How to manage your Vrbo and Airbnb calendars

With all that goes into managing a vacation rental, juggling multiple calendars across multiple vacation rental booking sites can be the biggest source of chaos. Think double bookings. Canceled bookings still left on the calendar. Or, forgetting a booking entirely, resulting in not having your vacation rental cleaned on time.

Even more, those separate calendars on Vrbo, Airbnb, Booking.com (and more) mean different log-ins, different guest emails, different bookings, and different platforms. Whew. In other words, a logistical nightmare.

The good news: There are several smart and efficient ways to keep your overlapping calendars in check. Meaning it’s possible to keep your listings accurate, your guests happy, and your bookings growing. Let’s review them here.

Getting started with your vacation rental calendar

First things first. Set up the same availability on all the calendars. So block out dates when your vacation rental is unavailable—say for your own personal vacations, maintenance, or because you rented out your Airbnb to friends or family.

If you have any minimum stay requirements (especially over your high season or holiday weeks), make sure to set that up now.

Bonus tip: Overall, consider lowering your minimum stay to attract more last-minute Airbnb bookings, which tend to be 1-3 nights.

Sync your calendars

This is key for organization. Avoid the dreaded double-booking nightmare by syncing your Airbnb and Vrbo calendars with any other calendars you use, such as your personal planner or a property management system. Most vacation rental platforms offer easy-to-use calendar sync features to keep all your listings accurate and aligned.

Best practices for managing calendars

Here are the top tips to synchronize and coordinate your calendars seamlessly.

Maintain up-to-date availability

Keep your finger on the pulse. Regularly review and update your availability calendar to reflect last-minute changes, maintenance schedules, or personal plans. Set aside a recurring block of time to stay on top of these updates and ensure your listing is always accurate.

Optimize booking settings for success

Tailor the experience. Fine-tune your booking settings, such as minimum stay requirements, pricing, and cancellation policies, to create the perfect balance between attracting guests and upholding your own peace of mind.

Efficiently manage guest inquiries & bookings

Responding promptly to guest inquiries and booking requests is a hallmark of top-notch guest service. Use your calendar to keep track of upcoming reservations and any special requests or needs from your guests.

Leverage automation

A key way to be more efficient—automate as much as you can. Explore the powerful calendar management tools and features offered by Airbnb, Vrbo, and other vacation rental platforms. From automated pricing adjustments to templates for communicating with guests, these tools can streamline your workflow and free up your time.

Managing multiple listings

Have a growing portfolio of vacation rental properties? Then it’s even more critical to stay organized and keep your calendars synchronized. Consider investing in a property management system or calendar integration tool so you can coordinate all of your listings from one screen.

Turn to the pros for calendar management

Do you want your multiple calendars to be completely effortless and chaos-free? Hand them over to a full-service vacation rental manager, like Vacasa.

This can be a game-changer. Vacasa will not only sync, optimize, and manage all of your calendars, but we’ll keep all your property information consistent across multiple platforms. This includes:

• Your vacation rental listing description
• Your vacation rental photos
• Your rates

Even better—this is all included in a single management fee.