ask us and we will tell you honestly whether you need one.

Your own calendar

Separately from the channels, you can subscribe to your Isle Stay calendar from Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook, so bookings appear alongside the rest of your week.

This is a subscription feed, not a connected account: you paste a URL into your calendar app and it refreshes on its own. Nothing of yours is shared back, and there is nothing to reauthorise when a token expires - which is exactly why the old Google Calendar connection is being retired.

Common questions

How often does it check? Ours refreshes on a schedule and on demand via Sync now. Theirs is up to them, and a few hours is normal.

Do rates sync? No. iCal carries dates only - blocked and free. Prices stay wherever you set them.

Will guest names come across? Generally not. Most platforms strip personal details from iCal feeds, so an imported booking shows as a blocked period rather than a person.

I removed a feed and the dates are still blocked. Removing the feed stops future imports; it does not retroactively clear what it already brought in. Clear those dates on the property.

Can I sync a property that is still a draft? Yes - sync is independent of whether the listing is public.