iCal link checker for Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com

An iCal link (also called an iCalendar or .ics link) is a web address that publishes a calendar as a plain text file. Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com and Google Calendar each give every listing one, and other tools read it to learn which nights are taken. Calendar sync between platforms is just each one reading the others' iCal links on a schedule.

Airbnb exports two kinds of event: reservations, labelled 'Reserved', and nights you blocked or that were imported from another calendar, labelled 'Airbnb (Not available)'. Guest names and booking details are never in the feed. This checker tells the two kinds apart the same way RentalCal's sync does.

The usual causes, in order: the link was regenerated on Airbnb so the old one now returns an error; the listing was unlisted or snoozed; the other platform only refreshes imported calendars every few hours; or the link that was pasted is a page on Airbnb rather than the export address. Paste the link above and the result will say which of these it is.

Platforms only export upcoming nights. Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com drop a stay from the feed once it has ended, so an empty feed for a listing with a long history is normal if nothing is booked ahead.

They do not say exactly, and it varies. Hosts commonly see Airbnb and Vrbo refresh an imported calendar every one to three hours, and Booking.com in a similar range. That window is where double bookings happen. RentalCal refreshes every hour on the Free plan and every 15 minutes on Pro, and emails you when a feed breaks.

Export links contain a secret token. Airbnb regenerates it if you reconnect calendars or change certain listing settings, Google regenerates it if you reset the secret address, and some platforms rotate it when a listing is unlisted and relisted. Copy a fresh link from the platform and paste it everywhere it is imported.

The link is sent once to RentalCal's server, which fetches the calendar, summarises it and returns the result. The link, the feed and the result are not stored or logged. Treat the link as a password anyway: anyone who has it can read your blocked dates.

Yes. Use the 'Secret address in iCal format' from the calendar's settings, not the public address, which only works for calendars shared with everyone. The checker reads it like any other feed.

No. It tells you whether a link works and what it contains. Preventing double bookings means every platform reading every other platform's link on a short schedule, and someone watching for links that break. That is what RentalCal does: connect each calendar once, and it syncs them all and alerts you when one stops.