Sync times
How often does Airbnb sync calendars? Booking.com, Vrbo and Agoda compared
Calendar (iCal) sync works by polling: each site visits the links you gave it on its own timetable. Nothing is pushed instantly. These are the usual intervals.
| Site | Re-reads imported calendars |
|---|---|
| Airbnb | About every 3 hours |
| Booking.com | About every 2 hours |
| Agoda | Every few hours |
| Vrbo (and Abritel, FeWo-direkt, Stayz) | Often about once a day |
| Google Calendar (subscribed) | A few times a day, sometimes slower |
Sites change these timings without notice, so treat them as rough guides.
What it means in practice
If a guest books your room on Booking.com at 10:00, Airbnb may keep showing those nights as free until its next read, possibly early afternoon. Anyone who books on Airbnb in that window creates a double booking.
Can you force a sync?
Not reliably. Most sites simply wait for their next scheduled read, and no tool can make Airbnb read a link faster. Tools that offer instant sync connect through the sites' own APIs, which is a different (paid) kind of connection.
How to live with the delay
- Advance notice: require at least one day on every site. Most double bookings are same-day bookings.
- Peak dates by hand: when the last free night of a festival weekend sells, close it on the other sites yourself.
- One calendar in the middle: fewer links, fewer silent failures. Axorooms reads each of your sites every 10 to 30 minutes and flags overlaps as soon as both bookings are in.
More in why double bookings happen, and how to keep them rare.