Why sync fails without anyone noticing
Calendar (iCal) sync is simple and free, which is why most small properties use it. Its weakness is that it has no alarm. If Booking.com stops reading your calendar, nothing turns red on Booking.com. Your rooms just stay open there, and the next guest who books one of your sold nights becomes a double booking.
The usual causes are ordinary ones: a listing is duplicated and the old link is left behind, someone pastes the wrong room's link, a site changes its calendar address, or a site has a bad day and sends back an empty file.
What InnRow checks
| Check | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Check our links | Confirms that every link InnRow gives to the booking sites works |
| Last read | When each booking site last fetched each room's link |
| 24-hour alert | An alert in the app and an email when a site hasn't read a room's calendar for 24 hours |
| Double-booking risk | A red alert when a booking-site reservation lands on nights that are already taken |
| Empty-calendar safety | If a site's calendar suddenly comes back empty, its dates stay closed for 12 hours and you're alerted, instead of every night reopening at once |
| Close these dates now | For bookings that arrive within 2 days, buttons to each site's extranet so you can close the dates by hand |
All of these are on every plan, including Free.
How often InnRow reads the sites
InnRow reads each booking site's calendar about every 15 minutes, and again when someone opens the app if the background check is running late. The booking sites read InnRow's calendar on their own schedule, from a few minutes to a few hours; Airbnb is roughly every three hours. That gap is why last-minute bookings get the "close these dates now" prompt.
Keeping the links private
Each room has its own link for each booking site, and every link carries a secret token. If a link leaks, you can replace it in one tap. Each link also leaves out that site's own bookings, so a site never sees its own reservation coming back as a clash.
When an alert appears
- Open the room's calendar settings and look at the last-read time for each site.
- If a site hasn't read for a day, copy InnRow's link for that room and site again and paste it into the site's extranet.
- Check that the site's own link is pasted into InnRow for the right room.
The sync troubleshooting guide goes through the common cases site by site.
Questions about sync alerts
How do I know if Airbnb is still syncing my calendar?
InnRow shows when Airbnb last read each room's calendar link. If Airbnb hasn't read it for 24 hours, you get an alert in the app and an email.
What happens if a booking site sends an empty calendar?
InnRow keeps that site's dates closed for 12 hours and alerts you, instead of reopening every night at once. Real cancellations still come through once the site sends a normal calendar again.
Is this a channel manager?
No. It is calendar (iCal) sync with health checks. It shares dates, not prices. Read iCal sync vs a channel manager.
Are sync alerts on the Free plan?
Yes. Calendar sync and all of its health checks come with every plan.