An iCal (which is short for iCalendar) is a common file format used to share/connect room availability in your agenda or diary to external booking engines or OTA’s. iCals are however limited in that they only update room availability. Any other information including rates, content and policies are not synchronised and must be updated manually.
How does the iCal work
iCals use a simple URL for your calendar and any travel website connected via iCal will receive communication of your availability through this link. OTA’s and external booking engines will retrieve iCal availability at different frequencies (could be every hour or at different hours in the day)
Why might you need iCal?
RoomRaccoon has made great efforts to ensure the best connections with travel websites to produce maximum bookings for your property. Doing this sometimes means investing in complex and sophisticated connections such as Application Program Interfaces (APIs). iCals therefore provide a great alternative to booking partners who have no or limited API capabilities. Some booking sites rarely get large volumes of people making bookings and address specialised or niche audiences of which iCal’s are best suited.
What you need to know about iCals
New reservations will be imported to your RoomRaccoon agenda, we only receive a date and the name of the guest.
You will have to match the actual booked rate as well as the number of guests manually.
To avoid any risk of overbooking, we recommend that you hold some rooms back or update the booking site directly when you get really full.
Has The Booker Received A Confirmation?
As RoomRaccoon does not know what kind of rate has been booked or for how many guests per room the reservation is made for, this means that a confirmation will not be sent automatically. RoomRaccoon will place the booking as an option in your agenda so that you see right away that adjustments are still needed to be made.
What Should I Do When I Receive An iCal Reservation?
Whenever you receive a booking from a booking channel that uses iCal, we advise you to follow these steps:
Open the booking in your RoomRaccoon agenda.
Visit the booking channel and have a look at what actually has been booked.
Adjust the reservation accordingly in RoomRaccoon.
Set the status of the reservation in RoomRaccoon from provisional to booked.
Send a confirmation of the booking manually.
Good To Know
Some channels request from the hotelier to confirm the booking in their channel. Make sure to follow the instructions of the channel that has been sent to you in a separate e-mail.
You need to manage your rates & restrictions in the extranet of the channel.
Find out how to create an iCal link here.
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