iCal link on OD listing

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
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AngloDutch
Posts: 727
Joined: Fri Jul 11, 2014 10:25 pm
Location: Netherlands

iCal link on OD listing

Post by AngloDutch »

We have just received a booking request via OD for next weekend - but we are already fully booked. When I checked our dashboard, our calendar was wide open, and on going to the 'import calendar' section, it seems that the iCal link from our VR listing has been removed.

I have reinstated the iCal link and declined the online booking (our first ever OB decline). But of course our ranking metrics will now have been impacted due to this. Great - even less presence on their site now! This after our enquiries have really dried up this year through OD (9 bookings placed last year, but only 2 this year so far).

So, if you are (still!) listing on OD/HA, etc. and importing via iCal, I would suggest checking whether the link is still there and if your calendar is showing your bookings/dates blocked :shock:
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AngloDutch
Posts: 727
Joined: Fri Jul 11, 2014 10:25 pm
Location: Netherlands

Post by AngloDutch »

UPDATE

The following reply just received from OD support:
We understand that you have the same property listed with VRBO (our American site) and OwnersDirect.co.uk and you are using the calendar sync option to coordinate the bookings coming from different channels. Please be advised - this is an incorrect way of listing since both your VRBO and OwnersDirect listings are displayed on both sites (including all the other partner websites worldwide) and having the same property coming up twice on a search would add more confusion to the traveler.

For the reasons listed above our system will continuously remove iCal links shared between 2 listings within the HomeAway/VRBO/OwnersDirect system and you will not be able to permanently synchronize them.

We would highly recommend you chose a brand for your listing and stick to it as it will automatically provide you with global exposure so that you don't need to list it with every other brand manually.

We hope this email finds you well and provides the relevant information. Should you need any further assistance regarding the above please do not hesitate to respond.

Visit help.ownersdirect.co.uk for answers to frequently asked questions.

Sincerely,

Owners Direct Customer Support

So, it now appears that if you have actually listed the same property on more than one HA Group site, and use an iCal link to another HA Group site in order to synchronize your OD/HA/VR calendar(s), then you need to update the iCal link to a calendar outside the HA Group (such as ABB).
Otherwise, what has just happened to us could happen to you - an incomplete calendar, with also the possibility of a duplicate booking coming in before you realize what is happening.

I have just replied to OD, saying that I was completely unaware that it was not permitted to have such an iCal setup. Obviously a new rule, as we have had this iCal link bewteen OD and VR for over two years now without any problems, until now...
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