Inn Style can now connect 2 way iCals from 3rd Party Channels. But there are a few things you should know, so please read this guide first.
We recommend you also use our outgoing ical feeds to update availability. See how to do that here.
There is a time lag of about 20 minutes in receiving or sending iCal feeds, so always check that 3rd party bookings have appeared within your Inn Style Dashboard. If a booking cancels on the third party site, always check that this has been removed from Inn Style as well, as iCals are not foolproof!
The Closed Rule (found in prices) on Inn Style will not be sent across to third parties, but a dashboard closure will (x) - so if it is important that you don't want to sell on a specific 3rd party site, make sure you login to their extranet and block out availability directly.
Having said this, it is a great new free feature from Inn Style to help make your life easier! So go ahead and install this in Account > Extensions > Importable ICalendars.
Then you can go to the DISTRIBUTION Tab and click on Incoming iCal feeds.
Click on ADD NEW iCAL FEED as below - and follow the 3 easy steps:
Select the incoming iCal provider in the list above. (NB, if yours is not in this list, please contact support and we will see if we can add it to this list for you)
2. Add the 3rd party ical link you have been given by them into the icalendar link box
3. Click on the 3rd box *bookable and select the property/room that this ical link is mapped to on the 3rd party system and the click on SAVE iCAL FEED
It is important that once you have added your incoming iCal from a 3rd party that you click on the 'filing cabinet' icon to draw down the bookings into your system by clicking on this icon as shown below:
And that's it! - You just need to do this for each ical provider you are using. Once a new booking is received from the 3rd party it will appear as a new booking in your dashboard.
Please note that iCals do not contain much information, so it may just have 'reserved for Air BnB customer', if we do receive more information within the ical, we will show all we can.
We place the booking in a provisional state so that you can check the financial details match what the 3rd party sold the room for or add any bookers names etc that you have been notified of by them. - Just click on the Reservation and EDIT, and save it in a confirmed state if you are happy.
FOR OUTGOING iCALS (to send to people like Pitch UP - AirBnB etc)
You will see in DISTRIBUTION and OUTGOING iCAL FEEDS that you will have 2 options as above, The SINGLE UNIT ONLY iCAL is the one that contains each individual reservation so it is recommended you use this one (LIGHTHOUSE CHALET (SINGLE UNIT ONLY) for OTA's like PITCH UP, SUPERCONTROL, etc.