Connect Hipcamp, Pitchup, Airbnb and Booking.com

Kipdown keeps your calendar in step with sites such as Hipcamp, Pitchup, Airbnb and Booking.com through calendar links, which those sites often call iCal. You give each site your Kipdown calendar link so it can see when you’re full or closed, and you add its calendar link to Kipdown so its bookings appear on your calendar. Both are in Settings → Bookings → “Other booking sites”.

Giving other sites your calendar

Under “Your calendar links” there’s one link for each kind of stay, labelled “Your calendar link for” and the stay’s name, with a “Copy” button. If a stay has named places, such as Tent 1 to 4, each place also has its own link under “Or a link for just one:”.

1. Press “Copy” beside the stay or place the other site lists.
2. On the other site, find where it asks you to import a calendar, and paste the link in.

The other site sees each night as “Booked” or “Closed”, up to 12 months ahead, which you can change to up to 36 under “Your links show the next”. Keep your links private, as anyone with one can see which nights you’re booked.

Bringing in other sites’ bookings

1. On the other site, find its calendar link, which it may call an export or iCal link.
2. In Kipdown, under “Add a calendar”, choose “Which site”.
3. Under “Bookings for”, choose the stay, or a named place with “Which one?”.
4. Paste it into “Their calendar link”.
5. Set how many each booking from it takes, and “Count each booking from it as” a number of people, which starts at 2. Other sites’ calendars only share dates, not how many people are coming.
6. Press “Add and check it”.

After that, “Check now” checks it straight away, and “Remove” stops checking it. Removing a calendar cancels its bookings still to come in Kipdown.

Bookings from other sites come in with their dates only, with no guest details, price or payments, and Kipdown sends those guests no emails. You can’t change or drag them on your calendar, only cancel them. Repeating events in a calendar aren’t brought in.

How often calendars are checked

Kipdown checks each calendar you’ve added every 15 minutes. Each other site reads your Kipdown calendar on its own schedule, which can be slower. So there’s always a short gap in which the same night could be sold twice.

To make that less likely, “Tell other sites you’re full when only” lets you hold back your last few. Other sites see you as full when that many are left, and your own booking page can still sell them. It’s shown for stays with 2 or more.

To keep your bookings safe, Kipdown cancels a booking from another site only after two checks at least 10 minutes apart no longer show it. If a calendar comes back empty, or loses more than 30% of its bookings at once, nothing is cancelled.

Double bookings and what to do

If a booking from another site’s calendar clashes with one you already have, Kipdown still records it, so you know about it. You’re emailed “Double booking from” with the site and the stay, and it shows under “Needs you” on Today with “Sort it out”.

1. Press “Sort it out” to open the booking from the other site, and check the calendar to see which booking it clashes with.
2. If the stay has named places, you can move one guest to a free place with “Move to another” on their booking, or by dragging on the calendar with a mouse. Bookings from other sites can’t be moved, so move the one taken through Kipdown.
3. If there’s no room, contact one of the guests and cancel their booking where they booked it. A booking cancelled on the other site disappears from Kipdown once two checks no longer show it.

If Kipdown can’t read a calendar, “Check calendar sync” shows under “Needs you”. You aren’t emailed about this, so it’s worth looking at Today each day. Check the link on the other site, then press “Check now”.

Our guide to switching booking system covers connecting calendars during a move.

Can't find what you need? Email hello@kipdown.com and a person will reply.